Watercolor Cake
This dreamy and DELICIOUS watercolor cake is made up of super-moist vanilla cake layers surrounded in pastel swathes of silky Italian meringue buttercream.
- Prep time
- 20 min
- Cook time
- 25 min
- Yield
- 10 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup salted butter (170g)
- 3 egg whites
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup milk
- 4 egg whites
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 pinch salt
- 16 oz unsalted butter (32 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature cut into 1-inch pieces)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- 1
For the Cake:
- 2
Butter and paper three 6" pans and heat oven to 325f.
- 3
Sift and mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- 4
Add wet ingredients into a medium bowl and mix.
- 5
Add wet to dry ingredients and mix until combined
- 6
Pour into prepared pans and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
- 7
For the Buttercream:
- 8
Beat the egg whites and 1/3 cup of sugar until soft peaks form.
- 9
In a medium saucepan add the remaining sugar and 1/3 cup water then place on low heat. Stir constantly until sugar melts and becomes clear. Maintain at medium high heat until temperature reads 235-240F. Drizzle the sugar into the mixer immediately.
- 10
Run mixer until merengue is body temperature. Add room temperature butter into running mixer one piece at a time. Beat until butter is combined and mixture has reached a silky consistency.
- 11
Reserve about a cup and a half of the buttercream, which you will color in various hues for the outer watercolor effect.
- 12
For Decoration:
- 13
For best results do a thin crumb coat after first assembling the layers, allow to set in the fridge for 20 minutes or so then add a nice thicker coat of white buttercream and smooth it out.
- 14
Add dollops of the colored buttercream on the surface, and give a quick smooth to get the watercolor effect. Don't try to get a perfect surface and continue smoothing past a couple spins as the color will become indistinct.
- 15
Use an 869 tip to pipe the dollops on top. Any large star tip will do a nice job.