Journal

It Couldn't be Done- Ombré Cake Recipe

I'm a complex individual. On one hand I at times allow fear to convince me that a thing cannot be done. For example, we're trying to plan a really adventurous (well for me anyways), campaign for the release of my debut album. I'm an ideas girl, so I have lots of them, and brainstorming for this project makes me so very excited. Interesting photoshoots, a specialist website, off-beat videos and more. So so exciting. However it's been so long since I shared my creativity with the world that the thinking and thinking about this prospect almost convinces me that it isn't a good idea. Like REALLY, what am I thinking? Who do I think I am to even dare to dream this big?

Then on the other hand I see something, a clever DIY, a make-up look, beautiful photography, and my first thought usually is...I can do that. There's a certain arrogance about it, albeit unintentional, but the honest truth is that my first, unwitting, absolutely unpremeditated thought to most new ideas and concepts is...I can soooo do that. Arrogance aside, I do think out of the two, this is the better way of thinking. Most of the things that I've believed I could do, I actually achieved, mostly adequately, sometimes quite brilliantly. This type of thinking helps one to always be a trier. It keeps life spicy, and opens one up to discovering creativity in the most unlikely places.

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A recent time when I had a little, 'I can sooo do that', thought was when I happened across an ombré rose cake, and decided to make it for my daughter's first birthday.  The finished product turned out sooo well, and it was a wonderful centrepiece on the table.  Our guests were suitably  impressed, and little one loved it, which was of course, the most important thing!

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PINK OMBRE ROSE CAKE

For the sponge itself, I made a classic Victoria Sponge, being careful to make enough cake mixture to fill three 8" sandwich tins.

Then add a few drops of red food colouring to the mixture to turn it the palest pink.  Put a third of the mixture into one of the tins.  Add a little more coloring to the mixture to darken again slightly, decanted another third into a tin, then repeat the process again for the final third.

Baked and cooled, add a thin layer of jam and buttercream icing between each layer before stacking the cakes on top of each other, the darkest pink cake layer at the bottom, the lightest at the very top. Crust the cake by covering the whole thing with a very thin layer of the buttercream icing. this will make it easier to pipe on your gorgeous roses.

Now split the remainder of your buttercream into three separate bowls. Add red food colouring to one and turn it the palest pink, the next a little dark and the last darker still. Then put the darkest into your piping bag with a medium sized rose nozzle thing. The next bit is hard to explain but easy to do so I'll insert a cheesy little video here:


And voila!  

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This is one of those cakes that looks waayyyy more impressive and difficult than it actually is to make.

There's a metaphor for life in there somewhere I'm sure.

 

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