Happy Valentine's & Galentine's week! My husband and I aren't huge on celebrating Valentine's Day but we do typically share a sweet treat of some sort. I kept seeing Galentine's cake decorating videos on Instagram and the hostess and baker in me was dying to host one of my own! And so, I texted the girls in my family for a Galentine's cake decorating night! I would provide the supplies, they could decorate a mini cake or two to their liking, and we'd all have a treat to take home to share with our gal pals or sweethearts. It was a hit!
What You'll Need:
- Variety of prepared mini cakes - you could make homemade but when I'm hosting, I've found that making a cake from scratch is just too much to handle so I typically opt for boxed
- Icing - I did make homemade buttercream frosting in bulk, but it's very easy! Recipe noted below
- Food coloring for icing
- Icing bags
- Spreading spatulas or plastic knives
- Cake boards or paper plates
-Topping: sprinkles, fruit, candies, etc.
Buttercream Frosting: (I made 5 batches, but it all depends on how many guests you have and the size of your cakes)
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks, softened to room temperature)
- 3 & 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 2 tsp vanilla
- Pinch of salt
Beat butter on high speed for 5 minutes. Slowly incorporate powdered sugar on a low speed until combined. Add heavy cream, vanilla and salt and beat on high speed for another 5 minutes. Add food coloring if desired.
Additional Notes:
- Take the time to crumb coat your cakes beforehand. I covered my cakes in a small amount of the buttercream frosting I prepped ahead of time and let them set in the fridge. This made the cake a nice, even, crumb-less surface for frosting and decorating and made the final presentation so much nicer! Plus if you plan to fill any of your cakes, this will help prevent the filling from mixing with your decorations.
- I would highly recommend a plastic tablecloth to help contain the mess! It catches the loose sprinkles and I could easily wipe it down after everything was said and done.
- If you're like me and have a catch-all decorating basket, you likely have a lot of sprinkles and decorations from projects past that you can use without needing to buy all new. You could even ask your guests to bring their favorite toppings to share!
- Provide boxes for your guests to take their cakes home. This will make everyone's life so much easier! I actually cut down the cake boards we used to fit directly into cake boxes, so the cakes didn't have to be moved from surface to surface.
This was such a blast; it may just be a new family Galentine's tradition!
