Rose & Vanilla Triple Layer Cake

If you have an occasion coming up this is a amazing cake to turn up with. Today Im spending all day in the kitchen to produce a knock out cake for my daughters 3rd birthday tomorrow. I was going to do a tortoise cupcake cake, no need to slice just pull an individual cupcake from the design, ingenius. She decided against that idea but instead opted for a pink cake, typical! Although I think to myself how boring, I came up with a cake that will taste sensual and will look fun. I decided on a 3 layer cake first off! Secondly I thought about flavours, rose popped into my head straight away, I’d been waiting to use it since new year, this was my chance. Finally! So Rose, got that, but what else? How about a different flavour, I instantly thought of a vanilla layer centered in the middle of the 3 layers. Beautiful. So 3 layers consisting of rose flavoured ‘pink’ sponge on top and bottom, with a layer of vanilla sponge in the middle, but what about icing? Vanilla icing? Rose Icing? Possibly even Raspberry? I opted for a pink tinted vanilla buttercream, decoration hit me straight away. Flumps, the barratts marshmallow twists (unsure of their availability in the US or worldwide but they are definitely still avialable in the UK) they are the perfect colour to dress my cake. Topped with pink and white pearls. We should of had glitter too but it was unavailable in my supermarket much to my disappointment.

Im excited for this cake, I am sure its going to look and taste amazing. Votes in tomorrow. If you have an upcoming occasion why not come back and try this recipe. Its adapted by myself from various flavoured sponge cakes across the web, as with most of my recipes unless stated. Would make the perfect alternative wedding cake with its delicate rose flavouring and scent (I hope).

Rose & Vanilla Triple Layer Cake

You will need;

Basis-
400g of unsalted butter.
400g of caster sugar (Once again I use half brown half white)
400g self rasising flour.
8 medium eggs.
2tsp of baking powder.

Vanilla sponge-
1.5tsp of high quality vanilla extract.
2tbsp of milk.

Rose sponge-
3-4tsp of rose syrup (available in the world food section of large supermarkets)
0.5-1tsp of red food colouring (depending on the depth of colour you wish to achieve)
1tbsp of milk.

Vanilla buttercream-
650g icing sugar
200g butter
.05tsp red food colouring
1tsp vanilla extract
3tbsp milk

Tools-
17inch cake tin with loose bottom.
Wooden spoon.
2 large bowls.
Measuring spoon.
Weighing scales.
Electric mixer.
Baking Paper.

To start, preheat oven to gas mark 4/180 celcius. Cream butter (at room temperature) and sugar together until fluffy, then your going to add 2 eggs with 100g of flour each time until incorporated into the mixture, with the last 100g of flour add the baking powder and blitz. At this point I removed 1/3 of the mixture into a separate bowl. Into the 1/3 of the mixture I added the ‘vanilla ingriedients’ as listed under vanilla sponge until incorporated. Now go back to the bowl containing the 2/3 mixture and add the ‘rose ingriedients’ as above until incorporated fully. I’m using one cake tin for this, so I’m cooking in 3 seperate batches but you dont need to do this if you have 3 of the same tin. Wet the inside of the tin slightly to help the baking paper stick neater, you want it sitting as flat to the sides and bottom as possible. Fill each with 1/3 of the mixtures and bake for 25-30 minutes (rose cake will need up to 50 minutes) until a cake tester comes out clean or when touched the sponge springs back. While the cake is baking get started on your buttercream (feel free to use the provided recipe, or your go to buttercream) all you need to do for this is mix butter and icing sugar and your chosen flavour until you form a thick paste suitable for spreading. Your going to need a lot to cover the whole cake outside and between each layer so be prepared. After each cake comes out leave to cool on a wire rack until completely cooled then remove the baking paper and place on the surface you will be using to carry the cake. It will be quite hard to move from one surface to another after iced and decorated. I want to achieve the flattest ‘stack’ with the cakes so I start with one rose top down, then vanilla top down, finally the other rose top down. With a layer of your buttercream between each. Each layer of buttercream should just overflow a little, you then need to start to cover the whole cake (there are good tutorials for this on youtube if you havent done this before), when finished decorate with whatever you wish, its entirely upto you at this stage.

Update: Cake was amazing, cut beautifully and the rose was lovely and delicate. Winner all round, definitely worth a try. Just disappointed I didn’t decorate it different now, oh well, next time.