OMBRE CAKE INSTRUCTIONS

You will need:

Scissors

Clean, empty bowl

Clean plate

Offset spatula (or butter knife)

Small sharp knife

Cake stand (optional)

Masking tape or painters tape

Included:

Cake board

Vanilla buttercream frosting (interior)

White buttercream frosting (exterior)

Colored vanilla buttercream frosting* x2

3 layers of cookies and cream cake

Fresh Flowers (local deliveries only)

*Color will depend on what fresh flowers are in stock weekly

Prep work:

Leave all buttercream at room temperature, you don’t want this to be cold
Keep the cake in the fridge or freezer for at least an hour before you plan to start decorating
Read through the instructions

Let’s Begin…

Start by gathering all the items you need and getting your decorating space organized. If it’s cold in your home and the buttercream is still a little stiff, pop it in the microwave for 4 or 5 seconds. This should be all it takes. You don’t want to melt it, but decorating a cake is much easier with a warm to room-temp frosting.

1

Using your scissors, cut off about 1” of the tip of the vanilla buttercream. Take your cake board out and put it in front of you to begin decorating. Put a dollop of buttercream on the middle of the board. this will be used to secure your first layer of cake to the board.

TIP: The cake in front of you is pre-cut into three layers. In order to get the best looking cake you will want to follow the order of cake layers instructed.

2

Identify where each layer is and remove the top layer of the cake, setting it aside on the clean plate. Take the middle layer of the cake and put it on your cake board. Make sure it is centered and push it down in the middle a little to make sure it is stuck with the buttercream dollop to the board.

3

For your first layer of frosting, start from the middle of your cake, and using the white buttercream make a swirl toward the outer edge.

Then use your offset spatula or the back (straight, flat side) of your butter knife to smooth out the frosting and fill any gaps. The frosting between layers does not need to be very thick.

If you find that the frosting is too thick on this first try, don’t worry just use the knife to evenly scrape some off and save that excess frosting in your bowl.

4

Now you’re ready for the second layer of cake! Take the slightly rounded top layer of cake and flip it upside down to place it on top of the cake you’re creating. This will help ensure the cake stays level, so take a moment to get down with the cake at eye level and check the layer of cake you just added is flat on top and not leaning. If it is leaning you can use a hand to press lightly on the higher side until it appears flat.

Using the same swirl and smooth technique as the first time, add your second layer of white frosting.

5

For the final layer of cake, I find it best to flip the layer upside down so what was once the bottom of your cake in the package becomes the top, this will help keep your corners sharp and not too rounded when you do your final layer of frosting later on.

Again I would recommend getting down so the cake is at eye level and checking to make sure the top is flat and not leaning.

Now if you have gaps around the outside of your cake you can use the excess buttercream from the filling to fill those in so the sides of the cake are more or less smooth and straight. At this point you don’t need it to be perfect.

Congrats! You’ve now finished layering your cake. Now take a break, hit pause, and put the cake in the fridge to chill for 10-15 minutes so the filling sets up….

Top of the cake:

After the cake is chilled, bring it back to your work station and cut 3/4’’ off the white frosting, starting from the center of the top of the cake, create a swirl pattern outwards toward the edge of the cake then smooth the top of the cake using your spatula or butter knife.

Decision Time…

Stripe Effect

Gradient Effect

Cut the tip of the darkest colored buttercream. Only cut about ¾’’ from the bottom. Start small since you can always cut off more. I like my final buttercream for the outside to be nice and soft because it will make smoothing out the cake easier.

Now there are two different ways you can go from here, you can aim for the “stripe effect” or the “gradient effect” decide which look you like best - the time lapse video below shows you the gradient effect

Starting from the bottom, pipe 2-3 rings of frosting around the bottom of the cake cake.

For the gradient effect, leave a little space between your rings and gaps in the frosting at this point are okay

For the stripe effect, you want your rings to be as tight together as possible and as level as possible

Next cut the tip of the lighter colored buttercream and make 2-3 rings of buttercream just above the rings of the dark colored buttercream

For the gradient effect, leave a little space between your rings and gaps in the frosting at this point are encouraged

For the stripe effect, you want your different color rings to be as tight together as possible and as level as possible

Finally using the white exterior frosting cut the tip of the piping bag off and make more buttercream rings up to the top of the cake

For gradient effect, do steps 8.2 & 8.3, for the stripe effect, move on to step 9

If you want the stripe effect you want your rings to look like this .

If you want the gradient effect it’s okay if your “rings” look like this

8.2

For the gradient effect, go back through to the gaps in your frosting rings and fill in with other colors

8.3

Using the tip of your butter knife, swirl the frosting where the dark color meets the light color, and where the light colored frosting meets the white frosting to create a blending effect (see seconds 10-13 on the time lapse video above)

Now to smooth the cake -

Using your spatula or the flat side of your butter knife, smooth out the rings of frosting and save any excess you scrape off in your bowl. There may be small uncovered patches, fill in with the correct color and re-smooth

When you smooth the cake be sure to keep the spatula or knife straight up so that the sides of your cake are straight. If you accidentally scrape off too much that’s okay! Just use the tip of your spatula or knife to fill in the patch and try again

Now is the time to use the excess buttercream to fill in the patches on the sides or top, and smooth out your cake.

Tip: Once any bald patches are filled with buttercream, run your knife under HOT water and use the hot knife to smooth the cake. The water on the knife will repel the fats in the buttercream and the heat will help smooth things out.

Pop the cake in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes

Be sure to reserve 2 tbsp of frosting for later!

Once your cake is chilled you’re ready to start the flowers

Floral Decor

Using scissors cut each flower stem 2’’-3’’ from the bottom of the bud.

Using masking or painters tape, tightly wrap the bottom of the cut and 1’’ up from the cut with tape to keep any sap from the flowers from leaking into your cake

Decide if you want the flowers in the center or to the side, starting with the largest flower stick the stem into the cake and adjust flower orientation as needed. Add 2-3 smaller blooms surrounding your largest flower, adding buttercream dollops if needed to support the flowers.

Finish by adding 2 sprigs of greenery going different directions from each other sticking up 2'‘-3’’ above the flower buds

You made an ombre cake!!

Now go out and brag about it!

We’d love to see your creation, so tag us @CakTheBakery on instagram

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