Hydrangea confections

This day of sweets is about summer flowers, an over the top combination of flavors, and an upcoming wedding.  My son Drew and his fiance Genevieve are here for the weekend, and we are not only discussing the big event, but also doing some wedding dress shopping. 


That sound you just heard is me cackling gleefully. 


Anyway, I am not the first person to make a hydrangea cake by any means.  I think the first time I saw it was Amanda's gorgeous take on it at I Am Baker.  I am not worthy enough to clean this woman's icing tips. 

Now that I have freely admitted to not being in the big leagues of cake decorating, lets talk about flavor.  This cake is a rich chocolate with a kahlua mousse filling, and slathered with Swiss meringue buttercream. 

Heavenly (or is it sinful?).  However you want to look at it - this is one delicious cake.  The baking and filling of the cake is quite simple.  I used a chocolate box cake mix and added instant coffee to the water along with a box of chocolate pudding mix.  For the filling I whipped heavy cream with powdered sugar and flavored it with kahlua.  I used Martha Stewart's recipe for Swiss meringue buttercream.  You can find the recipe here.  To get the two toned look of the petals, I just loaded the piping bag with two colors of the buttercream.  One bag had blue and lavender, and the other bag had pink and lavender.  To finish it off, I added soft green dragees for the centers.

I had a few spare cookies, so these got the same treatment.

I just wish my hydrangeas in the garden were blooming.  They will soon enough, so for now I settle for roses, coneflowers, daisies, daylilies, asiatic lilies, wandflowers, wall flowers, yarrow, lamb's ear, salvia, butterfly bush, foxglove, and more.

I had intended to have our little party outside in the garden, but traffic delayed Drew and Genevieve's arrival so we ended up in the dining room. 

Its going to be a fun year of wedding talk and planning for these two.  The cake and cookies are sweet, but I think these two are sweeter.

I am joing the Mad Tea Party at A Fanciful Twist

You have to stop over there and see the fabulous fun.


Happy Pink Saturday too!

I am also joining
House of Hepworths
Chic on a Shoestring
French Country Cottage
My Romantic Home
Between Naps on the Porch
Somewhat Simple
Carolyn's Homework
Savvy Southern Style
Lady Katherine's Tea Parlor
Sweetology 101
Today's Creative Blog
Sumo's Sweet Stuff
Skip to my Lou
Making the World Cuter
I Heart Naptime
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