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| Purple Ombre Cake by raspberri cupcakes |
I mean seriously, isn't it AMAZING? Rapturous? Beautiful? Dreamy? Perfect for a 3 year old's birthday party?
(Cue Richard Marx's crappy song from the 80s "Shoulda Known Better...")
I knew I'd need practice. While I enjoy baking occasionally, I have never baked a layer cake and frosted it. I figured I could practice a few times before September and figure out how to do this. I'm a former chemist, and I'm good at following precise lab procedures, so this isn't much different, right?
The first indication of disaster up ahead was the fact that the only round cake pan I have is 10 inches, which is 2 inches bigger than the one the recipe recommends. But since I was making fewer layers (only 3 instead of 5) I figured this might be ok.
But for each layer there wasn't enough batter to fill up the pan, so they ended up being lopsided flat pancakes once baked. Sigh. Also the second and third layers weren't different enough color-wise after baking (though the batters looked different going into the oven!).
I still figured I could practice on the layering and frosting parts so I kept going. This took me all day. And I chose the one day it hit 80 degrees. Not very smart, huh?
I bought a local brand of raspberry jam for spreading between the layers and that was pretty amazing - no big blobs of raspberries and easy to spread.
The vegan chocolate "buttercream" frosting was off in texture, possibly because of the heat. T is still allergic to dairy unless it's been baked, so frostings need to be made dairy-free for her. I had great luck a few weeks ago with the plain vegan buttercream, but not so much with today's chocolate version which was sort of grainy and wouldn't get smooth or fluffy despite lots of mixing and playing around with the ingredients.
The end product looked, well, homemade. Respectable for a first try, and the almost-ombre layers did look pretty cool when I cut into the cake. But the cake was super-sweet and super-dense, probably due to the thin cake layers and all that jam and frosting. (And I don't have much of a sweet tooth to start with.)
I think a birthday cake should look magical (like the original!). I want my birthday girl's eyes to light up when she sees it, knowing that gorgeous cake was made just for her. I get that when she's 30, she'll be grateful that her mama went to the trouble of making a homemade cake, but that's not how it works when you're 3. You want the pretty one.
So without regrets, we'll go to Whole Foods and talk to them about cake options. Sometimes it's better to leave important things to the professionals.
I completely and totally disagree with you about cakes. For us it is all about the taste and the love. And a 3 year old's idea of beauty is usually not the same as an adult's. http://nicoleandmaggie.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/birthday-presents/
ReplyDeleteI'd give you our best non-dairy frosting recipe, but it uses brandy in place of milk! I wonder if you could use something like almond milk instead of milk.
A few of the vegan recipes I've tried substitute soy milk for regular milk just fine.
DeleteI definitely agree taste is important, but I do want a nice *looking* cake too for something as special as a birthday. Maybe it's my thing, not hers :)
That looks good for a first try! I haven't tried making vegan buttercream, but there has to be a good recipe for chocolate frosting out there. I make pretty nice cakes now, but that's because I've had lots of practice. There have been some in the past that were definitely not pretty. =) And even now, I tend to only see the flaws in mine (I'm just a bit of a perfectionist), when everyone else thinks they look great.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely get yourself a couple of 8" round pans--that's a really useful size to have (for other things, too, not just cakes). I bet we could find a less sweet cake recipe, too, if you want. Even if it's not for T's birthday, I hope you'll try again. =)
Yes, definitely, just maybe later. I think I might try to perfect my cupcakes first :)
DeleteLooks like a pretty sophisticated cake you tried :) If you're dead set on having it, I'm pretty sure you can get it on Etsy. Here are a few: http://www.etsy.com/listing/98423345/rose-ombre-cake or http://www.etsy.com/listing/102677239/one-for-alicia-ombre-cakes-12-count?ref=&sref= .
ReplyDeleteThe little individual ones are *super* cute!!! Eh, we'll go to Whole Foods and find something nice there - ours has a pretty fancy bakery attached.
DeleteI think your cake is very pretty but yes, the original is gorgeous!!!!
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's Jim Diamond and Shoulda Known Better. I low because it's o e of my favorite moody songs LOL
Actually, this was the song I was thinking about. I guess it's "Should've" not "Shoulda":
Deletehttp://youtu.be/n-RPi1pOaoM
Do you want any tips for next time? At all? Because I think a few simple changes would be a huge help!
ReplyDelete1 - get smaller cake pans.
2 - when the layers are cooled, use a serrated knife to cut them across the top so they are completely flat.
3 - food coloring. practice with tiny cupcakes. Like mini muffins. That should tell you how much dye you need to use. HINT: it is usually a LOT.
4 - absolutely necessary to use a crumb coat.
http://www.wilton.com/blog/index.php/start-with-a-crumb-coat-for-a-smooth-cake-finish/
Also if the idea of an ombre cake is too intimidating, toddlers love the rainbow cake.
http://www.marthastewart.com/256688/rainbow-cake
PS Martha has awesome tips in that last link to make the cake look awesome.
PPS. my mom taught me to bake and it is the best skill ever.
Thanks! I will definitely try it again, just not for her birthday. Too much going on here between now and then to get it absolutely right and I demand perfection for birthdays :)
DeleteBut this is helpful. I think I am afraid to use the amount of frosting you need to make it even :(
So I tried something similar and didn't have the right size round cake pans either. I had the 10" ones...and I refused to buy new ones just for this one cake. So I used my 8X8 square pyrex pan. I have no issues with whether the layer cake should be round or square. It turned out pretty good, and no one knew that it should have been round.
ReplyDeleteSquare would be really cool, actually. I might have to try that sometime. I even have two of those Pyrex pans!
DeleteI swear, I have now seen multiple blog posts of people trying to make this same cake thanks to the photo that made the rounds on Pinterest...and coming up short for some reason or another. It is the unattainable cake. Maybe it needs to be its own meme! (you are brave. I never would have attempted it).
ReplyDeleteHaha - I had no idea this cake was a "thing" since I don't do Pinterest. I just fell in love with the photos, but I did see it linked on someone else's blog. I think you're right about it being the Unattainable Cake. She probably baked 50 of them before getting this gorgeous one :D
DeleteApparently parenthood makes me do stupid things :D
This layered cake looks awesome, I am even pinning the pics!
ReplyDeleteThat is one gorgeous cake. How the heck did they ever get that even layer of sprinkles over the outside? I am dazed and amazed.
ReplyDeleteYou can achieve a similar effect more simply by making cupcakes. I did this last year for my daughter's birthday and it was easy. Take any regular white cake mix (boxed or from scratch) and divide it into however many coloured layers you want. I was doing rainbow cupcakes, so I divided the mix into six - pinky/red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. That's a lot of colours to work with, though - I would recommend maybe keeping it to four.
Take each of the portions and add food colouring to get the colour you want (gel colours hold their colour better while baking and also don't dilute the mix and make it runnier).
Put a little of the first colour in each muffin cup; then put the next colour of the uncooked mix right on top. They won't blend, surprisingly. Put another scoop of another colour on top, and so on.
Remember that the muffin cups angle outwards as they go up, so you'll need more of the top colour than the bottom colour. Or, if you're a devil-may-care cook like me, just throw in whatever colours and if they don't completely cover the layer below, so be it! It still makes for a cool mottled effect.
Then bake! My four year old guests went nuts for them. :)
ooh, that sounds like fun. I could definitely do ombre ones, though T has said in no uncertain terms that she wants a "whole cake" for her birthday, not cupcakes. But I'll def. try this some other time.
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