I like to incorporate color into my baking, from marble cookies THE board cakes AND more. But lately, ombre cakes have been one of my favorite decorating techniques. They're a great way to experiment with different palette combinations – in this ombre cake, late summer hues were a major source of inspiration. Shades of golden peach, majestic summer sunsets and ripe summer berries come to life with a few drops food coloringand all it took was one offset shoulder and a little patience to transform them into a beautiful cake.
Inspired? Here's how to make your own ombre cake.
What you need to make an ombre cake
Here are the devices I recommend:
Food photography and styling by Deepika Kalla
Step 1: Choose your cake
Choose your favorite cake recipe: I used King Arthur's Classic birthday cake. I divided the dough into three 6″ Cake Pan to make a longer cake – this provides more space to create a gradient for the ombre design.
Step 2: Choose your cream
Since the frosting will mess up quite a bit when you mix the colors, you want to choose a frosting that has some structural integrity (and is delicious, too!). Two great options are Italian butter AND American buttercream. Avoid cream cheese or whipped cream-based creams, as these creams can become thin and runny with overmixing. I recommend 5 to 6 cups of frosting—enough for the crumb coat and the decorative colored coat.
Food photography and styling by Deepika Kalla
Step 3: Prepare your cake
Spread and coat the cake with crumbs. Use one offset shoulder to spread a thin layer of cream over the entire cake. This thin layer of frosting traps all the little crumbs that are released during freezing, ensuring a smooth, crumb-free finish when you frost the final layer. Once frosted, place the cake in the refrigerator for 15 to 20 minutes to chill. See more details: How to tear a cakeor watch it in action: How to lift the layers with a crumb coat.
Step 4: Choose your color palette
For an ombre cake, you want color tones that resemble each other, gradating from light to dark, so it's best to stick to three to four colors that are adjacent in the color family. For example, I am using the colors pink, red, orange and yellow, which are inspired by the sunset. You can also do light to dark shades in the same family for a monochromatic look. Using these tips when choosing your color palette will allow your ombre to go smoothly without giving you any muddy colors.
Food photography and styling by Deepika Kalla
Step 5: Mix the colors
Take a few spoonfuls of plain cream and set aside. It's always good to have some extra plain frosting in case you need to adjust something or adjust one of the colors. (If you are decorating the top of the cake with white, reserve the same amount of frosting as the other colors.)
Divide the remaining cream evenly between three to four bowls (depending on the different colors you want to mix). Once they are evenly divided, add yours food coloring in each bowl. Adding a little color at a time gives you the most control over the final color. Repeat this step for all your colors.
Step 6: Prepare the piping bag
Place a medium or large round tip in one pastry bag and cut off the bottom. Push the tip until it fits snugly into the pastry bag. Fold the pastry bag in half on itself and place in a tall heavy glass. This will help you fill the piping bag with frosting. Start by filling the piping bag with the color of frosting you want to be on the bottom of the cake. If you're doing a monochromatic gradient, start with the darkest color here. Push any air out of the bag by gathering the frosting towards the top – a straight edge like a paring knife it is useful here to scrape the cream towards the bottom of the bag.
Food photography and styling by Deepika Kalla
Step 7: Pipe the cream
Take your cooled cake out of the fridge and place it on the turntable. Start by placing a strip of frosting on the bottom of the cake. (If you're doing a solid color gradient, start with the darkest color and work your way up to the lighter color as you go up the cake.) It's okay if it's a little runny or crooked, as it will blend and smooth out later – just try your best to keep it. After you have put on a full ring of cream, empty the remaining cream back into its bowl. Squeeze as much cream from the bag as possible.
Gradient: To create a smooth gradient, we'll add a bit of the other adjacent color. For example, if we started with red, we will now add a small amount of orange to the remaining red cream to create a color that is somewhere between red and orange. Mix the two creams together until fully incorporated. Refill the same bag with the newly mixed color. Place the next band of color on top of the previous cream ring. (It may overlap a little – that's okay.)
Food photography and styling by Deepika Kalla
After piping the second band of frosting, empty the contents from the piping bag into that first bowl and add all the remaining frosting from the second color, mix well and refill the bag. There is no exact science to color mixing; we just want to keep mixing a bit of the next color into the previous color to keep creating shades that blend gently into each other.
Keep repeating these steps until you reach the last color. If the last color is going to be the color for the top of your cake, don't mix it all into the previous color to create a gradient. Save half of it for the top of the cake.
Top decoration: Using an offset spatula, apply the color you decided on for the top of the cake. If you make a monochromatic gradient, this should be the lightest color. Gently smooth it using your offset spatula until it spreads across the top. It's okay if a little of the frosting mixes with the frosting on the sides of the cake – it will blend later.
Food photography and styling by Deepika Kalla
Step 8: Mix the colors
At this point, all the colors should be in horizontal stripes, and the top of the cake should be frosted. Use the tip of your offset spatula to create horizontal zig-zag bands in the frosting. This will help blend the icy colors and give you a smooth look instead of distinct lines of color.
Food photography and styling by Deepika Kalla
Step 9: Smooth it out
After you have mixed all the cream colors, use paring knife or a clean offset spatula to soften the cream. Hold the bench scraper or offset spatula parallel to the cake. Gently and with a light hand, slide the bench scraper across the colors to soften everything. After each move, remove excess frosting that collects on the scraper to a spare plate or bowl. If you are using a rolling cake stand, gently roll the cake while you smooth the frosting.
Food photography and styling by Deepika Kalla
Step 10: Clean the top
To smooth the top, use the offset spatula to blend the top of the cake with the sides of the cake. Go over with the bench scraper until everything is smooth and even. If there are any gaps in the cake, you can use the remaining butter with an offset spatula to fill in those gaps.
There you have it, a beautiful ombre cake perfect for wowing any crowd! Take some plant-based food coloringbake your own cakeand get ready to start decorating.
Be sure to nail your cake too. Kye Ameden tells you how:
