Description
Bring a touch of hand-drawn magic to your next celebration with this stunning 2D-effect cartoon cake. This recipe pairs a tender buttermilk vanilla sponge with rich homemade buttercream, using bold outlines to create a playful optical illusion that tastes as good as it looks.
Ingredients
- Vanilla buttermilk cake layers
- Farm-fresh eggs
- High-quality butter
- 2 batches of vanilla buttercream
- Pure vanilla extract
- Pink candy coating
- Black candy coating
- Electric Green, Deep Pink, and Sky Blue gel food colors
- Black cocoa or concentrated black food gel
Instructions
- Melt candy coatings in the microwave and pipe black heart outlines onto parchment paper; fill with pink coating and freeze until set.
- Stack and crumb coat cooled cake layers, then frost the exterior with green-tinted buttercream and smooth with a bench scraper.
- Pipe pink scalloped frosting around the top edge and smooth the center with an offset spatula.
- Using a small round piping tip, trace every edge with black buttercream to create the 2D comic book effect, adding small colored circles for sprinkles.
- Pipe dollops on top, outline them in black, and finish by placing the chilled hearts and adding tiny white shine marks for detail.
Notes
To ensure your outlines remain sharp and do not bleed into the base frosting, make sure the cake is thoroughly chilled before you begin the black piping. If your hands are naturally warm, try wrapping the piping bag in a paper towel to keep the buttercream from softening while you work on the intricate details.
- Prep Time: 45 mins
- Cook Time: 35 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American