Basket of Flowers

This bake started like any other: a craving and ingredients. Chocolate chip cookies are definitely my all-time favorite sweet. I mean, how can you beat a handheld sweet treat full of chocolate, with a chewy center and a crisp, golden brown edge? In my opinion, you can't. I must have dreamed about eating these cookies because I woke up thinking about cookies. And I got to work pretty quickly! I got all the ingredients out, pre-measured everything, and got to work!

As I was making the cookie dough, I got a wonderful idea! I wanted to make and decorate a cookie cake. I was recently gifted a 12-inch round pan that was absolutely perfect for cookie cakes! I have always wanted to do a nice design on a cookie cake. My days of working in grocery store bakeries never fulfilled the dream of creating beautiful designs on cakes. I never got to do more than the multicolored dallops you typically see. This was my chance, and by golly, I was going to take it! With Spring and Easter upon us, I wanted to do something based on that. After getting the dough together and in the oven, I decided to scroll through Pinterest for some inspiration. I kept seeing basket weaves with floral piping, and I fell in love! I drew a couple of different designs on my tablet, eager for the cake to cool so I could get to decorating. I went ahead and made all of my buttercream. I made my usual American buttercream, and I put a little cocoa powder in about half of it to get a nice brown color for the basket, and colored the rest of the buttercream. I got everything ready: piping bags and tips, the cake turner, spatulas, everything. I could not wait for this cake to cool so I could decorate it!

I let it cool for the minimum amount of time before I finally started decorating it. While it was cooling, I practiced straight lines and weaves before I put it on the cake. When the cake was finally cool, I was confident and ready to go! I got my buttercream in piping bags, got all the tips I wanted to use set out, and got to work. I started with the basket weave. I did the bottom part of the basket, and I was so proud of how it turned out. It took some time, but my lines were so straight and even! I switched tips and piped a beautiful twirling handle on the basket. I was loving how this was going so far, and having so much fun! I switched to a smaller tip and piped an alternating swirl border around the basket. Needless to say, I was in love and ready to get some color on this thing! I started piping some bigger rosettes onto and around the basket. I'll spare you the details, and after about an hour of piping flowers and leaves, I had the most beautiful, colorful, fun cookie cake I have ever created! I was beyond proud of myself and ecstatic about how it turned out! I have recently discovered and obtained some luster dust, so of course, I had to test it out on this cake. And let me tell you, it took this bake to the next level. It had a beautiful shimmer. I couldn't stop looking at it, sparkling as I spun it on the cake turner. And you know I had to get a slow-mo shot of the luster dust!

I was beyond proud of how gorgeous this came out, and I blasted it on my social media pages! I honestly could not get enough of it! Go check out the shots I got of this bake on Facebook, Instagram, or my new TikTok page! All pages are linked below. Posting on the socials allowed me to make another one of these cakes, but with more of an Easter twist to it, and I am even more excited about it! So, don't miss the story on that! If no one has ever told you, baking is the easy part of the job. It takes so much time to make sure to take videos and pictures, including the process, piping/decorating, getting the right angles, etc. So when you are scrolling, make sure to spread a little extra love to all of your small business friends, especially around holidays! I'll be doing some Easter deals so make sure to check my pages for exclusive offers!

Thank you all so much for being here and allowing me to share my baking journey with you. As always, more stories coming soon! Take care of yourself, support those around you, and happy baking! <3