Pink Ombre Mini Cakes

Ombre is taking the design world by storm. Thankfully, it's now bleeding into food land. It is most welcome, I must say.

Yesterday my husband flew out of town for some law interviews, so I needed a little somethin' extra to keep me busy. These little cakes took less time than I thought, but were so much fun to prepare, color, frost and assemble. I only wish Ryan were here to help me eat them. Being trapped in a house with these lovely stacks of velvety frosting and moist white cake staring at me all day... I think I'll have to sneak in an extra run this weekend...

They're not the most evenly-shaped little lovelies, by any means, but how pretty would they be for a little tea party? mother's day? little girl party? You could switch up the colors to fit just about any theme you want - as well as the frosting. With the cake mix flavor (yes, I used a cake mix this time), be sure to choose a flavor with a lighter-color batter. That way it will be easier to guide the batter towards whatever color you're choosing for the ombre effect with food coloring. 

Here's how you make them:

*note: after baking, cooling, and cutting, make sure you work quickly. They tend to dry out if you don't have them covered. I stored mine in the fridge, in a tall glass platter (with a glass cone cover), and they stayed moist. 

Pink Ombre Mini Cakes

Ingredients:
1 box cake mix (I used straight up White)
1 recipe *Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting (see below)

Equipment:
Stand mixer/hand mixer
2 regular cake pans
food coloring
4 small bowls
circle cookie cutters/mason jar for shaping
cooling rack
wax paper 
 
Directions:
Prepare cake mix according to package directions (preheat oven to appropriate temperature, as well). Split batter into 4 separate bowls - I used about 1 cup of batter in each bowl.

With one of the bowls, add drops/gel food coloring until it reaches the desired color for the bottom layer of your mini cakes  - so make it the darkest. In the next bowl, use less coloring. Same for the next, and in the last bowl use barely any food coloring. That way you have 4 different shades (increasingly lighter) of cake batter.

Coat your cake pans with shortening and a dusting of flour/powdered sugar. Working in two batches at a time (unless you have 4 separate cake pans) bake 2 bowls-worth of cake batter (saving the other two for after the first two are finished). After they're done baking, cool on a wire rack coated with wax paper.

After cooled, you're ready to make your circles. BUT before, make sure your cake layers are level (I forgot this step, and mine teetered just a bit - they're look much neater than mine if they're flat and even before you start stacking!) With your cookie cutter/mason jar top press circles into each cake (you should get about 6 circles per cake, depending on the size of your circle shape/cutter). Work quickly so the cake doesn't dry out.

Start stacking and frosting! I piped the layers on with the large circle tip and stacked the circles with the darkest color on the bottom and lightest on the top.

I then topped them off with the star tip and little white pearl sprinkles. So dainty! Store in the fridge. Enjoy!

*idea from Glorious Treats

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Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients: 
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
3 T whole milk or heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
2 1/2 C powdered sugar
1/4 t salt

Directions:
In a stand mixer mix together butter, vanilla, salt, and heavy whipping cream. Slowly and with the mixer on low/medium, so that the powdered sugar doesn't spew out, add in the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time. If you want your frosting to be thicker consistency, add in more powdered sugar. If you want it to be more thin and pliable, add in more liquid.

*recipe as seen on Life {Made} Simple

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