When I saw this photo of rasberri cupcakes' purple ombre sprinkles cake a few months ago, I immediately began looking for a reason to try my hand at baking one.
I decided one occassion would merit such fabulousness: my 40th birthday.
I celebrated my birthday last week and in the days leading up to it, the boys and I took several field trips to purchase a few items for the cake: 6" x 2" cake tins, cardboard rounds and purple food coloring.
I knew I wanted the cake to be four layers: one for each decade. I decided to use 6-inch baking tins because I didn't want an excessive amount of cake left over. (We still had a ton left over, even after sharing a quart of the cake with friends.) I also love the look of small celebration cakes--dainty but decadent.
I used the Best Yellow Layer Cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen and divided the mixture into four separate bowls, each filled with one cup of batter. One layer was just the plain batter color. I used a toothpick, dipped it into the purple food coloring and mixed it into the second bowl of batter just to get a sense of how much coloring I would need for the different shades.
There is no exact science to mixing the colors. If you add too much and the color is super dark, use that as your final dark layer. Add less coloring to the next bowl for the third layer and even less coloring for second layer (which is more of a light lavender).
I used a basic buttercream frosting recipe to frost the cake, with a thin layer of Crofter's Asia Superfrood Spread (as selected by my big kid) in between each layer. My little guy helped frost the cake and handled all the sprinkles, which magically ended up stuck to his fingers and then, in his belly.
I wish I could frost a smooth cake. Thankfully, the sprinkles on this one hide the frosting work.
A simple slice sure looks pretty on a plate. The third layer (from the top) could have been slightly more purple. But...I'll take it. Especially for a first attempt. And the taste was delish.
I'd like to try this again using turquoise as my color of choice. Now to find the next occassion.
