Kootek Cherry Limeade Retro Cake with Funfetti Cake and Vanilla Buttercream

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, and salt 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. Fold the jimmies in the cake batter.

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

9. 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.

10. 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. Fill and stack the 6-inch cake layers. Crumb coat the cake with uncolored buttercream.

2. Set half of the buttercream aside. Color the buttercream light pink.

3. Then apply the final coat of light pink buttercream. Refrigerate the cake for an hour.

4. Split the remaining buttercream into two bowls. Set aside a small amount of the buttercream for the white buttercream. Color the first bowl with a few drops of electric green food gel color to create a bright lime color. Color the second bowl with several drops of Super Red. Add more as desired. Let the red buttercream to sit for 30 minutes to a hour to develop a deeper red.

5. Fill the piping bags (one bag with a coupler).

   ■ K44 with the lime buttercream

   ■ T07 with white buttercream

   ■ K55 with a coupler and lime buttercream

   ■ K21 with red buttercream

   ■ K38 with white buttercream

   ■ T27 with red buttercream

6. Begin with the piping tip K44 (lime 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 pretty ruffles.

7. Refrigerate the cake approx. 10 minutes to harden the ruffles (to avoid messing it up when you pipe the next border on top of them)

8. Grab the white piping bag with T07 piping tip. Squeeze to create a border on the top of the ruffle border.

9. Do the same refrigeration process with the cake.

10. Next, swap the K44 piping tip with K55 to create a smaller scalloped border on the top of the white buttercream.

11. Use the piping tip with K21 to small red dots for cherries.

12. Swap the piping bag with K55 with K01 to create cherry stems.

13. Continue piping the cherries and cherry stems on the rest of the cake.

14. Swap the lime piping bag with the K43 and create “leaves” on the cherry stems.

15. Pipe an outer border on the top of the cake with piping tip K38.

16. Pipe a larger scalloped border with red buttercream and piping tip T27 (inside of the white border).

17. Pipe a few cherries on the top of the cake.

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