OK, a cake artist – I am NOT. But I do love to bake and make special things for my family. My food usually tastes pretty good, so when the birthdays roll around, I try to make something for them homemade. I let my kids choose what color and flavors of cake they’d like for their birthday, and try to accomodate that as best I can. So here goes. For this year’s birthday, the girl wants pink and purple cake with hearts on top. With fruit in the middle. and Whipped Cream. I can do that.
I recently purchased a new set of food coloring gels – the nice professional grade stuff that makes awesome colors. (I’m giving the Ameriprise colors a shot). So far, they’ve created great colors with a tiny amount of gel.
The Cake
Store-bought cake mixes are ok with me. Why mess with a tried and true recipe? I used a Pillsbury Funfetti cake mix for this one (white). I mixed it to the box directions, and then divided the batter into two equals parts. Pink. Purple.
I set them to cool on wire racks (and I frosted them the next night).
Layer 1 is the pink cake – I made whipped cream frosting (recipe follows). Pink and Purple frosting, of course. I frosted with 2/3 of the pink frosting and then put the raspberries on top.
Layer 2 is the purple cake – I added a bit more frosting on top of the raspberries, and then laid the purple down.
I filled in the holes with along the sides with more frosting. I filled up the frosting decorator, and then used the remaining frosting to make a layer all over. After that, I put two heart-shaped cookies cutters on top, and the filled them in with purple sprinkles. I used my Pampered Chef frosting thingy for the top. That thing is fun to use!
It turned out ok – my kids will love it, it will taste great. I’m not a cake artist by any means, but the colors are right! I feel like I should put up a photo of what I think it looks like in head, but hey – I made it and it’s something that I can do to make my kid happy on her birthday. Who doesn’t love a nice cake with whipped cream frosting?
Frosting recipe follows – this is a ‘stable’ whipped cream frosting, which means it will hold up for a few days without melting all over the place (yuck).
Whipped Cream Frosting (I made two batches of this to cover the whole cake, one pink and one, you guessed it, purple).
1 C. heave cream
1/8 tsp. creme of tartar
2 TB Confectioner’s Sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
a couple drops of the food coloring of your choice
Directions
Pour heavy cream into a stand mixer and use the wire wisk attachment. I start the mixer on medium, and slowly add the cream of tartar, sugar and vanilla. Once it begins to thicken, add the food color if you choose to use it.
Whip until stiff peaks form, and then stop and frost away.
UPDATE: Here is a photo of the cake after we cut it, is that FUN or what? It tasted divine.