Kootek Harvest Vibes Cake and Buttercream Recipe

Directions

Vanilla Cake:

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

2. Sift cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and all the spices in a bowl.

3. In a stand mixer equipped with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and oil together for 3-4 minutes, or until they are well blended.

4. Incorporate sugar into the mixture and beat on medium to high speed until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

5. With the mixer on low speed, add the egg whites. Scrape down the sides and add the vanilla. Beat on high until the mixture is smooth and light in color, about 1 minute.

6. With the mixer also on low speed, alternate the flour mixture with buttermilk, ending with the flour mixture in the bowl, and mix until just combined. Scrape down the bowl. Do this three times (1/3 each time). Do not overmix, or your cake will become dense.

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

8. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Set your timer to 3o minutes and check every 5 minutes to ensure it doesn't overbake.

9. Cool the cake pans on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before inverting and removing cakes from the cake pan 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 several drops of ivory gel food coloring.

2. Fill and stack the 6-inch cake layers. Crumb coat the cake with ivory buttercream.

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

4. Split the remaining buttercream into six bowls. Color each bowl with each color listed in the materials, except ivory. For the light green, apply 1-2 drops of yellow to create a light green yellowish hue. Let the red buttercream sit for 30 minutes to an hour to develop a deeper red.

5. Fill the piping bags:

   ■K47 with the brown buttercream

   ■K43 with orange buttercream

   ■T18 with yellow and light green

   ■K23 with red buttercream

   ■T05 with orange buttercream

   ■K01 with a coupler and dark green buttercream

   ■T27 with orange buttercream

   ■K40 with dark green buttercream

6. Grab a toothpick and start freehanding the tree.

7. Grab the piping tip with K47 and pipe the tree trunk and branches.

8. Pipe some orange leaves using the piping tip K43.

9. Pipe some larger green and yellow leaves with piping T18.

10. Grab the piping bag with piping K23 and red buttercream, then pipe some red leaves.

11. Continue to pipe different leaves all over the branches.

12. Begin with the piping tip T05. Point the tip at the bottom of the cake, but do not press against the cake. Begin to squeeze the piping bag in a curved motion to create a large pumpkin.

13. Pipe the brown stems using the K47 piping tip (brown buttercream).

14. Grab the piping tip K01 to pipe some vines.

15. Pipe more buttercream pumpkins with T27 and T05. Apply brown stems and vines to these buttercream pumpkins.

16. Create some “falling leaves” under the tree using the same piping bags for the leaves on the tree.

17. Grab the piping bag K01 and change the piping tip to K40.

18. Pipe the border on the bottom of the cake and fill in the spaces between the pumpkins.

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