Mother’s day cake of roses

For Mother’s Day we invited Ray’s parents, grandparents, and sister and brother-in-law over for brunch. We pulled out all the stops, including dessert.

I used the chocolate buttermilk cake recipe from the Cupcake Smash competition (minus the bleu cheese) to create a layer cake. I baked it in a 9 inch springform cake pan for upwards of 60 minutes. This batter could have easily taken a 10 inch pan AND if I do it again, I will divide the batter in half, baking separate layers, to make life a little easier. Nonetheless, the cake baked up moist and rich.

After cooling the cake overnight, I cut the cake in half with a very large serrated edge bread knife. Then I spread blackberry jam—previously warmed up in the microwave for 15 seconds—in between the 2 layers, topped with vanilla buttercream, then hand-piped countless roses on the cake. The rose design was inspired by i am baker. It’s a fairly easy technique and definitely had the wow-factor I was looking for.

Originally this post was going to be about my Grandma Betty‘s Hungarian Chocolate Cake recipe which was slated for dessert. However, on Saturday I had a massive fail with the Rigo Jancsi cake and I was in tears. The cake was spongy, but stuck to the parchment paper, causing it to rip and tear. I stopped while I was ahead, skipping the coffee whipped cream and chocolate glaze, defeated.

As Ray scraped bits of cake off the parchment, telling me how delicious the cake tasted, I just slumped against a wall feeling like a failure—baking a recipe with emotional ties can do that to you.

Honestly, I had that cake once in my life, when I was a kid and too young to appreciate a non-sickeningly sweet cake. I remember that a bunch of my Jewish Hamvas relatives had made it out to Ballston Spa, NY and Grandma made the cake, most likely as a treat for her brother. I tried it and didn’t like it (such a young, unrefined palate), but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve wanted to make that spongy cake, mainly in remembrance of a grandmother I lost too soon and who was such an influence on me as a baker.

I’ll come back to the recipe some other time, perhaps after I’ve done some more research on other Rigo Jancsi recipes. Either way, I’m sure she would have been pleased with my cake of roses.