A little over a year ago, my husband kept pushing the idea of turning my love for cake into a blog and although I liked the idea of it, I was absolutely terrified of the idea at the same time. I’d never had a blog before, never taken photos with a DSLR camera (so happy I upgraded to this one from my iPhone though!), and had never shared my recipes with anyone. What if they only worked in my own kitchen and were a disaster everywhere else? Somehow, I pushed the fear aside and got to work on what is now Sugar & Sparrow. What a wild ride it’s been!

I want to thank you A MILLION for following along and cheering me on with all this cake stuff. I couldn’t do any of it without you and am so amazed to find myself part of such a kind, inspiring community of bakers. I’m blessed by you all and consider you a huge part of my journey as a cake maker and recipe writer. You’ve grown my confidence a ton and I hope that you’re feeling more confident in the kitchen too!

That being said, to celebrate my blogiversary, I’ll be hosting a few giveaways on my Instagram channel over the next few weeks to give you all a chance to win some of my can’t-live-without cake decorating supplies. I hope they bring you even more kitchen confidence! Here are the details:

• This week: $100 worth of SprinklePop sprinkles (hello!) for making those cakes pop
• Next week: an Americolor Heavenly Seventy kit with (you guessed it!) seventy different soft gel pastes for making the most beautiful buttercream colors on earth.

Details to come on all of those things, be sure to follow along on my Instagram so you don’t miss any of it!

And for a trip down memory lane, here are some of my favorite recipes and tutorials from the past year:

Chocolate Ganache Drip Cake Tips

This is the perfect chocolate ganache recipe for dripping cakes, plus all of my best tips for achieving drip cake greatness!

If you’re working with milk, semi-sweet, or dark chocolate, this one is the best ratio. If you’re more of a white chocolate ganache drip caker, this one is my favorite ratio.  

Salted Caramel Buttercream Recipe

The perfect buttercream recipe for every salted caramel lover! It all starts with a batch of my easy four-ingredient salted caramel, then I’ll show you how to whip it up into tasty buttercream for filling and frosting cakes.

Spatula Painted Cake Tutorial

One of the easiest ways to decorate a colorful, eye-catching cake. Just mix up your favorite color palette, grab a small icing spatula, and go crazy!

Milk & Cereal Cake Recipe

This one’s for all the cereal lovers and it pairs perfectly with your Saturday morning cartoons. The best part about this recipe is it works with any cereal, so grab a box of your favorite and I’ll show you how to turn it into a tasty Milk & Cereal cake, plus how to make the perfect white chocolate milk splash to top it!

Vanilla Buttercream Recipe

One of the number one recipe requests I get is for my basic vanilla buttercream. It’s perfect for piping buttercream flowers, topping cupcakes, and frosting smooth buttercream cakes.

One-Bowl Chocolate Cake Recipe

A decadent, moist chocolate cake that’s almost as easy as whipping up a box of cake mix! All of the ingredients go into one bowl, making the mixing process totally failproof, and from start to finish you’ll have the perfect chocolate cake batter in about five minutes.

How To Frost A Smooth Buttercream Cake

This tutorial will walk you through all my tips and techniques for frosting a super smooth buttercream cake finish. You’re gonna want to know these tricks!

Thanks again SO MUCH for all of your support and I’m looking forward to all that’s to come in year two and beyond!  

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If you’re more of a video-inclined learner, here’s a quick one I shot of the semi-naked technique. I’ll break everything down in the tutorial in the next section:

You Will Need:

• Thin Consistency Buttercream (this Vanilla Buttercream recipe is perfect)
• Baked Cake Layers
• Offset Spatula
• Bench Scraper
• Turntable

Step 1: Prep Your Cake Layers

If you haven’t already, start by torting your cake layers to an even, level height. In my opinion, this step should never be missed, no matter what kind of cake you’re creating. Torting helps to get rid of any domed cake tops, thus setting your entire cake up for being super level and sharp.

Once your layers are perfectly even and level, fill them and start stacking them. Tip: when you’re stacking your cake layers, it helps to very slightly offset the middle layer so that the edge sticks out a little further in some areas. The top and bottom layers should be completely parallel for evenly straight sides, but slightly offsetting the center layer (and I’m talking a centimeter or two) will help create more varying depth with your semi-naked finish.

Step 2: Frost And Smooth The Top Of The Cake

Start frosting the top of the cake by placing a bit of buttercream on the top and smoothing it with an offset spatula, turning the cake on your turntable as you smooth.

You should have enough frosting on the top of the cake that it extends about ¼ inch beyond the top edges.   

Step 3: Frost And Smooth The Sides Of The Cake

Using that same offset spatula, apply buttercream to the sides of the cake, starting at the bottom and working your way up to the top. Since the semi-naked look involves buttercream that looks barely there, try to apply a pretty thin layer.

When you’ve got the sides covered, take your bench scraper and smooth the sides of the cake until they’re straight and you have some nice areas of cake peeking through. If you have areas that need more buttercream, simply apply more buttercream and keep smoothing until you like what you see.

Try not to press too hard when you’re smoothing the more “naked” areas, since you could puncture the cake layers and cause them to crumble. If this happens, just smooth it over with more buttercream.

Step 4: Smooth The Top Edges

Now that your sides are looking so rustic and beautiful, you’ll probably notice a little buttercream crown has formed around the top edge of your cake. This is a really good sign, because it means you’re going to have a nice, sharp top edge when you’re done smoothing it.

Using your offset spatula, smooth the buttercream crown inward, moving the buttercream toward the middle of the cake. The goal here is to create level, sharp edges by swiping through the buttercream crown and moving the excess buttercream across the top of the cake. Smooth the top of the cake until it’s level and you don’t have a dome in the middle from moving the buttercream crown inward.

Step 5: Decorate

Now that you’ve created your very own semi-naked cake, it’s time to dress it up a little! Some awesome next steps would be incorporating some fresh flowers (made food safe) to decorate, doing a ganache drip, or keeping the design rustic with some greenery like fresh herbs or eucalyptus! Here’s what I’ve done in the past: 

Whether it’s your first semi-naked cake attempt or not, let me know if this tutorial was helpful and show me what you’ve created by tagging me on Instagram! I’d love to see your creations.

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