Peppermint Striped Cake For Rich’s 40th!

You may be looking at this pastel pink and green stripey cake with its ruffly buttercream border and be thinking to yourself: “what a charming baby shower cake!” Hashtag #NOPE this is my husband Rich’s 40th birthday peppermint striped cake!!! There is a short window between my birthday in November and his birthday on December 21st where I am “technically on paper” two years older than Rich. It is a time of much heckling, talk of robbing cradles, lite cougar-ing, etc. It’s also when Christmas and the holidays ramp up with appalling speed, each year coming up faster than the last. I love how this cakey beauty came out!

It was a dark chocolate cake with casual times peppermint buttercream. I used this chocolate cake recipe which is my go-to favourite! Do you know how to make buttercream stripes? I will show you how, with some delightful iPhone photos, k?

First of all, fill two piping bags with your desired stripey colours. I went with a peppermint buttercream tinted minty green and pastel pink. Snip the ends off of each piping bag.

Using a cake turntable, pipe alternating rows of colours, nestled close together. Don’t worry if it looks incredibly ugly at this point. It’s a “work in progress”, as I am always saying to my son Teddy when he’s attempting to draw something!

Use a cake bench scraper to smooth the stripes, going around and around until you are satisfied with its stripey-ness. If there are any little buttercream holes or gaps, fill them in by piping a little blob on top of the hole and going around again with the cake bench scraper. Spread buttercream along the top of the cake and get it as smooth as you like. Then, pipe an alternating shell border using your favourite open star tips with the buttercream. I used a Wilton 1M and Wilton 4B. I loved how this border effect turned out – extra ruffly and cute!

Then, if you are feeling crazy, make three lasagnes filled with roasted tomatoes and roasted caramelized sweet onions because your man loves pasta.

Make a fondue! Fill your guts with cheese and the best chip dip ever! Drink an ice cold Fanta and five or six chocolate Lindt balls because you are at your dad’s party and no one’s really watching you!

Happy birthday to my amazing husband. Love you so much! xo Lyndsay