Lavender Rose Cake

     I love love love how this cake turned out.

Just very… pretty.

A friend had asked if I could make a cake for her parent’s 30th wedding anniversary and when she mentioned a rose cake, I just couldn’t say no. She couldn’t decide on a flavour, so I suggested that her sweet little 7-year-old daughter decide on the flavour. I think most would agree that many 7-year-olds would choose a more familiar flavour…. like chocolate? vanilla? sprinkles? Or is that just me that thinks that? Anyhow, this smart girl wanted to try a lavender cake! I know right? I wasn’t even that adventurous at 7!

This was basically a play off the Lavender & Vanilla bean cupcakes that I had previously made (check them out here). Since this was a two-layer 8-inch cake, I had just doubled the original cupcake recipe and baked it in a taller 8-inch cake pan. The baking time was just under an hour at the same temperature for the cupcakes. Similar to the cupcakes, I went with a vanilla buttercream, but used a swiss meringue version this time! (haha if you read my last little blurb about how much I love this icing, you’ll know that its currently and probably will forever be my go-to buttercream)

From making my first rose cake (check it out here), I remembered that the piped roses used quite a bit of icing to completely cover the exterior. For this two layer 8-inch cake, I made about 6 cups of vanilla swiss meringue buttercream, which was adjusted from this recipe – you’ll find the adjusted vanilla buttercream recipe at the end of this post. I had also thought of brushing a bit of lavender soaking syrup on the cakes between the layers, but didn’t end up adding it because I thought it might end up too sweet – you could do this if you’d like a sweeter and stronger lavender flavour.

So for the cakes and assembly, you’ll need:

• 2 layers of lavender cake (recipe here)
• 6 Cups Vanilla swiss meringue buttercream
• 1M piping tip + bag
• Edible pearls
• Any topper pieces that you’d like to add

1. Sandwich a layer of buttercream between the two cake layers and then crumb coat the whole thing – just a thin coat of frosting to lock in all of the crumbs and don’t worry about how neat it is because you won’t even see this layer. Chill the cake for about 10 minutes.
2. With the 1M tip, pipe rows of rosettes, starting from the bottom edge and work upwards towards the top centre. I found that piping the side was a little more challenging than piping the top, so I’d suggest to do a couple of practice rosettes on the side first, then scrape them off (careful not to take off any crumbs when you do this)
3. Once the entire cake is covered in piped rosettes, pipe in little ‘stars’ to fill any areas between the roses.
4. Optional: add on edible pearls and topper pieces

Sharing this cake with the lovely bloggers at Angie’s Fiesta Friday party – check it out here!

Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• Servings: 6 Cups
• Time: 1 hour
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

• 6 large egg whites
• 1 1/4C + 1 tbsp sugar
• pinch of salt
• 5 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tsp vanilla
• purple + pink gel colouring

1. Bring a small pot of water (about 1/4 full) to a simmer.
2. Since we will be making a meringue with the egg whites, ensure mixing bowl, beaters, and any cooking tools are completely clean/ free of any fat residue. Add egg whites and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer.
3. Place bowl of egg whites and sugar over the pot of simmering water and gently stir until mixture is heated and sugar is completely dissolved (about 3 minutes) – if you put your hand into the mixture, it should feel hot to the touch and there shouldn’t be any graininess left once the sugar has completely dissolved.
4. Remove the bowl from the pot, and place into stand mixer – beat on high for about 10 minutes until you have thick glossy, stiff peaks.
5. Continue beating on low/ medium speed, and add in butter, one piece at a time. Add in vanilla – mix until just combined. It may look a little broken and lumpy at this point, but don’t panic because thats normal!
6. Switch to the flat beater and beat icing for another 3-5 minutes on medium until it comes together into a smooth luscious icing.
7. Tint the icing if you’d like