Brush Stroke Cake from Tastemade

Tastemade always has the coolest cake recipes and this one caught my and my friend's eye. We love making unique cakes together and this one looked really abstract.

It's a vanilla cake with buttercream frosting, and candy/chocolate melts that are brushed and hardened. 

The Cake Batter

This recipe called for large amounts of everything, and the cake depicted in the video didn't seem all that big, so we decided to cut the recipe in half. In the end, the size was still big–we had three tiers! I thought it'd be a simple vanilla cake recipe, but it was actually a little complicated. Instead of eggs, it called for egg whites which we whipped into a meringue. This made the cake turn out fluffy which was nice! Even half the recipe was a lot of mixing to do, and my arm was so tired afterwards. 

It poured perfectly into three cake tins (8", 7", and 6") but took longer to bake than the recipe said (over an hour instead of 50 minutes) because we filled the tin up high. 

A helpful tip is to line the bottom of the tin with parchment paper so the cake doesn't stick to the pan and fall apart when you flip it over and out. 

After leveling the cakes, I tasted a piece, and it was yummy, but a little too sugary for me, so I'd cut down the sugar a bit.   

The Frosting

The frosting was a simple buttercream, and we colored it with Wilton Pink Food Gel. I always have trouble frosting cake with buttercream because it is not super smooth. We were in a hurry to get to a party, so it ended up looking a little messy. 

One of my friends gave me a helpful tip: frost the cake in a thin layer (almost like those "naked" cakes) and then refrigerate it. Then the crumbs from the cake won't get in the frosting and make it all bumpy. I'll be sure to try that next time. 

The Brush Strokes

I bought red, pink, and white Wilton candy melts, and bronze luster dust from Michael's. Making the candy brush strokes was much easier than you'd think. We melted the candies in the microwave and then mixed the red and white to make a lighter, rosier pink. We made about four of each color, along with dark chocolate melts, too. To make the brush strokes, you scoop a quarter-sized drop onto wax paper and then brush it out with a paint brush, or an egg-wash brush. Then, you let it harden, and it peels right off the paper. We attached the brush strokes to the cake by putting some buttercream on the back and sticking it onto the cake, as well as cutting a little slot in the cake for a few of them to stay put. 

This cake was pretty, abstract, and delicious. We weren't going to eat it all, so what better place to bring it than to the party?!