Basket Weave Cake

My friend Michelle turns 30 today. I wanted to do something special for her, so baked her a b'day cake.

I was always fascinated by the basket weave cake. Since I'm a novice at cake decorating, I did not really think I could do one. But as I was deciding what cake to bake for Michelle, I thought, why not a basket weave!
So I checked youtube and found a few videos on basket weave. Check out this one.


After some research, I found tip 47 works best. I used the tip for both the vertical and horizontal lines, unlike in the video where it was used only for the horizontal.

The recipe I used for the cake can be found here. I used 1 and 3/4 cup sugar instead of 2, specially because of the sweet buttercream icing that would go around it. I also skipped the almond extract, as I did not have any in hand.


As I was blending the eggs into the creamy mixture of butter and sugar, I suddenly thought of making the cake pink in colour. After all, the cake was for a girl and her hubby was planning to get pink balloons anyway, so why not match it?
So I added a few drops of pink food colour while blending. And the result was not too bad!

I got the buttercream icing recipe from the Wilton's website. I did not want the icing to be too sweet. So I started with 3 cups and added sugar little by little till it reached the desired sweetness.

 The first two sets of lines didn't come out too clean, I consoled myself that I was doing it for the first time and shouldn't really let that dampen my spirits (and boy, was I high on it!) . But once I got the hang of it, it turned out much easier. I guess I need more practice for both the rope border and the weave, but I was quite satisfied with what I did :). 

I enjoyed the entire process of baking and decorating the cake, specially 'weaving' the basket. And my friend just loved it!
Happy B'day Mich!

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