Petal cake for a birthday girl

We talked over a few cake ideas, Mini-2 and I, for her birthday party.  We had bought some coordinating Muppet plates, cups and napkins a while ago (because we happened across them in shop one day, and they were on offer - we love a bargain) and had also bought some rice paper toppers from The Cupcake Company on Facebook (website coming soon)  in a similar vein (i.e. some Sesame St characters too) and had thought to somehow combine the lot of them in a cakey style.  A two tier cake sounded fun, and I had thought to do polka dots, like the border of the napkin.

But all those ideas went out the window when I saw the utter mess that was the top tier cake.  Oh my goodness, I don't think I have ever had such an unmitigated disaster with a cake before!  I had sized down the recipe I chose, using the fabulous CakeOMeter.  Only it ended up giving me so much mix that it went right up and over the top of the tin whilst baking, and never fully cooked in the centre.  This was despite me using a heating core and extending the cooking time by almost double.  Gee whizz.

So it was to be a single tiered chocolate fudge cake after all that (the pink vanilla cake wasn't even salvageable for cake pops, sniff).  I had been keen to try the petal technique of buttercream icing since seeing it on MyCakeSchool, but hadn't yet had an occasion to do so.  Aha, I thought, perfect occasion now. 

Once it was done it seemed a bit plain, so I added  a few sparkly flying butterflies and the job was done.  And the best bit?  Despite not being a part of our discussed plan At All, she totally loved the cake :)

At her actual party a few hours later, checking out how the number 5 candle looks from the side...  Do you see the big, pink Birthday Girl rosette badge?  She wore it to school on the actual day and got to wear it again today :)

And here she is posing for Daddy to take a photo.  Not quite sure why she wanted us to specifically take a photo of her with a Very Big Knife, about to cut her cake, but her wish is our command.  Happy Birthday darling!