Its been a very long break from blogging for me. Its hardly surprising that I have a whole bunch of recipes from the past 6 months to publish here. So when I decided to join Valli and my friends for this month-long baking marathon, I definitely had an upper hand. 40+ recipes in the drafts do help a lot!
Though I had only 5-6 baking recipes there, it still was an advantage knowing that I don’t have to start from scratch.
This ombre cake is also from the drafts. It was baked in November as a gift to a couple who were completing 10 years of their marriage. The wife came over after her office hours and we had some fun baking this colorful cake together. The look in everyone’s face when the first slice was cut was great, as no one expected layers of colors inside.
The recipe for the base white cake is from Dorie Greenspan. The original version is lemon flavored and we decided to skip that part. Though the taste of the cake was fine, the texture wasn’t as soft as a white cake’s should have been. But the cake got over fast and I think that’s a good sign.
Recipe source: Food, Art and Random thoughts, originally from Dorie Greenspan
Ingredients:
- 2 ¼ cups cake flour (or 2 cups all purpose flour + 1/4 cup corn flour)
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- a pinch salt
- 1 ¼ cups milk or buttermilk
- 4 large egg whites
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 100gms (or 1 stick) butter, at room temperature
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- Buttercream
- food coloring of your choice
- Ready-made edible hearts to decorate (Wilton, if I remember right)
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F. I baked this in 3 six inch pans. Two 9″ pans are also perfect for this.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Keep aside.
- Whisk the egg whites with milk.
- Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy using a hand/stand mixer. Add the vanilla extract.
- Alternatively add the flour mixture and egg whites- milk mixture in batches. You should end with the flour mix (so three batches of flour mix and two batches of milk mix). Make sure the dry ingredients are well cooperated and beat everything for a minute or two.
- Since I wanted an ombre cake, I divided the batter into three and colored two of them with shades of pink and transferred to the greased and lined pans.
- Bake in the oven for about 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes free of crumbs.
- Let the cake cool down and decorate as you wish.
Note: The texture of this cake was a bit ‘tough’ than I thought it would be. I am not sure whether its because of the absence of making meringue or I accidentally over beat the batter. But it was delicious and it did get over fast.
This post goes to Valli’s blogging marathon.
My Kitchen Trials 
This cake is so cute! Love it!
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Rajani I did expect a peice of art and wish we could see the layers. As for the dense cake I am sure you are being tough on yourself.
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A stunning cake. Love the color on the layers.
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Such a beautiful looking cake! I just wish to dig inside it :)
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my my my !! all I can say is I secretly detest you for delivering such devilishly good cakes one after another !! super… I wish I could marry again for an anniversary cake like that.. I trylu fell in love with the colours :-)))
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Such a beautiful cake!!! I love the cute hearts!!!
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elegant cake Rajani…the kind i would appreciate if someone sends it over for my own bday…beautiful
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the layers have come out perfectly.. amazing..
40 drafts is a boon to have… so lucky u r.!!!
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Wow! Rajani, those layers look absolutely beautiful!!
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Fantastic cake Rajani! Love the colors and the decoration!Yes,it really helps when we have recipes ready in the draft :)
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Oh I would love to have one piece of this cake, it looks delicious.
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Wow what a pretty cake Rajani. I’ve tried a few cakes recently that turned a little dense — my remedy is to douse them liberally with sugar syrup — problem solved. Your cake is just beautiful, I don’t think anybody cared about it being dense. You are just being too tough on yourself.
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Beautifully decorated cake !
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Love those little hearts cute and beautiful. What an amazing cake rajani looks so beautiful.
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Ah I must say that I will be repeating the same everyday too..:)..so beautifully done and love those hearts on top..hope your drafts will get you continue other months too..:)
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Those hearts on top is soo cute!!! Cake is really stunning, what beautiful shades of pink u have got there!!
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Very neat finish and the layered surprise inside is awesome. You have a knack for baking beautiful cakes and this is no exception.
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Looks fantastic..gorgeous and Beautiful. Rajani you are a pro at cakes now…a real master. Looking forward to all other bakes..and 40+ is a lot in drafts..wow!
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Beautifully baked cake,looks so gorgeous and love the pretty pink color..those little hearts look so cute…
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You have got a delectable cake there with pretty looking layers.
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Beautiful cake yaar. you have lot of patience. Loved it
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You’ve got such a pretty ombre there Rajani! I love the way you do up your cakes. Btw how did you make those hearts on top? Coloured white chocolate?
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Its ready made Nandini
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Wow, wish i get this cake for my birthday, beautifully done and prefectly frosted as well..Damn pretty.
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Lucky you, you have a rich drafts fold.. :) I think you will get bored of reading my comment, “beautiful cake” day after day for the rest of the month.. :) Beautifully done and I like those cute little heart shape things on the cake.
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