My 1st Engagement cake

I finally managed to decorate my first engagement cake that I've been worrying about for the past 2 weeks. It was the Cappuccino Velvet Cheesecake made into an engagement cake. Like I said again and again, I've always been a baker, not a decorator. Decorating doesn't come as naturally as baking does. Although, I do try to decorate when need be =)

So I finally executed the cake decor yesterday. I started at 10.30am (it doesn't help that the night before was new year's eve! - lack of sleep) and finished my mess at 2.30pm - a good 4 hours of torture! The Velvet was iced with freshly whipped cream. I couldn't bring myself to ice it with buttercream or even fondant which would leave a nicer finish. I thought it would significantly affect the taste of my beautiful Cappuccino Velvet Cheesecake! So whipped cream it was, like it or not!

I took longer icing the cake as I would with buttercream. The leaf borders, vines and writing were buttercream plus some sugarpaste flowers and a couple of hearts. My main challenge was piping the leaves. They keep breaking and didn't have a pointy tip. I got so frustrated on trying for 1/2 an hour until I finally managed to figure the problem out. I thinned my buttercream consistency with more water and added some piping gel, hoping that it would help with the tip. It did! Thank goodness! They weren't the perfect leaves I wanted, but they'll do! So I started piping the borders, assembling the flowers and hearts and did the vines on the cake.

The sides of the cake was quite bare initially. Kim suggested that i extended the vines, cascading down the sides to fill them up. It worked. Hence my proudly produced masterpiece. It was my first proper cake decor, looks amatuer-ish, but I'm proud enough to have produced it =) Thank you to Ridayatul for having faith in me to decorate her engagement cake. Enjoy!

[A Grand (2kg) Cappuccino Velvet Cheesecake iced with softly whipped Vanilla cream, decorated with Vanilla buttercream borders and sugarpaste flowers/hearts]