I love the ombre look! It's so fun. It reminds me of watercolor, even though I was never very good at that particular art form. What I am really good at is baking. I like to express my artistic side with my baked goods and sewing projects as well. So I decided to have fun with the ombre look and created this cute patriotic cake.
It is really easy to put together. I made 2 batches of white cake. You can find any old recipe or use a box mix if that is what you prefer. For this particular cake I baked one red, one white and one blue. I would recommend making one batch with two white cakes and a second batch with half the batter colored red and the other half blue. (Freeze the single white cake for another use). I have learned a really cool trick for getting your cake layers to be even. Use a simple kitchen scale. For the white cakes, grease and flour and parchment both cake pans. Pour your batter into both cake pans (by the way, I used 9"). Then scoop a little at a time to make both cake pans with batter weigh the same. With the two colored cake, I did not grease my pans yet, instead I just used the pans to weigh them on the scale to get them both even, then once they were, I poured them in different bowls then added the dye. From there, grease and flour, etc your pans and add the colored cake batter. It's really not good for cake to be over-mixed, so just try to not over do it.
Once your cakes are baked and cooled and ready for decorating, then prepare your frosting. I use a normal buttercream. I filled the layers with white buttercream and crumb-coated the cake. Once you are ready to decorate, keep a third of the buttercream white, then a third red and a third blue. Put your cake on a turntable. Using an offset spatula, spread the upper third with red, then the middle with white and the bottom with blue. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of this process. I used my small spatula in the beginning, then once I had the colors about where they needed to be I used the larger offset spatula to mesh the colors together. The trick here; I get a large juice pitcher and fill it with hot water. I keep a clean dish towel close by as well. I stick the spatula in the water and give it a second to soak, then pull it out and dry it off. Then use the long flat bottom to smooth out the colors. Don't be too particular. Its ombre, it's supposed to kinda bleed into the other colors. I was surprised at how quickly it came together.
It may seem like a lot of work to make the 3 colors of frosting as well as the cake, but the reaction you get when the cake is cut makes it all worth it! I hope I have explained this well enough. I am a new blogger, have patience with me! Happy Independence Day!!! I love America!
