pink ruffle flower chocolate mousse layer cake for a baby shower

My best friend Sue is expecting a baby girl, so when we were planning her baby shower, I knew I wanted to make her some sort of pink girly cake! I thought maybe I'd make another piped rose cake, perhaps in ombre, but then I decided I wanted to make a ruffle flower cake instead!

I asked Sue if she wanted a chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse, or a vanilla cake filled with fresh fruit and whipped cream, and she immediately chose the chocolate. Then she thought, well maybe her mom would like a lighter, less rich cake, but I told her "this baby shower is for YOU, and since you want a chocolate cake, that's what you're going to get!"

So I baked up two 8-inch chocolate cakes, and sliced them in half horizontally, giving me four layers. Then I whipped up a rich bittersweet chocolate mousse (no raw eggs of course), to fill between each cake layer.

For the frosting, I made a cream cheese buttercream and tinted it pink, and used an offset spatula to cover the sides and top of the cake.

For the ruffles, I used a Wilton #104 tip to pipe vertical ruffle "petals" all the way around the sides of the cake.

Then I used the same tip to pipe petals all over the top of the cake as well.

I actually ran out of frosting by the time I reached the center of the "flower", so I had to use a bit of strawberry cream cheese filling that I had leftover from the strawberry macarons I was making for her baby shower dessert table. (More to come on the dessert table!)

For the final touch, I carefully dropped a few white sugar pearls onto the middle of the cake, for the center of the "flower".

I loved the way the cake turned out! And I'm actually really glad that I ran out of frosting, because having the center petals piped with a paler pink gave it a nice touch!

Happy Baby Shower, Sue!

Stay tuned for the rest of the baby shower dessert table!