How to make a classy 21st birthday cake

Ah, 21...there's so much to look forward to on your 21st birthday. Unfortunately, birthday cake doesn't really compare to legally buying and drinking your own alcohol. Unless of course you legally put booze in your cake.

Kaitlyn (my first friend in Ames!) turned 21 last weekend. I don't know who was more excited: her for being able to get into bars or me for getting to make a new cake.

After eating some cake and going to the bar, we were both pretty happy.

21st birthday cakes require some kind of alcohol, in my opinion. I have a great cupcake cookbook called Intoxicated Cupcakes that has all kinds of recipes for using leftover booze in cupcakes. From margarita cupcakes to Guinness and cosmopolitan, this cookbook has a recipe for any type of liquor.

Since Kaitlyn like's coconut, I went with the recipe for pina colada cupcakes and converted it to a cake (use the same amount of ingredients, same oven temperature, just use two round cake pans and bake for about 35 minutes instead of 25). The recipe was composed of Malibu rum, pineapple, and coconut. This was also a perfect cake to end the summer with. 

Once the recipe was chosen, the next decision was whether to make a classy cake or a drunken cake. By drunken, I mean those cakes with the sloppy party Barbie and quotes or mini bottles of alcohol on top. Kaitlyn's favorite color is lime green, so I went with a classier looking 50 shades of green cake.

How much fun is that cake?!

I found this design on Pinterest and couldn't resist. At first I made a normal two-layer cake, but when I started decorating, it wasn't going to be big enough for all those layers of green. Solution? Four-layer cake!! Double the cake, double the fun, and double the yum.

The best part about decorating this cake was mixing all the greens. I used kelly green, electric green, mint green, leaf green, and turquoise to get all of the fun shades.

To make the swirls on the cake, I used a Wilton 1m tip, the big one that is used to make roses. I simply went around in a tight circle to get the swirl. They weren't perfect, but they were good practice. 

I wanted to add a little contrast to the cake, so I added a martini-shaped sugar cookie. I made a green one at first, but liked the pink better.

I was so happy with the finished cake, and I think Kaitlyn was, too. I got lots of drunk hugs and thank yous all night.

Those four layers of coconut and fruity cake tasted so good with the Malibu and coconut frosting. Click here for the pina colada recipe.