Blue Ombre Cake its bright and gorgeous.
I have no set ideas about colours for cakes. That’s quite clear here, as you can see.
This beautiful Blue Ombre Cake is for an engagement, my nephews. They’ve chosen a blue theme for their wedding. I think it is going to be lovely.
When I was young, my Mother had her own superstitious beliefs about the colour of weddings. More specifically she believed that green weddings always spelled doom. When we were young each time we saw a bride with bridesmaids clad in green, she shook her head in disbelief that they could be so stupid. She was a perfectly normal parent, well other than her equally strange belief that opening an umbrella inside the house was bad luck. So except for weddings and rainy days everything was OK.
She believed she had documented evidence that every time green was involved in the nuptials it would end in tears. Her control test cases were two friends from teachers college, whose partnerships both dissolved within a few years of their marriage. I am not sure if her colour fears rubbed off on me but I certainly have a little nervous tick if an umbrella is opened indoors.
This Blue Ombre Cake is a chocolate layer cake filled with milk caramel chocolate buttercream and covered in a vanilla (though very blue) cream cheese icing.
A cake’s a cake though until you dress it up and this one had a pretty simple dressing up with some balls of rolled sugar icing, Maltezers and white chocolate drips. I like to put cakes like this on top of a nicely decorated board, it adds to the drama for such a small amount of work. I’ve stuck little multicoloured hearts and balls on with egg white mixed with some icing sugar till thick. (icing glue) make sure you put some extra icing in the centre of the board to stop the cake sliding around.
So, here’s the way it’s done at a blue wedding. Do you have any irrational fears about colours? Any superstitions I should know about?
Ingredients | Unit: |
- 500 ml coffee I use 2 cups instant coffee
- 600 gm caster sugar 3 cups
- 250 gm butter softened
- 50 gm dark cocoa
- 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
- 4 teaspoon baking powder
- 4 whole eggs
- 450 gm plain flour 3 cups
- 5 gm salt
- 300 gm caster sugar
- 80 ml water
- 5 whole egg white
- 450 gm butter room temperature, chopped
- 400 gm milk chocolate
- 1 teaspoon salted caramel flavouring
- 250 gm cream cheese Room temperature
- 500 gm butter room temperature
- 250 gm icing sugar mixture 2 cups
- 5 ml vanilla
- 300 gm white chocolate chocolate
- 100 ml cream
- 1 teaspoon glucose
- 1 tube royal blue food colouring
Instructions
- set the oven 180 F/ 350 F. Then you'll need 2 x 23 cm /10 inch cake tins with removable bottoms, fully greased and lined with baking paper. Clear space in the fridge to chill your cake. You will need 5 zip lock bags or piping bags to make the Ombre coloured sides. A thick heavy cake board (approx 16 in), a pallet knife, and roll out icing for decorations. optional*
- Put the coffee, sugar, butter, and cocoa in to a pot. Set over a low flame and stir till just melted. Cool to just warm.
- Whisk the eggs and add to the mix followed by the sifted flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Stir till combined.
- Pour the batter into two tins, halved exactly and bake for approximately 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Transfer to a cooling rack and stand for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the tin and remove. Cool. repeat.
- Cool and then chill the cake layers.
- Melt the chocolate and set aside.
- Whisk together sugar and egg whites in a heatproof mixing bowl. Place over a pot of simmering water; whisk constantly until sugar is completely dissolved, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat. With an electric mixer, whisk on high speed until cool (test by touching bottom of bowl), 7 to 10 minutes.
- Change the whisk to a paddle and beat in the butter a piece at a time. The buttercream will eventually be silky and smooth but at one point during the mixing the mixture will look like scrambled egg but just keep going till it is smooth. Beat in the cool chocolate and the caramel flavouring.
