Pretty in pastels: Sawyer's 7th birthday cake

Some cakes are about a character or a hobby. This one was just about being seven and liking pretty things, which is a perfectly good brief.

Petals, one stroke at a time

The whole outside is done with a palette knife rather than a piping bag. You load a little buttercream on the blade, press it to the cake and pull — and that single drag is the petal. Then the next one overlaps it, and the next, all the way around and up over the top.

Six pastels going at once: pink, lavender, blue, yellow, orange and mint.

The catch is you can't tidy a petal up afterwards. Go back over one and you've flattened it into a smear, and then you're rebuilding that patch. Each stroke is the one you keep.

The finishing touches

Fondant daisies with yellow centers dotted over the petals, a glittery 7 on top, and her name across the board in soft pink letters.

The bows are real satin ribbon, tied on after the cake was finished and taken off before it was cut.

What's inside

Vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream frosting.

Happy birthday, Sawyer

Seven years old, and pretty in pastels.