Not to be confused with Pinkberry FROYO –
I was commissioned to bake a “gender reveal” cake for a friend of a friend.
OMG – it SO excites me when I’m asked or invited (or whatever) to bake, cook, create …
It makes “my day, my week, my month, and even my year!”
So, the “gender reveal…” I was worried I wouldn’t have enough time to properly prepare, as I like to freeze my cake layer before frosting (for ease and perfection) and the mama-to-be was not going to get her gender results until the day before the par-tay! So, I decided to “extra prepare” and bake for both! I baked two layers of pink sprinkle cake and two layers of blue sprinkle cake, and two layers of simple vanilla cake. Each layer contains the proper colored sprinkles too! ✨(of course).
Once I was notified of the color cake to bake, I was thrilled. I knew that delivering the extra baby pink layers to my girlies down the hall, slathered in whipped berry cream cheese and blueberry preserves, with a layer of sweetened whip on top would be a-okay with them!
And I was ready to go!
Meanwhile, mama-to-be was so excited about her little baby boy, she spilled the beans to all the gals attending the shin-dig.
That was fine with me, nothing was going to stop me from my baking game!
Baby Blue – Blueberry Vanilla Layer Cake!
Baby Blue – Blueberry Vanilla Layer Cake
Vanilla Layer Cake (FOUR layers):
4 cups all purpose flour
5 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
8 large eggs
3 cups white sugar
1 cup butter, melted
2 cups whole milk
2 Tbs. vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbs. gel food coloring (if desired)
colored sprinkles
Whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside.
Whip the eggs until slightly fluffy.
Next, whip in the sugar and melted butter until well combined. Drizzle in the milk, vanilla, and oil.
Fold in the flour, 1/2 cup at a time.
Divide the mixture in half and sift in the sprinkles and food coloring to one half (or any amount), if desired.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Thoroughly grease four 9″ cake pans with oil, then line the bottoms with parchment paper.
Pour the batter evenly (two colored and two not – if that’s your outcome) among the prepared cake pans.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool in the pans for several hours.
Invert and transfer to plastic wrap, tightly wrapping – and then freeze overnight or for several days to prep for frosting.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:
4 lbs. butter (YES, it’s a TON of butter), room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. sea salt
Whip the butter until soft and fluffy. Add the sugar, cream, vanilla, and salt, and whip until smooth, soft and creamy.
Blueberry Layer:
1 cup Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry Preserves
Nothing to be done here – just have this on hand
Whipped Vanilla Créme Frosting:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Whip the cream until somewhat sturdy (5 minutes). Add the sugar and vanilla and whip again until stiff peaks begin to form.
Assembly:
After unwrapping the frozen cake layers, even and level with a serrated knife.
Stack one layer and frost with a thin layer of buttercream. Slather the top with blueberry preserves. Top with another layer and repeat the buttercream and preserves process to end with a top layer of cake and buttercream.
Thoroughly coat all the surfaces with the buttercream frosting, smoothing and perfecting this “crumb” layer of frosting.
Transfer to the fridge and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, whip the cream and sugar for the Créme Frosting layer.
Once the buttercream layers are cold, slather the Whipped Vanilla Créme Frosting on all sides of the cake, smoothing with a spatula.
Decorate as desired!
Surprise! It’s a BOY! 😂💙🍼