- Divide this between the layers evenly. ( you can sprinkle the layers with crushed praline or nuts for crunch). Chill the cake till firm for the best results 24 hours if possible,
- Beat the butter till light and fluffy then add the cream cheese and keep beating till very airy and light. Add the sugar and mix on low till incorporated add vanilla and then beat till light. (about 10 minutes)
- Put a cup and a half of icing into 4 separate bowls colour these in increasingly dark shades of blue ( start with 1 dropin the first bowl, 2 drops in the next 3 drops and four and so on , then go on from here achieving the varied colours you want).
- Cover the cake with the rest of the cream cheese icing as a crumb coat. Smooth over very well, and make sure it is not too thick. chill
- Using a piping bag or zip lock bag with a whole cut in the corner pipe two lines of each colour around the cake ( see the video below) Starting with the darkest colour. Smooth around the cake making the icing nice and smooth, pipe on more icing to fill any gaps in each colour. Smooth the sides wiping off excess blue coloured icing into a bowl as you go. You will end up with a nice smooth sided cake. Chill again.
- Heat the cream and glucose then add the colouring and stir ( don't add colouring to plain chocolate it will not work! ). Add the chopped chocolate to the cream and stir to melt and combine. I like to try and make the drizzle the same colour as the darkest base colour.
- Put enough chocolate on the top to just smooth over to the edges of the cake with out over flowing and then add a bit more so that it just drips down the sides and you have control over it. You can add a little extra icing to a zip lock bag and put a tiny whole in it. Drizzle a little extra chocolate around the edge and smooth down.. Chill
- transfer the cake to a cake board. I have decorated mine with roll out icing and hearts but you could just put it on a plain board Lift the cake with several cake smoothers onto the board.
- decorate the cake with anything you like. i have used varying sizes of coloured icing and cut out hearts.
- The cake can be left at room temperature at least 6 hours before you want to serve it.
Also check out this recipe using the same chocolate layer cake
This looks so good! 🙂
You, Tania, are such a talented baker and cake decorator. This ombre cake is truly beautiful. (I’d like to compliment your chocolate layer cake but there’s a spider on it.)
Oh glad you think so John. I try. I am not as talented as some but i do enjoy creating.
Blue cake wouldn’t appeal to me but the photo changed my mind! An Ombre Cake was attempted on the current US season of The Great British Baking Show (that’s the rerun of last-year’s Great British Bake Off on the BBC) — however, the attempt failed so we didn’t get to see anything like this!
It’s time for July In My Kitchen… I posted here:
http://maefood.blogspot.com/2016/07/july-in-my-kitchen.html
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Oh thats great may, thanks. Glad I could show you one ha
That cake looks absolutely gorgeous! 🙂 You have lots of great recipes here, thanks for sharing xx
Hi Linda thanks for taking a look and hope we meet again!
I’m pretty sure if I attempted to do this cake it would be a disaster! I watched the video and you have the skills for sure 🙂 What a lovely cake – I’d be happy to eat it!!
Nancy | Plus Ate Six recently posted..Baked mascarpone with roasted cherries
Cute cake Tania! I had a bubblegum ice cream recently and it wasn’t good but I doubt this would fall into that category.
Lorraine @Not Quite Nigella recently posted..24 Hours In The Life Of One Of The Best Hotels In The World: Behind the Scenes of The Raffles Singapore!
Na it doesn’t Lorraine its white chocolate
Though exactly a fan of colouring, but this one looks really impressive, Tania.
Angie@Angie’s Recipes recently posted..Low Carb Coconut Flour Zucchini Bread
Yeah I know Angie
What a show stopper, Tania. And I love all that coffee in there!
John | heneedsfood recently posted..Comment on Pumpkin & ginger dumplings by My Kitchen Stories
Thanks John
Wow – this cake looks lovely – and would definitely appeal to my husband whose local amateur league football team’s colours are chocolate and blue.
I grew up living with my grandmother, so totally get the whole umbrella thing – along with broken mirrors, dropping cutlery etc.
Amanda (@lambsearshoney) recently posted..In My Kitchen – August 2016
Yes it was a trial for them. Pity you dont live closer I’d make you a Blue and brown cake
Your cakes are always so impressive. This one is no exception!
Thanks Kari. You are lovely to me