Initial Party

This cake makes me deliriously happy. It turned out even better than I envisioned and that doesn't happen often! I started with this inspiration for an Initial Party. Then I was inspired by a bunch of different cakes that formed into one plan for this cake (more cake details, below).

I cut out a bunch of Ps in different fonts and sizes and attached them to a white tablecloth with double-sided tape.

The party favors were I Spy bottles I made. The small bottles came from Hobby Lobby, then I filled them with alphabet pasta and little items, glued on the lids, and included a card of the items to search for. We also had little bags of alphabet gummies.

The pennant is a free printable and the fabric was from my stash. I just cut into squares and layered it across the table. Now more technical details on the cake!

I used the Buttermilk Flag Cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I made the recipe exactly as Deb wrote it but did bake it for 45 minutes. It made a very high cake, just under two inches, which is exactly what I was looking for. Here's where I get obsessive, most cake pans have rounded corners. This bothers me. I searched and searched and found this cake pan at the restauraunt supply store. I am in love and plan on getting more of these.

The frosting is Martha's recipe for Swiss Meringue Buttercream which I love! It is not an overly sweet frosting which works perfectly when you plan on loading your cake with an obscene amount of sprinkles and candy. :) There is a great tutorial on Swiss Meringue Buttercream here. We (my lovely mom, who has helped with all my children's cakes and has saved my bacon a couple of times, and I) used almost all of the 9 cups of frosting to cover the cake.

Next we used gray sixlets to border the top and bottom, putting them on first to create a barrier to hold in the sprinkles for the top.

The sprinkles were a mix of large nonpareils, jimmies, and gold cake sparkles. I mixed those all together but in hindsight I should have sprinkled the cake sparkles on separately as they kind of disappeared when mixed in.

I cut out a giant P from cardstock and laid it on top of the cake, then sprinkled the top to my heart's content, sprinkling a little more around the edges to define the shape. I felt like it needed a border so we added little beads around the edge of the P with a number 10 Wilton tip.

And that's all! It was one of the simplest cakes I've ever done.