Cake-A-Month - January - Post 1

I'm really feeling over sickeningly sweet chocolate cakes after the Christmas cake, and ever since we came back from our holiday to Hawaii I've been obsessed with all things coconut. Then I saw this cake from The Cake Blog and I fell in love:

Isn't it just so fresh and summery looking?

At first I was going to do a basic single tier version of the same cake - with different flavors inside of course! - but then I decided against it because I've made things with fondant similar to the lemon slices before and there are so many other techniques I want to try out. Then I came across this flower tutorial from Bronnie Bakes and this picture tutorial on Pinterest (sorry, I don't know who to credit with this picture, but have included the link that's attached from Pinterest - if anyone knows who to credit the tutorial to, please let me know!).

Fondant flower tutorial from unknown source - sorry!

Fondant flower tutorial from Bronnie Bakes

So what I've decided to do is use Beyond Buttercream's white cake recipe to make a single tier coconut cake, torted into 4 layers and filled with a lemon curd, and frosted with a lemon version of Sweetapolita's Swiss Meringue Buttercream, covered in fondant with a yellow satin ribbon border and 2-3 yellow fondant flowers. Phew! :)

Techniques I want to learn with this cake:

• A proper white cake recipe which can hopefully be the basis for many more cakes in the future.
• Making Swiss Meringue Buttercream
• Covering the cake with fondant
• Fondant flowers
• Using a ribbon border
• Getting a perfectly smooth buttercream frosted cake

 It's my 25th birthday next month, as well as my husbands 25th birthday - we're 2 days apart - so hopefully I'll have a pretty cake to serve at our birthday dinner :)