I made this cake for my step-daughter’s 17th birthday and presented it at a surprise party we put together at the last minute. I have been making her cakes and my daughter’s cakes for the last 5 or 6 years and each year we try to come up with a new idea.
Alexa is really into the designer, Betsey Johnson and for Christmas we found a really cool pink and black zebra print hobo bag by Betsey Johnson that she just loves. When we were talking about her cake and what she wanted we both kinda came up with the “Homemade Designer Purse Cake” idea at the same time.
She loves yellow cake and red velvet cake so that is what I went with for the 3-layer cake. First layer was yellow cake with a layer of strawberry pie filling (made a strawberry buttercream icing and built a dam along the edges to prevent leakage) and then the second layer was red velvet with another layer of strawberry pie filling (1 12oz can each layer) and then the third and final layer was another yellow cake.
The cake was Duncan Hines and I used 1 box per layer in a 14×15 baking pan. I prepared the cakes and layered them and froze them overnight so that carving the shape of the purse would be easier. The icing was homemade strawberry buttercream which I tinted Hot Pink, Purple and Black (although it turned out more of a dark gray – probably would recommend doing a chocolate icing next time to get a true black for the zebra stripes and numbers).
My husband actually did the carving and used a small 8in round plate to carve out the top portion of the purse and then free-handed rounding the edges. The purse handle is simply pre-rolled fondant that I tinted with black, hot pink, & purple for a swirled effect and then wrapped around a 10in dowel rod.
I also used the pre-rolled fondant for the heart-shaped key chain with her age written in the buttercream icing as well as the label with her initial ATLS and then the price tag is actually her birth date for the dollars and her age for the cents (I did get this idea from another cake that I found online).
It was a delicious cake. The strawberry filling was still ice-cold since it had been frozen overnight, but the cake thawed perfectly and moist. The combination of flavors and textures with the cold strawberries made this one of my all time favorite cakes that I have prepared.
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