Five Layer Pink Ombre Cake

It's been a while.
Longer than I thought, to be honest.
But after getting a job and preparing for school, I have been pretty busy, or just too tired. No excuses, I know.
On the positive side, Scott and I have taken up running. He's training for a marathon, while I on the other hand, am just trying to survive. I'm actually enjoying it. I have never been a runner or any kind of athlete, unless you count my 9 year old tom boy day dreams and hopes. This kind of perseverance and dedication is new for me, not to mention the physical demands. However, I love the rush and I love how good it makes me feel. Right now, my goal is 5k, which I think is pretty reasonable since I haven't really done this before. I'm hoping to reach my goal by the end of October. Scott assures me that it's a reasonable amount of time, but I secretly wonder if he's trying to kill me. Just kidding. This is going to be fun. Right?
But regarding my new hobby, work and school, I am still trying to find the time to fit everything in, and obviously my blogging has suffered from the changes.
But alas, do not despair, I started my Chef Training program this week at college so I'm sure I will have a bundle to blog about in the upcoming weeks.

This post however, is not just a reminder that I am alive, and it's not just to let you know that I haven't abandoned you. This post is about my wonderfully adorable niece and her 1st birthday, more specifically, her birthday cake.
I had so much fun making this cake. Hailey is my first and only niece and she has this way of just stealing your heart with just one sly smile or mischievous giggle. Not to mention, she is just a bundle of fun. A while ago, her parents asked me if I wanted to make the cake for her first birthday and I quickly agreed. They mentioned that they didn't want anything too elaborate and that it was basically up to me what I wanted to do. So I set to work on planning a pretty, but simple cake. (Pretty AND simple, not pretty simple!)
In the end, I decided to make a 5 layer pink ombre cake with pink ombre buttercream icing. For those of you who do not know, ombre cake, is just another way of saying gradient or shaded. Basically you are going from light to dark or vise versa.

I also decided to make some vanilla cupcakes with three different types of filling, which I will discuss in a different post.

I used the same vanilla cake recipe for the cake layers and the cupcakes, which was very easy to make and tasted pretty good to me. I am still searching for that perfect vanilla cake recipe, but this was a nice AND easy recipe.

Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes about 15-18 cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1 1/4 cup cake flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp of salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, you can use 1/2 cup of milk mixed with 1/2 tsp of white vinegar or lemon juice and set aside for about 5 minutes.)

Directions:
-In medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix.
-In bowl of stand mixer, add eggs and beat well for about 20 seconds. Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Add vanilla and oil, beat.
-Reduce mixer speed to low, and alternately add half of the flour mixture. Next, add half the buttermilk (or milk mixture). Then add the rest of the flour and rest of milk. Beat until just combined. (NOTE: The batter will be pretty thin. Don't worry.)
-Pour batter into muffin tin with paper liners. Fill the liners about 2/3 of the way full.
-Bake for 12-15 minutes.
-Cool in pan for about 1-2 minutes. Remove and let cool completely.


Like I said, pretty easy. For the 5-layer cake, I doubled the above recipe and it was the perfect amount.
In order to make the 5 layer pink ombre cake, I scooped the cake batter evenly into 5 bowls. Then I added the pink gel color to the batter. I started with the lightest and then did the darkest and then the 3 middles shades. Doing it that way, just gave me a little perspective on what the 3 middle shades should look like comparatively. After the colours were all mixed in, I poured one shade into a 6 inch round baking pan and baked it for about 17-20 minutes. Allowed the cake to cool completely, removed it from the pan, wrapped in plastic wrap and placed the cake in the fridge. I repeated this process with all 5 layers.
After all the layers were made and cooled, I levelled the cakes. Luckily, I used Wilton's bake-even stripes, so my cakes didn't need much levelling, just made sure the tops were even. After all the layers were level, I made my filling, which was chocolate ganache and whipped up a double batch of American Style Buttercream icing.
To fill each layer, starting at the bottom layer (the brightest pink) I piped a ridge of buttercream icing around the layer (to hold the filling it and stop it from squishing out) and then filled it with the chocolate ganache. I repeated this process on all the layers.

I then added a crumbcoat of buttercream icing to the whole cake. Which is basically just a coat of icing, trapping all the crumbs before the final coat of icing or application of fondant. After the crumbcoat, I put the cake in the fridge to cool. I find it a lot easier to work with when cold.
While it was cooling, I split my icing into 5 different bowls and again added the gel colours to produce a pink gradient effect. I repeated the same concept of starting with the lightest pink, then the darkest and then the 3 middle shades.
After the cake was cold and the icing was all ready and coloured, I grabbed a piping bag and tip and started piping 2 rows of each color in a ribbon format around the cake.

 After I finished going all the way around with the different shades, I added a layer of the lightest pink on the top and smoothed it out. Finally to finish the cake, I made some simple pink gum-paste flowers and attached them on the top with a dab of icing.

 I added a little shimmer of edible glitter dust to the flowers, just to brighten them up and add a little extra oomph.
Overall, I had a great time making the cake. I learned a lot while making it but it was a great experience. Next time, I think I will opt for a different cake filling instead of the chocolate ganache, if I am using a lighter cake color. I think if I did it again, I would use a fruit filling or just some buttercream icing. I think I just have a weakness for chocolate ganache. But really, who doesn't? I think I would switch next time though, first to trying something new, and second because when the cake was cut, if the chocolate got spread onto the cake layers by accident, it was really noticeable. The flavours were great together though. I would also probably try and use a white vanilla cake recipe because some of the lighter cake layers turned out a little more peach coloured from the egg yolks in the batter.
I always love making new cakes and cupcakes because each time, I learn something new and I learn from my mistakes.
I'm glad that I have this opportunity to share them with you so that maybe you can learn from them too. I didn't want the cake to be perfect, it's meant for a one-year old, but I personally like that some of the iced ribbons aren't perfect. I had a lot of fun learning and I really enjoyed how it turned out. Plus, I can only get better and I can't wait to continue this journey.

But here is the finished product: Hailey's 1st Birthday Cake!

-Always love.