KT Made It: Ombre Bridal Shower Cake

I have been wanting to make an ombré cake for quite some time. In fact, I intended to make one for Rachel's first birthday, but I was in a time crunch by the time I actually made the cake and I knew it was going to be a little time consuming so I opted not to. Luckily for me, the opportunity finally presented itself when our office threw a bridal shower for one of our coworkers in October!

So what is an ombré cake? Ombré cakes are colorful cakes in which the colors used are graduated from light to dark; this may refer to the colors frosting the outside of the cake and/or the layers of the cake. The frosting can be decorated in various ways as well. Here are a few examples.


From the Hungry Housewife with a great tutorial.

This fancy one I found on Best Friends For Frosting

And my personal favorite - the ombré rose cake. This one is by BS in the Kitchen.

Aren't these so pretty? So I decided to make a purple cake for the Bridal Shower, as the bride's wedding palate was purple and gray. Since I was in a time crunch (there's a trend here), I used white cake mixes by Betty Crocker for the cakes. I made four 6 inch cakes, each cake was a different gradient - the first was white, the second light purple, then a little darker...then a little darker.

I made a buttercream frosting using unsalted butter, confectioners sugar, a small amount of heavy whipping cream and a little vanilla extract.

I frosted the top of the white cake first, then placed the light purple cake as the next layer, frosted the top, then the next cake, etc. Once stacked, I frosted the outside of the cake with the white buttercream.

Then it was time for frosting! I used a large star shaped frosting decorating tip for the swirls, starting with white buttercream swirls around the bottom layer of cake. I slowly added a little bit of purple food coloring to slowing increase the gradient of the frosting swirls going up the cake. Finally, I topped the cake with a cake topper that I made using purple cardstock and tooth picks. Voila!

The cake was delicious and the bride-to-be was thrilled!

Congratulations, Morgan - may God bless your marriage with love, laughter and a lifetime of happiness!