I teamed up with a group of fellow bakers to do an Easter themed Mini Cake Collab hosted by The Sugared Mitten.
I made an Easter Watercolor Mini Chocolate Cake. There are chocolate cake layers with chocolate cream cheese frosting inside and Swiss Meringue Buttercream outside. A perfect combo.
I just recently starting making watercolor cakes. I love the swirled look of them. With this one, I used Swiss buttercream frosting, which makes the watercolor icing a bit easier to apply. You get a smoother finish by using it.
The recipe I use for the Swiss meringue buttercream is from Liv For Cake. Her buttercream recipe is amazing and simple to make. In her blog post she explains thoroughly the ends and outs of the Swiss meringue buttercream process.
I adjusted her measurements slightly to accommodate a smaller cake. I also wrote out her exact directions, so the frosting would come out great. Enjoy!
Recipe:
Cake:
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup boiling water
Chocolate Frosting
• 1/2 stick butter
• 2 tbsp cream cheese
• 2/3 cup cocoa
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
• 4 egg whites
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 sticks butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
Cake:
Pre-Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 6-inch round baking pans.
Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of stand mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water. Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
Chocolate Frosting:
Add butter, cream cheese and cocoa to a stand mixer. Alternately add powdered sugar and heavy cream, beating to spreading consistency.
Add small amount additional heavy cream, if needed. Stir in vanilla.
Level the cake layers so that they have an even top.
Frost the bottom layer. Add the second layer and frost the whole cake. Refrigerate until ready to add the Swiss meringue buttercream.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
Place egg whites and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk until combined.
Place bowl over a pot with 1-2″ of simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture is hot and no longer grainy to the touch or reads 160F on a candy thermometer (approx. 3mins)
Place bowl on your stand mixer and whisk on med-high until the meringue is stiff and cooled (the bowl is no longer warm to the touch (approx. 5-10mins)).
Switch to paddle attachment. Slowly add cubed butter and mix until smooth.
Add vanilla extract.
Place half of the frosting into a pastry bag and cut off about 1 inch of the tip. Pipe the frosting around the cake starting from the bottom until you get to the top. Add more frosting on top of the cake. Use an offset spatula to smooth the frosting on top. Then use the spatula to smooth the frosting around the sides.
Then take a large scraper to smooth the sides more until the frosting is even on the cake.
Divide remaining frosting into 4 bowls. With food gel, tint each bowl pink, purple, yellow and leave the last bowl white.
With the offset spatula, spread a small about of each color all over the cake. Use the scraper to go around the sides of the cake to smooth it all out.
