Lovely Graduation Cake with Vanilla Cake and Vanilla Buttercream

Directions

Vanilla Cake:

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

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

3. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and oil together for 3-4 minutes until they blend.

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 into 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 the knife 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

3. Mix on a low speed to incorporate everything. Scrap down the sides to make sure all of the powdered sugar is combined. Mix again to combine everything.

4. Dump room temperature butter into the mixer and mix on a medium speed.

5. Change the attachment to a paddle attachment, mix on high for 5 minutes, and mix on low for 5 minutes to get rid of air bubbles.

Cake Decorating Instructions:

1. Make a graduation cap with black fondant and tylose powder. You will need to do this two days in advance for the fondant to harden. Use a large 20oz can and wrap the fondant (about 2.5 inches in height) around the can then cut off the excess. Create a 4x4 square for the tassel hat. Set them aside to harden for a day. Once the day has passed, slowly take the can out of the fondant. Create a gold tassel.

2. Color half of the buttercream batch purple and set it aside.

3. Fill and stack the 6-inch cake layers. Crumb coat the cake with the white buttercream, then apply a thin coat of white buttercream. Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes.

4. Set aside a tiny portion of buttercream and color it green for the leaves.

5. Set aside a tiny portion of buttercream and color it green for the leaves.

6. To create an ombre effect, begin to pipe the royal purple buttercream at the bottom of the cake. (see the video) Use your discretion on how much purple you want for the cake.

7. Pipe the white buttercream above the royal purple buttercream and cover the rest of the cake.

8. Grab the cake scraper and smooth the cake at a 45-degree angle. Do not press too hard, or you will scrape the buttercream off.

9. Fill the piping bags. (1)T27 with royal purple buttercream; (2)T27 with royal purple buttercream; (3)T27 with royal purple buttercream; (4)S3 with royal purple buttercream and white buttercream (spread the purple buttercream inside of the piping bag before you add white buttercream)

10. Begin with the piping tip T27 (purple buttercream). Point the tip at the bottom of the cake, but do not press against the cake. Begin to squeeze the piping bag AND turn the turntable at the same time to create a pretty shell border.

11. Grab the Russian tip piping bag with the S3 piping tip. Begin to pipe flowers in a cascading row from the bottom to the top.

12. Place the fondant on the top of the cake.

13. Grab the purple piping bag with the K57 piping tip. Begin to pipe a small shell border around the fondant.

14. Brush on some piping gel or coating chocolate on the fondant before placing the fondant square.

15. Brush on some piping gel or coating chocolate on the fondant before placing the fondant square.

16. Create a small fondant ball to place on the top of the tassel square and press the gold tassel on it.

17. Insert a real flower on the cake if desired.

18. Enjoy!