Pink Lemonade Ombre Cake

September 27, 2013 By Sara McCleary Updated November 29, 2020 - This post may contain affiliate links

The challenge is an ombre cake. That's cool, I've not made one of those before. Hmmmm, let's make the cake a pink lemonade cake, because I've not made one of those before either. Icing? Yes I need to ice it. Let's pipe flower rose thingies, because I've never piped icing onto a cake before. Oh hang on, let's make the iced rose thingies dual coloured, because the YouTube video (obviously a pro that has made rose thingies many times before) makes it look like a breeze, and I'm an idiot.

The challenge has been set by friend, fellow blogger, MasterChef contestant 2011 and cook book author, Billy Law. Billy has started the 'Have You Eaten? Baking Club'. But Sara, 'Have You Eaten?', that's a interesting name for a baking club. Well, it just happens that the baking club has been named after Billy's delicious cookbook of the same name.

September marks our first challenge, and of course I have made it more of a challenge than it needs to be. I am no stranger to the kitchen. I can bake a cake, but I'm a simple girl when it comes to how they look. Never have I piped icing onto a cake before. I have smeared icing on with a knife before, but never something pretty and piped. An extra challenge with the ombre cake was not only is the top piped but the sides as well.

After reading Billy's recipe a thousand times and much on-line research, a plan was in motion. I can't express how nervous I was. Would the rose thingies stick to the side of the cake? Or would they fall off and look like a trashed bridal bouquet? Would they actually look like flowers of any description at all or just a wiggly mess?

Of course I didn't want just simple one colour flowers and saw a cool technique where two colours were combined. Would my colours meld into something that resembled a clown throwing up?

Then there was the cake itself. The recipe called for 1.5kg of butter icing. That's a lot of sweet buttery goodness. I wanted a cake that would stand up to the sweetness and contrast it. This is when the thought of lemon danced in to my mind. It was then a case of what colour I wanted to make the cake. Decision was made on pink ombre, and my pink lemonade ombre cake was born.

I did alter Billy's recipe, by removing the milk and replacing it with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Zest of one lemon was also added to achieve a strong lemony flavour.

Important Note: The cake layers in this cake aren't very thick. Each layer will end up being around 15-20mm thick. If you feel you would like thicker layers, then please double the recipe. I feel the thinner layers work very well as the cake is very tart, dense and balances well with the amount of butter cream icing. Please be warned if you do double the mixture you may end up with lemon overload.

How did I go with icing the cake? Ha! I managed to shove my thumb through my piping bag mid pipping. Resulting in me swearing like a wharfie as I ran to the kitchen to grab another pipping bag to shove over the top of my broken one. I discovered that even though these roses are meant to be the most easiest to pipe, they aren't. There is a technique involved which I think I achieved for only two of my flowers. To my surprise using two colours of icing in the same bag, worked! I really thought this was where I was going to have issues. On top of that I ran out of icing to finish piping rosettes on the top of the cake. Thank goodness for a stash of sugar pearls in my cupboard to fill the void.

The result, a tart lemony butter cake that tamed all that sweet butter icing. The cake was a success as far as I am concerned. Sure, there are prettier cakes with perfectly piped icing floating around the web, but for my first attempt, I am thrilled.

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