July 17, 2016

Little Girl's Pink Fondant Birthday Cake Part I

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By Published: 2016-07-17
 Now as lots of mamas and papas know, a birthday cake for a little girl or boy is not a straightforward thing to go about.  Every since my little girl was two years old I've been making a cake for her birthday, trying different recipes and flavors for the cake and the cake decorations (see here and here and here).  It's a hard thing to please a little one on their special cake for their special day, bless their little hearts but they can be quite critical!  

This year I decided to make a pink cake to please my girl's love of pinkness.  And I also wanted to try out my recent discovery while binge watching The Great British Bake Off (best baking show ever!) that it is actually rather easy to make Homemade Marshmallow Fondant, a play dough like edible cake decorating dough.  

Throwing all these things together, I managed to make a pretty looking Little Girl's Pink Fondant Birthday Cake, a moist tasty pinky pink cake on the inside and fabulously fancy homemade fondant decorations all over the outside.  I think this is the best BD cake I've made yet and most importantly my little girl absolutely loooved it!

I must confess that this is not the first time I've tried to go pink with the cake.  Okay-la for the previous attempts at pinkiness.  But this time the cake came out a beautiful pinky pink and it was moist yet firm and really tasty.  Actually kinda like the out of the box mix cakes that I grew up making.  

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My cake tins, ready for the cake batter

Please understand that this here cake is a double tiered cake.  Which means simply that you will end up with a fabulously fancy double storied cake that will impress the bejesus out of everyone.  And that you will need two cake pans of different sizes, one approximately 1 to 2 inches smaller in diameter than the other.  

Because I use simple cake pans without the fancy pop out bottoms I like to add a strip of parchment paper along the bottom of the cake tin with the ends of the strips hanging over the two sides.  This is just in case the cake plays hard to get when I want to get it out of the tin.  You can then just pull up on those strips.

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There is lots of luscious butter, this is basically a butter cake.  Which is right and yummilicious for a cake.  I hate it when cake recipes use lots of oil...yucky.  My little girl is always licking up the delicious new zealand butter we use when I make cake.  I have to shoo her away: Be off butter girl!

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This pink cake has a secret ingredient that is so hilarious it is hard to believe...orange fanta.  That's right, you read it right, this cake uses orange fanta soda pop.  Somehow the orange fanta gives the cake a moist yumminess as well as a faint pink tinge which we upped by adding a couple drops of red gel food coloring.  (Gel food coloring is the best food coloring.)  

I think the fizz from the fanta makes the cake rise up super light.  I've found it hard sometimes to make a good basic cake from scratch but this soda pop cake ticks all the boxes.  Super simple, moist, firm yet light & tender and just delightfully pink.  A wowzer of a pinky pink cake!

I think you could use other soda pops instead of orange fanta for alternative colors or tastes.  Apparently soda pop cake is a thing and there are all sorts of variations.  (Who knew?)  But do know that this cake didn't taste exactly like orange fanta, it just tasted maybe faintly orange soda popish and definitely more yummy.

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You should make the cake the day before you want to decorate and let it cool completely  before storing it overnight at room temperature in your cake tin.  You should also prepare your basic homemade marshmallow fondant (see our easy recipe) the day before you decorate as you need to let it sit overnight in the fridge.  

Now go to sleep and dream fabulous cake decorating dreams.  Tomorrow's the big decorating day!  We are going to finally decorate our cake in our next post: Little Girl's Pink Fondant Birthday Cake Part II coming up soon!

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Pinky Pink Soda Pop Cake Recipe
(makes a double tiered cake, 6" top and 7-8" bottom)  (adapted from recipe here)  Prep time: Cook time:

Ingredients:

  • 2 cake pans, one smaller than other by at least an inch
  • 3 sticks butter, 339g, room temperature
  • 3 cups sugar, 600g
  • 5 eggs, room temperature
  • 3 cups flour, 375g
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup + 2 tbsp orange fanta
  • red food coloring

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C).  Grease cake pans with butter and flour them, making sure to knock out any excess flour.  Line cake pan bottom with parchment paper.

Cream butter and sugar until pale in color and fluffy.  Add in eggs one at a time and mix.  Sift flour and salt in separate bowl, then add into butter mix 1 cup at a time until just mixed.  Add in fanta, stir until just mixed.  Add in food coloring drop by drop until the desired pinkness is achieved.

Pour into baking pans, leaving 1" rising room at top.  Smooth the batter out flat.  Bake approx. 1 hour to 1 hour 10 mins or until an inserted knife comes out clean.  Remove and let cool in pan for 5 mins before removing to cooling rack to cool completely.  When completely cooled store in cake keeper until ready to decorate.  

See our next post on how to decorate your cake with your own fondant decorations and our previous post on Homemade Marshmallow Fondant to make your own easy to make fondant.

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