A Not-So-Naked St.Patrick’s Day Cake

This past weekend we had two, yes two!, snowstorms predicted for our area of Massachusetts.  I knew I would probably go stir crazy by the end of the weekend so, I planned to make the best of it.  I decided to try my hand at a naked cake.

Do you know what a naked cake is?  It is one where most of the side frosting has been scraped off to reveal the crumbly cake underneath.  I have heard it is considered a "rustic" cake.

Since I am not a baker I bought two cake mixes at my local grocery store.  I thought this one looked tasty.  I had toyed around the idea of using chocolate cake (one of my favorites) but, didn't think it would achieve the desired look that I was going for.

The cake mixes actually made four layers but, I only had three 8" pans. The 9" layer is in my freezer waiting to be taken out the next time I feel like cake...or just experimenting :).

I wanted to assemble the cake on this jade cake stand because I was making a St. Patrick's Day naked cake.  I forgot to mention that :).

As I have already stated, I am not a baker.  Since I am not, I do not have all of the tools necessary for making the perfect cake.  This is my attempt at trying to make the layers as level as possible.  I have seen on TV baking shows where they have a gizmo that lops off the top of the layer to make it perfectly symmetrical and level on top.  I used a knife and did the best I could and only took some of the top off.  Besides, why throw away perfectly good cake?

Next, I made some of my frosting recipe.  Mine is made with shortening not butter.  I wanted it to be pure white and honestly, it is very yummy, if you like sweet frosting, like I do ;).  I started frosting in between the three layers.

Believe it or not, I'm thinking it is looking pretty good at this point.

It appears I missed photographing some of the steps along the way but, this is my attempt at a naked cake.  In my mind I thought I had made this a naked cake.  I thought I had taken enough of the side frosting off.  It wasn't until I checked later on Pinterest to see what really fine naked cakes looked like that I realized my cake just ended up looking like a messy cake.  I really hadn't scraped off enough of the frosting.  I think my excuse is that I really like frosting and didn't really want to make it truly naked after all.  So, now I am calling this my G-rated naked cake.  Hahaha!  Good for the grandkids!

I also tried my hand at drip frosting for the first time.  What was I thinking?!!  It dripped farther down the cake than I wanted but, at least, it was green for St. Patty's Day!

I purchased some shamrock sugar cookies from the grocery store.  I wasn't going to make a disaster of that too!  I tried to make them stay upright by sticking them into the frosting but, that didn't work.  These cookies are leaning against tall toothpicks in order to make them stand up straight.

I added some fresh greens of Italian ruscus to finish it off.

I also sprinkled the top with some green decorative sugar to match the cookies.

Although, I do realize that my St. Patrick's Day "naked" cake is not Pinterest worthy, it really did taste pretty good.

My husband and I had a very yummy dessert night that night.  So, my little experiment wasn't all in vain~

By the way, the second snowstorm of the weekend dropped 8-15" of snow around our region. The weather guys were not kidding!

***I would love to see some of your naked cakes, if you want to share them with me.  Of course, I know I am going to be devastated with how beautiful yours look!  But, share anyway :).

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