A Classy Rosette Birthday Cake

My youngest sister turned 15 on New Year's Eve! I can't believe how old she is now!  Because her birthday is over Christmas break, I get to spend more time creating her cake!  Funny what incredible things you can come up with when you aren't dealing with 4th graders each and every day.  My sister requested a "blue velvet" cake.  She was very specific about the color.  And since they don't sell blue velvet cake mixes, I created my own using a vanilla cake mix!  

Blue Velvet Cake
1 box white or vanilla cake mix
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
Blue or teal food coloring (I used Wilton Icing Colors)

Mix all of the wet ingredients together first.  Then add in the cake mix and the cocoa powder.  Once the cake is mixed together, add the food coloring until you achieve the color you want.  I used mostly teal, some royal blue, and a small bit of violet, just to ensure the blue stayed blue.  Bake in 2 greased 8 inch circular pans for 27-32 minutes at 350 degrees. These were my bottom two layers.  I did a third layer to have a three tiered cake, but the top was just a regular vanilla layer.

Once I got the cake all put together, it was time for frosting.

Last year, I found this awesome video from IAmBaker that teaches how to do the rosettes on the cake.  It's a great tutorial, and it turns out so beautiful!

It's well worth the 4-minute watch!

I decided I wanted to make my colors ombre teal-ish.  I used the Wilton Icing Colors again to color the icing.  The actual icing of the cake didn't take hardly any time at all, and I had so much fun doing it! 

And here's my final product!  I added the Martinelli's, because, well, we were celebrating the new year!  It seems liked a perfect way to celebrate the beginning of 2014!  Now if you'll excuse me...I'm going to go eat some cake! :)