4 Layer Purple Birthday Cake
My Mother In Laws birthday was this weekend and I decided to make her a cake in her favorite colors. In the past we have purchased her cake at a local bakery. This year I wanted to see if I could save money and make one on our own. I am so excited that it turned out great. I do have to admit that it started to lean to the side and fall as the day progressed. One of our great readers reminded me that dowels or bamboo skewers work great to keep the cake from falling. I am going to have to try that on our next cake.
Here is how we made this fun cake.
1. I used packaged white cake mix that I had bought on sale with a coupon and had in the pantry.
2. I mixed the cake mix up with the box instructions.
3. Adding color to the cake.
I used a color guide I found in the May edition of Food Network Magazine
Using red and blue food coloring
-Light pale purle – 5 blue drops, 3 red drops
-Medium Purple – 39 blue drops, 60 red drops
-Concord Grape Purple – 22 blue drops, 35 red drops
-Deep Dark Purple – 42 blue drops, 153 red drops
4. I baked the cakes according to the directions on the box and let them cool for a while.
5. I stacked the cakes adding icing in between each cake.
I ended up using 3 tubs of icing on this cake. It took a lot more than I expected it to take.
6. We iced around the cake and added purple sprinkles to the top for decorations.
We did not tell John’s Mom that the cake was purple on the inside. She was so surprised when she cut into the cake and saw the inside. It was a great way to surprise her for her birthday. The cake tasted great! In the future I will use dowels/skewers to hold it in place and try and balance the cakes a bit more.
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Looks great! I have a secret to making store bought cake mix even better. Replace up to half of the water (yes, I said water) with yogurt. It sounds strange, I know, but it makes the cake so moist! Just thought I’d share.
To keep the cake from sliding, you need to make sure the layers are flat. This means using a cake leveler or long, flexible knife to take the rounded tops off. You can also carve around the outside of the cake to make it flat on the sides and easier to ice.
You might also want to try baking from scratch next time. Mix cakes are nto usually dense enough to hold up well in that many layers.
Same with frosting, it’s not hard to make from scratch and would have cost about the same, or less, than using tub frosting.
Still, it’s a great first effort at a layer cake, and I love the purple!!
Another tip add a extra egg and substitute the water for milk. I make cakes out of my home and most need to be really sturdy. This really helps even with those moist cake mixes that like to crack and crumble when moving them. By the way I Love the purple layers very pretty!!
Here is a tip that usually helps keep a cake from sliding. After the cake is cool, take a piece of thread, wrap it around each index finger, then level the top of each layer (round part) by moving it side to side. The top layer should be flipping with the bottom on top. No crumbs to mess up the frosting.