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This purple ombre cake is easy to make, has a delicious buttercream frosting, and was a hit at our purple birthday party!
When putting a party together, I don’t like to go to too great a cost. Especially for a 4 year olds birthday party. I want a party that is special and that my kids will love, but I try to do most of it myself. So I knew when little miss asked for a purple party, I would make her a purple ombre cake.
To make my 5 layer purple ombre cake, I used these Wilton 6 inch cake pans. I made a white boxed cake mix according to the directions and divided the batter into 5 bowls. I used the purple from this food coloring set. I knew I wanted to have the top layer be white so I did not add any food coloring to one bowl. Then I added one drop in the next bowl, 2 drops in the next, 3 drops in the next bowl and then added 4 drops to the last bowl. I sprayed all the pans with non-stick cooking spray and added the batter of each bowl to a pan. I baked them at 325 degrees for 18 minutes, then checked if they were done using a toothpick inserted in the center. Every oven will differ, so if you need more time on your cake, just cook an additional minute or two as needed until cakes are done.
Once out of the oven, I let them cool for about 5 minutes before I removed them from the pans and placed them onto cooling racks. Once they were cooled, I trimmed off the rounded tops of the cakes and made the buttercream frosting.
Buttercream Frosting for a layered Cake
A light frosting that will cover a multiple layered cake.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter - room temperature
- 1 cup shortening
- 2 pound bag powdered sugar
- dash of salt
- 6 TBL milk
- 2 tsp. vanilla
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and shortening until all combined.
- Add half the powdered sugar and turn mixer on slowly to combine.
- Add milk, vanilla, salt and remaining powdered sugar and slowly start mixer until everything is combined.
Purple Ombre Cake
Once the frosting was made I was ready to stack my cakes. I put just a little bit of frosting on my cake stand to hold the cake in place and started with the most purple cake first, on the bottom. I then added some frosting to the top of that cake and tried to spread it out evenly before stacking the next cake on top and then continued until all the cakes were stacked. It was warm in my kitchen, so I had to put the cake in the fridge before I could begin on frosting the top and outside of the cake. Once it was chilled, I finished frosting the cake. I used an angled spatula. I think they are the easiest to use when frosting a cake like this.
I added purple gum balls around the bottom of the cake and purple pearl sprinkles to the top to give it a little personality. And to go with our purple party.
The best part about this cake is that it didn’t cost me a fortune since I made it myself, it tasted good and my daughter absolutely loved it! Even though it wasn’t perfectly layered or frosted, it was the perfect centerpiece to our party table.
Have you attempted an ombre cake before? I know that this won’t be the last one I make.
Happy Baking!
Liz
