Made that cake from a box one too many times? Need some new tricks to discreetly fold up your sleeve? Meet Lyndsay of
COCO CAKE, a Vancouver-based baker sharing a buffet of tips on how to fancify your favorite cake, cookie, and ice cream recipes.
St. Patrick's Day is a holiday I've never really subscribed to—probably because I'm not a very good drinker! I'd much prefer to host something like a green-themed party, where I'd serve only green food like guacamole, sliced cucumber, mint chocolate chip ice cream, grasshopper pie, and kale chips. Okay, all those things sound kind of gross together but how about a good old vanilla cake, with green ombre layers? It's super easy to make and super pretty too! Follow these directions for any colored cake.
Ingredients:
- Four medium-sized bowls and four 7" round cake pans
- A vanilla cake recipe, enough for 7 layers of cake
- Gel food coloring to make the ombre effect—I use Wilton or Americolor brand gel colors.
- 5 cups of buttercream. You will need enough to fill the cake layers as well as make a crumb coat and pipe buttercream all over the cake.
- An open star piping tip. For this, I used a Wilton 4B.
- A piping bag
- A cake board, stand, or plate. I cover my own cake boards using craft paper, glue stick, and a pre-purchased round cake board.
- An offset spatula for frosting your cake—not crucial, you can also use a butter knife!
Method:
1. Prepare your cake batter. Now, divide your cake batter evenly into four bowls. In the first bowl, add a dab of food coloring (the gel color goes a long way, so be careful!) and mix batter with a spatula until colored. In the second bowl, add the same amount but then a little more. In the third bowl, add even more, and the fourth bowl will have the most food coloring. You get the idea, right? Ombre.
2. Bake the cake layers according to the recipe. Let it cool, then use a serrated knife to carefully trim the cake so its surface is flat and not rounded. Make your buttercream, and then... [see image captions].
Photographs © Coco Cake, 2012. First image courtesy of Amy Tran.
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3. Place the first layer of cake on your cake board and fill it with frosting. Continue to stack the colored layers, starting with the darkest color first.
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4. Start frosting the entire cake to create the crumb coat (the first layer of frosting).
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5. Get your piping bag ready. Snip off the pointed edge of the piping bag and nestle the piping tip into the bottom. Fill the piping bag with buttercream and begin piping the sides of your cake.
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6. I usually start at the bottom and go up to the top. And then I pipe the top surface.
![]()
St. Patrick's Day is a holiday I've never really subscribed to—probably because I'm not a very good drinker! I'd much prefer to host something like a green-themed party, where I'd serve only green food like guacamole, sliced cucumber, mint chocolate chip ice cream, grasshopper pie, and kale chips. Okay, all those things sound kind of gross together but how about a good old vanilla cake, with green ombre layers? It's super easy to make and super pretty too! Follow these directions for any colored cake.
Ingredients:
- Four medium-sized bowls and four 7" round cake pans
- A vanilla cake recipe, enough for 7 layers of cake
- Gel food coloring to make the ombre effect—I use Wilton or Americolor brand gel colors.
- 5 cups of buttercream. You will need enough to fill the cake layers as well as make a crumb coat and pipe buttercream all over the cake.
- An open star piping tip. For this, I used a Wilton 4B.
- A piping bag
- A cake board, stand, or plate. I cover my own cake boards using craft paper, glue stick, and a pre-purchased round cake board.
- An offset spatula for frosting your cake—not crucial, you can also use a butter knife!
Method:
1. Prepare your cake batter. Now, divide your cake batter evenly into four bowls. In the first bowl, add a dab of food coloring (the gel color goes a long way, so be careful!) and mix batter with a spatula until colored. In the second bowl, add the same amount but then a little more. In the third bowl, add even more, and the fourth bowl will have the most food coloring. You get the idea, right? Ombre.
2. Bake the cake layers according to the recipe. Let it cool, then use a serrated knife to carefully trim the cake so its surface is flat and not rounded. Make your buttercream, and then... [see image captions].
Photographs © Coco Cake, 2012. First image courtesy of Amy Tran.
3. Place the first layer of cake on your cake board and fill it with frosting. Continue to stack the colored layers, starting with the darkest color first.
4. Start frosting the entire cake to create the crumb coat (the first layer of frosting).
5. Get your piping bag ready. Snip off the pointed edge of the piping bag and nestle the piping tip into the bottom. Fill the piping bag with buttercream and begin piping the sides of your cake.
6. I usually start at the bottom and go up to the top. And then I pipe the top surface.
