Chocolate happens to be my favorite flavor of cake so when I began baking about a month ago, I just had to make one. Without prior experience in decorating cakes, I was stumped when I suddenly came across what design to do. I had to come up with something and fast since I agreed to a scheduled photo shoot of my baked desserts just for fun.
As an avid fan of Pinterest, I use many of the pins as an inspiration to try to new things. I noticed one of the hottest trends these days is ombre hair. So I decided to try this with frosting and this is what I came up with. Not bad for my first try. Next time, I’ll ombre the cake itself.
One thing to know is if you are not into lots of frosting, think again about doing this kind of cake design. Although there is no frosting around the sides, don’t be fooled. There is about 2 cups of buttercream in between each layer which is needed to show the ombre effect.
| Can’t let additional frosting go to waste, so I used it to frost these mini cupcakes. |
Violet Ombre Frosted Chocolate Cake
- Total Time: 1 1/2 hours
- Yield: 3 layered 9-inch cake 1x
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup water
Buttercream Frosting
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 6 to 8 tablespoons milk
- Wilton’s Violet icing gel color
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (176 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9-inch round pans.
- In a large bowl, combine and mix all dry ingredients (sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt).
- In a medium bowl, thoroughly mix eggs, milk, oil, vanilla extract, and water for approximately 2 mins.
- Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly for approximately 5 – 7 mins until all large bumps are gone. *Note: Small bumps of flour/cocoa may remain present. Fill each pan 2″ deep with batter.
- Bake on top rack for 30 – 35 mins until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting the cake in half horizontally.
Buttercream Frosting
- Mix sugar and margarine together until the mixture’s consistency is of a softened paste.
- Mix in vanilla and 6 tablespoons of milk. For thinner buttercream icing, add in 2 tablespoons milk, one tablespoon at a time.
- Using a clean butter knife add in 1/2″ ribbon of gel icing color and stir well. Add more color if desired and frost the top layer of cake and set aside when finished.
- Repeat the addition of icing gel color by increasing another 1/2″ ribbon at a time until desired color appears. Remember to not go too dark on the second layer of cake so you can have darkest shade for the third layer.
Notes
- If buttercream becomes too thin, add 1/4 cup powdered sugar at a time until desired thickness results.
- Use approximately 2 cups buttercream for each layer of cake.
- When using icing colors, always achieve the lightest shade first then, go darker. Never dark to light as you may not have enough buttercream to lighten the dark shade.
- Recipe may be cut in half for less frosting.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Cuisine: American
Chocolate cake recipe slightly adapted by Hershey’s® chocolate.