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pastel funfetti cake

adapted from Claire Saffitz

I made this cake as a going away ‘present’ for my family before moving back to New Orleans for my last year of college. The goal? A beautiful minimalist-ish cake. The most popular cake style these days are the pastel colors with dramatic and layered piping details. I tried to mimic this look with two layers of pearl piping around the top and outside of this cake. I also chose a very dainty and light pallet.

The cake itself is funfetti (such a classic). I used a recipe originally intended for 8-inch cake pans and used 6-inch cake pans instead. As such, I had to bake the cakes for quite a bit longer than the recipe indicated. The resulting cake layers were thicker and stacked to make a taller cake. I used a Swiss merengue buttercream to frost the cake. I may have covered this before, but it’s worth reiterating: Swiss merengue buttercream is the whole grail of buttercream. American buttercream is usually too sweet for my taste and Italian merengue has a great texture but requires far too much work for the amateur baker to execute efficiently. Swiss meringue is the perfect happy medium between the two.

The name of the game with this cake is smooth sides. Before making this cake, I came across a few Tik Tok videos providing tips for how to achieve the smoothest buttercream possible. Here are the things that I did for this cake:

  1. make the cake the night before and freeze them for ~12 hours. Then, allow the frozen cake to thaw for 15 minutes before stacking the cake. Working with cold cake will give you more flexibility and structure during construction.
  2. beat the buttercream with a paddle attachment on low speed for 10-20 minutes before use. This will eliminate as many air bubbles as possible before you begin. You can also eliminate air bubbles by running a rubber spatula through the buttercream before you transfer it to the piping bag.
  3. use a piping bag to frost your cake. It gives you more uniformity and control and is 100% the best method in my opinion.
  4. use a cake stand that spins
  5. the bench scraper is your absolute best friend. Be patient and smooth the cake as many times as it takes, eventually it’ll come together.
  6. smooth the sides, then refrigerate the cake for 20 minutes. Pull the cake out and ‘trim’ the edge of buttercream from the top in order to achieve a sharp edge around the top. Only then should you use the bench scraper to smooth out any buttercream on top.

INGREDIENTS

cake

  • ½ cup (110g) unsalted butter (1 stick), room temperature
  • 1 ½ cups (190g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • ⅔ cup (153 ml) whole milk
  • 1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 whole egg plus 2 egg whites
  • ½ cup (105g) demerara sugar, for rolling
  • 1/3 cup rainbow sprinkles (or however much your heart desires)

swiss-merengue buttercream (this makes a lot so scale it back depending on how much decorating you’re planning)

  • 8 egg whites (1 cup)
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 6 sticks unsalted butter, diced, room temperature
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
  • 2 tbsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

cake

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two 6-inch cake pans with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine milk and vanilla.

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mixing on low, slowly add the eggs and egg whites, mixing between each addition. Add the flour and milk mixtures in 3-5 additions, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Fold in the sprinkles using a rubber spatula. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and bake until a skewer comes out clean, 30-35 minutes. Allow the cakes to cool completely before turning out. Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze overnight.

frosting

Heat the egg whites and sugar over a double boiler, whisking continuously until the sugar is completely dissolved (about 120°F). Place the mixture in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk on medium high speed until the mixture has cooled and stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes. Slowly incorporate the butter a little at a time. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and blend on high for about 5 minutes. Once the frosting looks light and fluffy, reduce the mixer speed to low and beat for 10-15 minutes until it is smooth with very little air bubbles remaining.

stack and decorate

Remove the cake from the freezer and allow to defrost at room temperature for ~15 minutes. Stack the cakes and fill with the buttercream in a pastry bag. Lightly crumb coat then chill the cake for 20 minutes. Dye the remaining buttercream and frost the cake using the techniques detailed above. Decorate how you desire and enjoy a beautiful and delicious cake!