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5 from 2 votes

Valentine's Day Ombre Cake

This Valentine’s Day Ombre Cake is four layers of soft moist sponge, vanilla buttercream and fondant ombre hearts.
Prep Time1 hour
Cook Time40 minutes
Decorating Time1 hour
Servings: 16 people
Author: Sarah Mark

Ingredients

For the Cake

  • 450 g Unsalted Butter or Stork
  • 450 g Caster Sugar
  • 450 g Self-Raising Flour
  • 9 Large Eggs
  • 1 tbsp Baking Powder
  • 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
  • Pink Food Colouring

For the Decorations

  • Fuchsia Ready to Roll Icing
  • Pink Ready to Roll Icing
  • Baby Pink Ready to Roll Icing
  • White Ready to Roll Icing

For the Buttercream

  • 1 kg Icing Sugar
  • 500 g Unsalted Butter
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 2-3 tbsp Whole Milk (optional)

Instructions

To Make the Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 170C (150C Fan). Line 4 8” cake tins with greaseproof paper and leave to one side.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
  • Add in the flour, eggs, baking powder and vanilla extract. Whisk until all combined.
  • Split the mixture evenly into four separate bowls and add the food colouring. I left the first bowl white with no food colouring. Then I started with one drop of pink in the second bowl, two drops in the third etc. and then mixed. The colours in each bowl should be slightly darker than each other.
  • Pour the mixture into the individual cake tins and bake in the over for 35-40minutes. You will know they are ready when they are golden brown and springy to touch.
  • I leave them to cool in the cake tin for 15-20 minutes and then remove and put them on a wire rack to cool fully.

To Make the Decorations

  • Roll out your fondant until it is roughly 1cm thick. Now using a love heart shaped plunger cut out love hearts in each of your four colours. Pop them on a flat tray and leave to one side.

To Make the Buttercream

  • In a bowl mix together the butter and icing sugar until it is combined. Add in the vanilla extract and mix again.
  • If you find the buttercream is quite thick add 1tsp of milk at a time mixing in-between until it reaches the desired consistency. Pop the buttercream into a large piping bag with either a large round nozzle or with snip the tip of the bag off.

To Put it All Together

  • Place your first cake on your board or plate and pipe the white buttercream on top. I started with my darkest coloured sponge on the bottom building up too the lightest cake on the top. Smooth the buttercream. Repeat until all your cakes are stacked. Don’t worry if some of the buttercream splodges out of the side we will use this as part of the crumb coat.
  • Use your cakes smoother and go around the sides of the cake and ensure there are no gaps. If there are using the buttercream fill the gaps and smooth again. Don’t worry if you can still see the cake colours through the buttercream we will cover them fully soon.
  • Pop the cake into the fridge until the buttercream firms up.
  • Once the buttercream has hardened, pipe the remaining buttercream around the sides and on top of the cake.
  • Using your smoother, smooth around the sides, if there are any gaps or indentations fill these with buttercream and continue to smooth around the sides until the cake is smooth.
  • Using an angled palette knife smooth any buttercream into the top of the cake so you have nice sharp edges.
  • Decorate with your pre-cut love hearts. I started with the darkest colour on top gradually getting lighter to the bottom of the cake.
  • I finished with a pretty cake topper.