Strawberry Pink Ombre Cake

This gorgeous Strawberry Pink Ombre Cake is ideal for Mother’s Day, a Baby-Girl Shower, or a Cancer Survivor, and it’s very doable!

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons butter melted
• 1 1/2 cup milk room temperature
• 9 egg whites room temperature
• 5 teaspoons strawberry extract
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 1/3 cups cake flour
• 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 6 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 18 tablespoons unsalted butter softened but still cool
• 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons red liquid food coloring much less if using Wilton paste
• 1/2 cup strawberry jam or preserves

Instructions

Making the Cake

1. Prepare (3) 8-inch cake pans by making a paste with 3 teaspoons flour and 3 tablespoons melted butter. With a pastry brush, brush the paste all over the interior of the cake pans, all the way up to the rim. Place all three pans inside an oven rack in the middle position to ensure they will fit on one rack. If this is not the case, shift the racks to the upper and lower middle locations. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, egg whites, strawberry, and vanilla extracts and put aside.
3. In a mixing basin, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt (or a stand mixer). At low speed, beat in the butter until no white streaks remain and the mixture seems crumbly.
4. For about a minute and a half, beat in roughly 2 cups of the milk/egg combination. Add the other ingredients and beat for another minute, scraping down the sides and bottom as needed.
5. Divide the batter into three mixing bowls as equally as possible. 2 teaspoons liquid red food coloring, 1 teaspoon liquid red food coloring, 1/4-1/2 teaspoon liquid red food coloring If required, add a few more drops of food coloring to achieve the desired hue. Make sure there are no color streaks left.
6. To release bubbles and smooth out the surface, pour each bowl of batter into a prepared cake pan and tap on the counter. Place in the oven on a single rack or two upper racks and one lower rack. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Cool for about 5 minutes on a wire rack before carefully inverting onto a cooling rack to cool for about an hour and a half. (If I have room, I put mine in the fridge to speed up the cooling process.)
8. Make your favorite frosting recipe and divide it into three bowls while the cakes cool. Tint it the same way you tinted the cake layers, adjusting as needed.

Cake Assembly

1. To serve your cake, place a tablespoon of icing in the center of a cake stand or plate. Place the cake layer with the deepest color on top of the icing. Apply a similar color of frosting to the top, then spread half of the strawberry jam over it. Place the second cake layer on top of the first. Spread the appropriate frosting color evenly on top, then jam. Spread the lightest color icing generously on top of the last layer. You want your frosting layers to be around 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
2. Begin scooping and ‘wiping’ gobs of frosting over the exterior bottom layer of cake with the darkest color frosting dish in hand. Make an effort to use up all of the icing. Rep with the second lighter icing color on the center layer, then the lightest on the top layer’s sides. Smooth out the sides of the cake with a clean ruler, bench scraper, or big spatula, keeping your scraper vertical and allowing the frosting colors to merge together. If you have a lazy suzan or rotating cake stand, this will be much easier, but it is not required. Place in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Just before presenting to your friends and family, place fresh cut roses/flowers on top.

Source: Oh Sweet Basil

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