Rainbow Confetti Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Makes 1three-layer 6-inch cake
Ingredients
Confetti Cake
1cupunsalted butter, softened
2cupsgranulated sugar
1tablespoonclear imitation vanilla extract
2eggs
3egg yolks
3cupsminus 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2tablespooncornstarch
1tablespoonbaking powder
1/2teaspoonbaking soda
3/4teaspoonsalt
1/2cupand 2 tablespoon sour cream
1cupwhole milk
1/2cuprainbow sprinkles, (quins and jimmies won't bleed into the batter!)
Strawberry Compote
200gstrawberries, cut into ½-inch chunks
2tablespoonsgranulated sugar
1tablespoonbutter
1 1/2teaspoonvanilla extract
Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream
1/2cupegg whites, (*not from a carton)
1cupgranulated sugar
1 1/2cupsunsalted butter, at room temperature, cubed
2teaspoonsvanilla extract
Instructions
Confetti Cake
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease three 6-inch round cake pans.
In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients together. Set aside.
In a measuring cup, combine milk and sour cream. Set aside.
With a stand mixer, beat butter until creamy. On medium speed, beat butter with sugar and vanilla until the mixture is fluffy and pale in colour.
Add eggs and eggs yolks, one at a time, making sure each egg is incorporated before adding the next.
Add in half of the flour mixture and half of the milk mixture. Mix on low until just incorporated.
Add the remainder of the ingredients and mix until just combined.
Pour batter into prepared cake pans. Bake for 26 - 28 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in centre comes out clean.
Cool cakes on a wire rack for about 15 minutes before remove cakes from pans to cool completely.
Strawberry Compote
In a medium bowl, toss to combine strawberries and sugar.
In a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. When the butter has melted, add the strawberry mixture and add vanilla extract.
Allow to cook, undisturbed, for 2 minutes. Then gently stir and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the strawberry is tender and juices become thick, 10 to 12 minutes.
Let compote cool completely before assembling cake.
Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream
In the bowl, whisk together egg whites and sugar until combined.
Create a double-boiler for the egg white and sugar mixture. Fill a sauce pan with a few inches of water and bring to a simmer. Place the bowl with the egg white mixture on top to create a double-boiler. The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl. The double-boiler acts as indirect heat for the egg white mixture.
Whisk the mixture continuously to make sure the egg whites don't get cooked. Whisk until all the sugar granules have dissolved.
Once the egg white mixture is hot and no sugar granules remain, carefully transfer the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer. Fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the mixture on high speed for about 6 - 7 minutes (meringue should form medium-stiff peaks and be cooled to room temperature)
Stop the mixer and swap out the whisk for the paddle attachment.
With the mixer on low, begin adding in the butter a couple tablespoons at a time. It is very important the the butter is at room temperature
Once the butter has been mixed in, add the vanilla extract.
Turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix until silky smooth.
Assembly
2 large round piping tips
Blue gel food colouring
Pink gel food colouring
2 pieces of rainbow belt candy
Divide the buttercream into three bowls — with half the buttercream into a large bowl and the remaining half divided into two smaller bowls. The larger portion of buttercream will be coloured blue for the sky. One of the smaller bowls of buttercream will be coloured pink while the other small bowl will remain white.
Transfer pink buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large round piping tip. Do the same for the white buttercream
Place first layer of cake onto cake plate/stand.
Pipe a thick border of pink buttercream around the edge of the first cake layer.
Fill the centre with half of the cooled strawberry compote.
Gently place second cake layer and repeat previous step.
Once the top layer of cake has been placed, gently coat the sides and top of the cake with the blue buttercream for the "sky."
Fitted with a large round piping tip, pipe large dollops of white buttercream on the top of the cake to resemble the "clouds" to anchor the rainbow. Five or six dollops for each cloud is a good amount.
Place rainbow candy from the centre of one cloud to the centre of the other.
With any excess white buttercream, pipe dollops on to the top of the cake. Using an offset spatula, smooth of the buttercream to roughly blend into the sky.
Optional: add blue sprinkles to the bottom of the cake for extra fun!