Pastel Layer Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream
Hello folks!! How is it going?? Full fledged summers are finally here with the temperatures rising everyday. Phew!!
My mother thinks that I am going to bake less often now as the weather is so hot and sultry. But she doesn’t know, baking has nothing to do with the weather. You just need an idea to pop in your head to ignite the baking expedition.
Today’s idea- “A Pink and Blue Pastel layer cake with white chocolate buttercream” sprung in my head because of my recent impulsive baking shopping 😀
On my recent trip to the store, I brought myself Wilton’s Gel Food coloring in pink and blue. You won’t believe they have so many shades of color.
I have tried a rainbow cake earlier with the powder food colors. Though it did not turn out bad but it wasn’t extraordinary either.
I had read about gel based food coloring earlier. Gel food colors give a much intense color with just a few drops. These gel colors have a glycerine or corn syrup base and hence are thicker than their liquid counterparts.
Having baked with a dry powder color earlier, I really wanted to see if gel colors make a difference.
The idea in my head was of a pastel layer cake with layers of alternating colors in pastel hues. So I baked two vanilla sponge cakes in square pans- one blue and one pink. I noticed that I required only two small drops of gel color for each cake unlike a teaspoon of powder food color. I got a perfect ombre pastel color like I had wanted 🙂
Now, let the cakes cool before slicing them into two even layers. So you have four sponge layers now, two blue and two pink. Next stack the layers one over the other with white chocolate buttery frosting that just melts in the mouth.
This tall pastel layer cake is the prettiest thing I have ever made. Each bite just melts in your mouth. Yummy!
So let’s get going with this pretty cake. You could use a store brought vanilla cake mix or your favorite vanilla sponge cake recipe or you could try this one. It yields a perfect soft and fluffly sponge and it’s eggless too!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup yogurt(room temp.)
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 tsp. vanilla essence
- For the White Chocolate buttercream
- 500 gms of chopped white chocolate
- 350 gms of heavy cream
- 100 gms of unsalted butter(room temperature)
Instructions
- Cream yogurt and sugar until sugar dissolves.
- Add baking soda and baking powder and mix well. Wait for 5 minutes until bubbles appear.
- Mix in oil and vanilla essence.
- Fold in the flour until thick and creamy.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 45-50 minutes.
- For the White Chocolate Buttercream
- Heat the cream in a heavy bottom saucepan.
- Add the chopped chocolate and butter to the warm cream.
- Keep stirring and heating until everything blends and you get a smooth velvety white chocolate sauce. Don't worry about the consistency. It thickens as it cools.
- Cool and chill in the refrigerator for 8-10 hours.You can also make it a day before you plan to bake the cake!
- Whip with a hand blender for 1-2 minutes before frosting the cake.
This is the basic Vanilla sponge cake recipe. You need to bake 2 such cakes. Add 2 drops of gel food color to each before folding in the flour.
Once cool, slice the cakes into 2 even layers and frost with the white chocolate buttercream frosting.
The pretty tall pastel layer cake is all ready to be devoured!! Layers of perfect soft cake and buttery smooth frosting!! It’s just pure happiness 🙂
