Title: Red Carpet Layer Cake
Ingredients:
- 4 white chocolate
- 2 cake flour
- 2 sugar
- 2 baking powder
- 1 fine sea salt
- 1/2 canola oil
- 1/2 unsalted butter
- 1 sour cream
- 1 vanilla extract
- 6 all-purpose flour
- 1/4 baking soda
- 3 salt
- 4 unsalted butter
- 1/4 sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 buttermilk
- 8 vanilla extract
- 1 Milkmoon Meringue Buttercream
- 3 1/2
- 8
- 2 2/3
- 2
- 2 -4
- 2
- 10
Instructions:
1. Other Special Equipment You'll Need:
2. 1-2 wooden skewers, paintbrushes, gel food coloring; set of nine round cookie cutters in graduated sizes; piping bag; any small or medium petal-shaped piping tip; extra-tall cake scraper (10” at least—you can also use a quilting ruler!); a candy thermometer.
3. Make the Topper:
4. Roll a small amount of gum paste out to 1/8th inch thickness.
5. Use an exacto knife to cut out a shape inspired by the Oscars trophy, plus a smaller shape for the little cake it’s holding. Allow to dry at least overnight.
6. When dry, paint with edible gold paint and outline and detail your shapes with an edible ink pen in black, or with a thin paintbrush dipped in black edible paint.
7. Using a bit of melted white chocolate (or water or piping gel), attach the cake to the figurine and draw in hands.
8. Use a skewer or popsicle stick dipped in white chocolate to give the figurine something to stick into the cake so it can stand up on top.
9. Bake Your Red Velvet Cake:
10. Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Prep four 3" deep 6" round pans by greasing and flouring, using a parchment round at the base of each if you want to be sure the cakes don’t stick.
11. In a medium bowl, whisk dry ingredients together to combine. Set aside.
12. Place the oil and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium for about one minute to combine. Add the dry ingredients, sour cream, and milk and mix on low until the mixture is moistened throughout. Raise to medium speed and beat 1-2 minutes to help build up the structure of the cake.
13. Add the egg whites in two additions, beating on medium for 30 seconds after each addition. Finally, add the food coloring and vanilla and beat on medium until completely combined.
14. Divide the batter between your prepped pans and bake for 30 minutes, at which point you should check every three minutes or so until the cake springs back when you poke it right in the middle. Allow to cool to room temperature, wrap in plastic, and cool in the refrigerator for at least a couple hours before de-panning.
15. Bake Your Black Chocolate Buttermilk Cake:
16. Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Prep four 3" deep 6" round pans by greasing and flouring, using a parchment round at the base of each if you want to be sure the cakes don’t stick.
17. In a medium bowl, whisk dry ingredients together to combine. Set aside.
18. Slowly melt your chocolate in the microwave, stirring often and stopping when there are still a few small chunks of chocolate left. Stir until the chunks disappear, and set aside to come to room temperature.
19. Place your butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and cream at medium speed until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.
20. On low speed, alternate adding your dry mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix in the cooled chocolate, vanilla, and black gel color, adjusting the amount of coloring to create a black batter.
21. Divide the batter between your prepped pans and bake for 40-45 minutes, at which point you should check every three minutes or so until the cake springs back when you poke it right in the middle. Allow to cool to room temperature, wrap in plastic, and cool in the refrigerator for at least a couple hours before de-panning.
22. Mix Your Buttercreams:
23. Add your melted and cooled chocolate to most of your buttercream, being sure to set aside 1 cup of white buttercream for your red piped swags. Take about 1/4 cup of your chocolate buttercream and melt it in the microwave. Squeeze in about a tablespoon of black gel coloring, and mix it inches Combine your soupy black buttercream with the rest of the chocolate buttercream, and adjust further if more black coloring is needed.
24. Mix that reserved 1 cup of buttercream with red food coloring gel using the same melting technique listed above.
25. Prepare Your Cake Layers:
26. Trim your cakes into layers as thin as you can get them using a serrated knife.
27. Use concentric round cookie cutters to cut out the centers of your black cake layers and replace them with red rounds of the same size. Each cutter should be used to create one two-toned layer, so that by the time you’re finished, you have as many layers as you do cutters (I had nine total) and each has a different sized red circle in the middle.
28. Pro tip: rather than cutting out your red circles from the middle of 9 red layers, you can fit up to three cutters on a layer since we only need the circles, not the full layer like we do with the black cakes. Use as few red layers as possible, saving the whole ones that are left over to stack at the bottom of the cake to give more height!
29. Stack Your Cake:
30. Start with the full red velvet layers left over from cutting out circles earlier. Keep your buttercream layers super thin, to help give the staircase illusion.
31. Now begin to stack your two-toned cake layers, starting with the largest red velvet circle and working your way down to the smallest.
32. Trim, crumb coat, and ice your cake in leftover black chocolate buttercream.
33. Decorate:
34. Using your petal tip, pipe layers of ruffles along the top of the cake to give the look of a luxe red curtain. Insert your topper into the top of the cake to finish.
35. Grab some snacks, dim the lights, and slice to reveal your glamorous red carpet!