For the Cake:

Cup of Yum
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour three 6-inch cake pans.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. Cream together the butter, sour cream, and orange zest.
4. Slowly add the sugar, mixing until the mixture is light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between additions and scraping down the sides.
5. Add the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the orange juice to the creamed mixture, beating well on low speed after each addition. Pour equal amounts of the batter into the 3 prepared cake pans. (I also use cake strips on my pans for more even baking.) Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 22 min. Cool the cake layers in the pans for 10 min. and then loosen the layers by running a knife between the cake and the edge of the pan. Remove the layers from the pans and put them on a rack to continue cooling.




For the Buttercream:

1. Beat the butter until light and fluffy, add the sugar a cup at a time and beat well. Add all other ingredients in. Beat. 
2. Reserve 1/3 of the buttercream for the roses. 
3. Color the remaining 2/3 light pink using less than a drop of soft, pink food coloring. 
4. Divide the buttercream for the roses into several batches. One will be green for the leaves; one will be white; one will be yellow (for the stamens); and two different color pink batches. 
5. Separate the buttercream into 3 equal batches and color two of the batches with pink food coloring in different shades. 

For the Roses:

1. Attach a 126 tip to a piping bag and fill the bag with both colors of buttercream.
2. Use a spatula to create a cone of buttercream on the cupcake.
3. Pipe a cone onto the cupcake. (sharp side of tip facing up)
4. Create the rose by making small arcs with the tip, which gradually increase in size as you get toward the edge of the flower.
5. Pipe the leaves with a leaf tip.