Margarita Cake

Whether you're gearing up for a Mexican fiesta or a 21st birthday party, this margarita cake is sure to put everyone in a party mood!

Turn on some Jimmy Buffet music and you'll have an instant celebration!

This adorable cake was created by Darrah Crawford of Tennessee, who was nice enough to share instructions so that we can make it too!

Darrah is an incredibly talented cake decorator. To see more of her designs, click here.

You'll Need:

Two 12" round cakes Buttercream frosting (triple batch) Icing coloring pastes (Wilton-pink, sky blue, leaf green, lemon yellow,and black) Decorating bags and tips #2, #3 and #22 Fondant Roller knife or exacto knife 2" and 1" round cookie cutters Small number cutters

Gumtex powder Salt to sprinkle on glass Small paint brush Clear vanilla Rolling pin or fondant roller Several pencils to make curls with fondant Small dowels or lollipop sticks Royal icing

Darrah's Instructions:

I started with two 12" round cakes, but you can use whatever size you need for your servings.

Once you have baked your cakes you will want to level them so the surface is perfectly flat. You can use a knife or a cake leveler to do this.

Mix some of the buttercream frosting with Wilton's sky blue icing coloring paste. Place your cake on a cake board and use the blue frosting to ice the top of the first layer for the filling, then add your top layer and ice the entire cake.

Next you will want to make up a small amount of pink icing for the borders and writing on the cake. I used tip # 3 for my writing and tip # 22 for the border. You can really do any type border you would like.

For the margarita cake decorations you will need fondant. You will want to have white fondant for the glasses and pink and green for the limes and bows. For the green color I used a combination of a little leaf green and lemon yellow to get just the right color green. I add a small amount of gumtex to the fondant to make it nice and hard so the decorations will keep their shape well.

For the margarita glasses, I just drew myself a template of a glass on paper, the size I wanted for my cake. I think it was about 5-6 inches high, and then cut it out.

Roll your white fondant out onto a surface that has been sprinkled with cornstarch to keep it from sticking. You will want it to be between an 1/8" to 1/4" thick.

Take your glass template and place it on the fondant. Take a roller knife or an exacto knife to cut 2 glasses out. You will now take the fondant glasses and carefully pick them up and turn them over.

Take either a wooden dowel or a sucker stick cut to about 8 inches long, place on the back of the glass. You want it to be almost at the top of the glass and go all the way to the bottom with a couple of inches left sticking past the bottom.

Now take a long, narrow piece of fondant (wet the back slightly with water to make it stick) to cover the stick from the top of the glass down to the bottom. This is to keep the stick in place.

Allow this to air dry for at least 3 to 4 hours or longer. You want it to be very firm before picking up.

Now for how to make the bow and curls for your margarita cake. Roll out your pink and green fondant. You can cut out strips of fondant about 1" wide and about 6" long. Once you have them cut out, take the strips and make a "U" with them. Bring the ends together and wet the inside ends so they will stick together. You will want to make 10-12 of these for the bow.

For the curls, you can just cut very skinny, long pieces of fondant and wrap them around a pencil. Let the bows and curls dry for several hours.

For the limes I took a 2" round cookie cutter and cut them out. Then cut the circle in half to make the limes. For the 2 smaller limes on the glasses I used a 1" cutter.

You can now take a #2 icing tip and bag with white royal icing and pipe on the lime decorations. Take your small number cutters for whatever age you want on your margarita cake and cut out as many as you like (maybe 10 to 12). Once you have allowed the fondant to dry out you can start putting it all on the cake. Be very care with all of this because it can break very easily.

Take a very small amount of clear vanilla (like 1/2 tsp.) and pour into a small container. Then take your small paintbrush and lightly dip into the black and swirl into the vanilla. Paint a curved line at the top of the glass.

Repeat this with green and vanilla and then brush this onto the fondant glass for the "margarita drink". Sprinkle a little salt along the top of the glasses.

Add your small limes to the glasses. Start by placing your glasses on the cake. I placed mine at an angle.

To make the bow you will need royal icing to hold it together. Start by squeezing out a quarter size amount in between the glasses. Place the loops and curls around the glasses into the royal icing. Add as much icing as you need to hold the bow in place.

For the limes just add a small dot of royal icing on the back of them and place around the cake.

Now all that's left to do is stand back and admire your awesome margarita cake!

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