Wednesday, January 15, 2014

purple ombre cake

I have been *a bit* mad about ombre cakes recently.

I love colours. I really do. I love combining colours and making pretty things.

So I was thinking purple, and naturally, I made a purple ombre cake!


Apart from wanting to play with colours, I had two other reasons for making this cake. The first was to test this vanilla cake recipe - I am always on the look-out for recipes that work. I believe that one cannot have enough good white cake recipes; and the second reason was for me to work on my frosting skills.

I was actually pretty happy with how this turned out, especially seeing that I only started making cakes seriously about 3 months ago.


Anyway, I digress. This is an interesting recipe because it is a butter-less cake. Instead of butter, oil was used.

I started by sifting the dry ingredients into a bowl. This was set aside.

In the mean time, I whisked the egg yolks with the oil until they were well-combined.


I added the sour cream, followed by the milk, then the lemon zest (I didn't have any oranges in the house).




Finally, I added the dry ingredients in 3 additions and mixed until just combined. This was set aside.


In another mixing bowl, I whisked the egg whites with some salt until soft peaks formed. I slowly added the sugar and continued to beat until stiff peaks formed.


Carefully, I folded the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture.

I divided the batter into 6 portions and added a little colour to each until I got the colours I wanted.


The cakes were baked, then assembled with Swiss Meringue Buttercream.



My verdict? This is a fantastic recipe. The cake is fluffy and soft. BUT only if no colours were added. Because once I added the colour and whisked the colour into the batter, I lost all the air in the egg whites and the resulting cake was a bit tough. So if you want a soft and fluffy WHITE cake, then this is a great recipe to use.

Have you taken part in my Ombre cakes giveaway? Click on the picture below to take part!



RECIPE
Layered White Cake (Serves 8-10)
(I cannot remember where I got this recipe from, so I am really sorry for not being able to name the source.)

Ingredients:
2 3/4 cup cake flour
1 1/4 cups caster sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 - 1 cup canola oil
6 tablespoons sour cream
4 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons grated orange peel - I used lemon zest/peel
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 large egg whiltes
a pinch of salt
2/3 cups caster sugar

Method:
Preheat oven to 170C, butter 3 8 inch pan. Sift the dry ingredients- Flour 1 1/4 cup of sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl, set aside. Whisk the oil 4 egg yolks in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in the sour cream, then milk, orange peel and vanilla. Whisk in the dry ingredients in 3 additions. In a small bowl using electric mixer beat egg white with a pinch of salt until soft peak forms, while still beating gradually add remaining of 2/3 cup of sugar, while on high speed until stiff peak forms. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter in 4 additions. (Do not over beat (fold), I've done this cake many times and on my second try i forgot about the over beating and it wasnt as fluffy as its suppose to be.) Divide between pans and bake cakes until the center is just golden, insert a tester or tooth pick until it comes out cleanI

Note: Because I strongly feel that this recipe is not suited for making coloured cakes, I have provided the original recipe for a white cake.

2 comments:

  1. O my my ; the colors are just perfect :) Do take out some time visit my blog glad if ya and follow me back :) have a good day dear ~

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  2. I recently made a multi-colored cake and it was super-moist because i iced it with whipped cream and put it in the fridge. Just an idea - I agree that the cake loses its tenderness when you have to beat the colors in.

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