Kootek Dia de los Muertos Cake

Directions

Chocolate Cake:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Spray three 6 inch cake pans with non-stick spray.

2. In a stand mixer equipped with a whisk attachment, add flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix them on a low speed.

3. Add eggs and buttermilk on a low speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

4. Add the oil and vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

5. With the mixer also on low speed, pour the hot water slowly.

6. Distribute the cake batter evenly between three 6-inch cake pans. I weigh my batter to ensure uniform size.

7. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Set your timer to 30 minutes and check every 5 minutes to prevent overbaking.

8. Cool the cake pans on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before inverting and removing the cakes to cool completely.

Vanilla Buttercream:

1. Pour pasteurized egg whites into a stand mixer bowl with a whisk attachment, weighing them to 110g.

2. Next, sift the powdered sugar and dump it into the bowl, weighing the powdered sugar to 453g (approx. 2 cups)

3. Mix on a low speed to incorporate all the ingredients. Scrape down the sides to ensure all the powdered sugar is combined. Mix again to combine everything.

4. Add the room-temperature butter to the mixer and mix on medium speed.

5. Change the attachment to a paddle attachment, mix on high for 5 minutes, and then mix on low for 5 minutes to remove air bubbles.

Cake Decorating Instructions:

1. Set half of the buttercream aside. Color the buttercream with a generous amount of black gel food coloring. Let it develop for several hours to get it dark black. Overnight is recommended.

2. Using the cake decorating supplies from the kit, cut off the cake domes, fill, and stack the 6-inch cake layers. Crumb coat the cake with black buttercream. Refrigerate the cake for 15 minutes.

3. Then apply the final coat of black buttercream. Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes to an hour.

4. Split the remaining buttercream into seven bowls. Color each bowl with each color listed in the materials above, except brown. For orange, add a drop of brown to make it “golden”.

5. Fill the piping bags.

6. K10 with goldenrod buttercream.

7. K11 with blue buttercream.

8. K15 with yellow buttercream.

9. K19 with a coupler and purple buttercream (replace with K01 later).

10. K33 with pink buttercream (replace with K22 later).

11. K36 with red buttercream.

12. K43 with dark green buttercream.

13. Cut up parchment or bakery wax into squares, about 12.

14. Grab a flower nail and squeeze a bit of buttercream on it. Place a parchment or bakery wax square on it.

15. Use the piping K10 with goldenrod buttercream. Begin piping the marigolds as shown in the video. Place it on the baking sheet. Create about 8 of them.

16. Next, use the purple piping bags with K19 to create spiked dahlias as seen in the video. Create 4 of them. Place the tray in the fridge.

17. Take the cake out of the fridge.

18. Use a medium-sized heart cookie cutter to mark a heart on the cake.

19. Grab the piping tip K36 to pipe and fill the outline.

20. Use with the piping bag with purple buttercream. Switch the piping tip to the K01 piping tip.

21. Pipe tiny dots around the heart.

22. Use the piping tip K15 to make a yellow “W” on the top of the heart.

23. Grab piping tip K43 to create two green leaves on each side of the yellow “W”.

24. Use the pink buttercream with the piping tip K33 to create the textures shown in the video.

25. To create blue scrolls, use the K11 piping tip.

26. Pipe some yellow star dots above the blue scrolls.

27. Continue for the rest of the cake.

28. Finally, switch the piping tip from K43 (pink buttercream) to K22 to create an oval-shaped buttercream border along the bottom of the cake.

29. Pipe some black buttercream on the top of the cake to create “glue” for the marigolds and dahlias to stick.

30. Take the baking sheet out of the fridge.

31. Use the flower scissor to gently peel the flowers off the bakery wax and place them on the cake.

32. Enjoy! Make sure to refrigerate the cake before serving and let it come to room temperature when serving.