The Roman Mosaic Cake - December 2012

My husband's birthday is in December and since I had started the tradition of making the family's birthday cakes, I wanted to think of something special for him as well. 

If I had to do over again now, the cake would probably turn out a little differently, but at the time I was struggling with both my inexperience and a little self-doubt. To be completely honest, I had no idea what to make, but he loves history (he is actually a History Professor) and we took this really wonderful vacation to Mérida one year and fell in love with the Roman mosaics we saw there. So, wanting to keep it simple and continue working with buttercream, I decided to make a Roman mosaic with the Roman numeral of the birthday he was celebrating that year as the decoration.

This time I perfected my chocolate cake and decided to give it an extra chocolate punch by using a chocolate buttercream frosting in the middle and on top as well! I piped the decoration using black piping gel and white buttercream with the #2 PME tip, and white and black buttercream frosting with the #27 Wilton star tip.

By the way, how well do you remember your Roman numerals? Do you know how old my husband turned this year?