Ombre birthday cake for my little princess

It was my daughter's 8th birthday last week.  I promised her I will make her a birthday cake.

Few days before her birthday, my son fell ill, he had high temperature, sickness and the chills. My poor baby wasn't feeling good at all.

I really didn't think I could make it in time. But in between looking after him, I made the cake in separate stages.

I baked the sponge first and then will decide later if I could decorate it.

It was a little rushed but I was thinking a quick & simple cake is better than no cake.

To my surprise, I manage to make a rosette ombre cake for her and talking about trying to make it simple cake! I had to go for a little complicated one. But it was so worth it as she wasn't expecting it, she came home from school and was so happy to see it.

To make this, you need 4 different tones of sponge.

You need 2 x 7 inch round cake tin and line the base of the tin with baking paper.

 Here's the recipe ( this is one batter divided into 2 portions)

3 eggs

90g plain flour

90g caster sugar

30g oil

25g warm water

1. Tsp vanilla extract

Red food gel

Method:

Whisk eggs with sugar until light and fluffy (to ribbon stage)

Sift flour into 3 batches and fold in carefully until combined.

Mix oil, warm water & vanilla extract together and pout into batter.

Fold until all liquid have mixed in well into the batter.

Divide the batter into 2 portions,

Leave one portion normal and the other one with a few drops of red food gel.

You only need to get the batter with added red food gel into a pale pink.

Pour batter into the cake tin and bake both together in a preheated oven of 180c for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Take out the oven and wait 5 minutes before you remove from the tin, peel off the baking paper and cool on a wire rack.

Repeat the method again for 2 more coloured sponge but add more red gel colouring to batter 3 & increase a few more drops into batter 4. Compare the colours and make sure one is darker than the other.

Now you should have 4 sponge ready to layer with cream.

For the cream:

500ml of cream (I used Elmlea, a cream alternative which makes the cream very stable & smooth)

3. Tbsp of icing sugar

Red food gel

Whip cream and add icing sugar.

Then layer and crumb coat  your cake first, use the remaining cream and divide into 4 portions.

Leave one plain white and the other 3 portions adding red gel colouring to form 3 different shades from pink to red.

Prepare a piping bag and a Wilton 1M nozzle to pipe rosettes around your cake.

I added a Disney princess edible icing sheet on top.

My daughter loves her Disney princesses.

The cake was sliced and it tastes amazing!