Rose cake

I think that most "winter-children", i.e. persons born in the Nordic countries in the period between November and March, have (at some point in their lives) wished to celebrate a birthday in the garden on a sunny day, where the roses are in bloom, rather than having a birthday party in the dark and cold just before or just after Christmas and New Years....

.....and so I thought it was utterly clever of my friend, Katrin, to move the celebration of her 40th birthday to end June - not only did she get to throw an amazing garden party, she also got to stay 39 for an additional 6 month! and I got to do the ultimate summer cake:

It took two kilos of marzipan, 180 hand crafted roses, half a kilo of chocolate, one liter of strawberry sirup and three sheets of raspberry spongecake.... and the transportation from Copenhagen to Malmø by train in 25 degrees celsius was hellish, but the end result was exactly as I had hoped for:

The design for the cake was inspired by Peggy (who else?!?) http://indulgy.com/post/xpaQxiH061/romantic-rose-towerpeggy-porschen-cakes

P.S. I will NOT be doing this cake again any time soon :-)