Oh yes, my beautiful niece does love purple - with a passion!!! I saw
this recipe months ago and saved it to make as her birthday cake. Yes, I know that there are lots of ways to make a cake purple, but this had some really decadent ingredients. I was originally going to make it exactly as shown.
(photo from Sweet&SavoryMeals.com)
As a busy young adult who works full-time, is about to get her Master's degree, and now lives an hour and a half away, plans changed at the last moment from a Sunday afternoon to a Friday evening – just 30 minutes after I would be getting home from work. The open edges of this beautiful cake would not allow for prepping the mini-cakes ahead – it would dry out SO quickly! I consulted with my friend Maria (who does cakes and catering as a side gig) and we agreed I could make CAKE layers a few days ahead and FREEZE! She said it would not only keep it fresh, it would make frosting easier – I liked that!!
Since it was my niece, I opted for my heart shaped pans. So on Wednesday evening I made the cake batter as instructed – OH MY, is this thick and rich (that's the vanilla and food coloring gel nestling, just to show the consistency)!!!
Seriously, you need an offset spatula to spread to the edges! I added the prescribed amount of gel coloring, added just a touch more... And something in me told me to only bake one layer.
It came out much lighter than I'd hoped,
so I added about the same amount of coloring to the remaining batter and baked another layer...
better, but... Yep, more coloring!!!
TADA!!!
Trimmed the crowns and edges, packaged in heavy duty aluminum foil and froze.
Thursday night I made a double batch of the buttercream frosting – I probably could have gotten by with one and a half batches, but ya know, you can never have too much buttercream!!! I might have been picky, but I wanted just a touch more lemon flavor (already using the zest and juice of a lemon per batch), so I added a splash (maybe a Tblsp?) of lemon oil – I didn't regret it!
As you can see, I schmeared the middle of each layer and did the piping around the edges. I wanted it pretty, but I wasn't about to waste my time, lol.
BE CAREFUL AS YOU ADD EACH LAYER OF CAKE!!! You only get one shot at dropping it on the previous without destroying the beauty you just created!
Piped the entire top layer - really not that difficult and OH SO WORTH IT!
Garnished with blackberries, with more to place around the serving platter.
The ombre was NOT intentional, but it certainly worked! The cake was rich and decadent as well as beautiful! Easy in each step, and the way I did it worked on a tight schedule. Had batter and frosting leftover, so I even made a one layer for my friend. This is a keeper for SO many reasons – if I want to do a lime/margarita version, or peach, or cherry, or blueberry... I can always change up the coloring and extracts!
Enjoy <3