Fading Stripe Cake
Steps involved
Make cake layers
Make cream cheese icing
Make buttercream (no color)
Set aside icing for the stripes and color it
Assemble and ice cake
Scrape and fill stripes
Add icing dollops on top
READ BEFORE CONTINUING: The following recipes are scaled to make the cake pictured above -- a 4 layer cake made with 6-inch round cake layers. If you wish to make a smaller cake, please scale down these recipes.
recipes used
1 - 1.5 batches Italian meringue buttercream
I made this buttercream vanilla flavored by adding 1 tablespoon of vanilla to my 1.5x batch (can add less or more to taste)
I always like to have extra buttercream rather than not enough, so if you're not sure how much to use, I would recommend 1.5
Cream cheese icing (recipe below)
Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp. butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1-2 tsp. vanilla extract
milk, if needed to thin icing
Mix butter and cream cheese together
Add vanilla, mix
Slowly add powdered sugar and mix until all incorporated
If icing is too stiff you can add a splash of milk until it's the consistency you like
Colors used
To get these colors, I used Wilton's Color Right Food Coloring System.*
For the cake layers:
No food coloring used
For the icing:
The colors may differ depending on how much icing you're coloring and the starting color of your buttercream (certain butter brands are more white or yellow which can make the buttercream whiter or more yellow). These are the amounts I used and should get you close.
Blue Icing:
Blue: 6 drops
Yellow Icing:
Yellow: 5 drops
Red Icing:
Orange: 3 drops
Yellow: 1 drop
Red: 5 drops
Orange Icing:
Orange: 3 drops
Yellow: 2 drops
Supplies/tools
To find the tools I use for almost every cake I make and decorate (including pans, cake boards, icing smoothers, etc.), click here.
The supplies/tools below are specifically for decorating this cake, which I used in addition to the ones in the link above.*
*Some of these links may be affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I earn a small amount from some purchases, however, this does not affect my recommendations.
Decorating the cake
After the cake has been assembled and iced:
Fill 5 piping bags with each of the four stripe colors, and one with plain white buttercream. Cut small/medium holes in the bottom of each.
Use a stripe icing comb to scrape stripes out of the icing.
Fill the bottom stripe with blue icing, going about 3/4 of the way around the cake. Fill the remaining 1/4 of the stripe with white icing.
Fill the stripe second from the bottom with yellow icing, starting before the blue stripe below starts and ending before the blue stripe below ends. Fill the remaining section of the stripe with white icing.
Fill the stripe third from the bottom with red icing, starting before the yellow stripe below starts and ending before the yellow stripe below ends. Fill the remaining section of the stripe with white icing.
Fill the stripe fourth from the bottom with orange icing, starting before the red stripe below starts and ending before the red stripe below ends. Fill the remaining section of the stripe with white icing.
If you have any stripes left over on top, fill them with white icing.
Smooth the cake with an icing smoother, starting and ending where there are no colors. (this way you're dragging the white icing over the colors to give it that faded look)
Take plastic wrap and lay it on your counter. Using the piping bags you used to fill the stripes, pipe horizontal stripes of each color with a white stripe in between. Take the bottom edge of the plastic wrap, lift it, and bring it towards the top edge to create a log of buttercream. Twist the two ends (like the wrapper a hard candy comes in) and then cut off the twisted end on one side to leave a hole for the buttercream to come out.
Place this buttercream "log" into a piping bag, that has a Russian ball piping tip, with the hole side down.
Pipe dollops on top of the cake, rotating your hand clockwise and counter-clockwise during each dollop to create that ribbon-like effect.
Slice and enjoy :)
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