A couple of years ago a tutorial from The Cake Blog appeared in my Pinterest feed for a DIY Rainbow Sprinkle Cake. Of course I pinned it straight away, but in true Cath fashion, it has taken a couple of years to actually have a go at it.
I did not make the cake in rainbow colours as Kate from The Greedy Baker did in the tutorial as I was going to have five macaron colours to match the cake (however in the end, I only ended up with two) but as there would be a few gluten intolerant folks consuming this cake I converted my favourite vanilla cake recipe into a gluten-free version so no one was left out.
The vanilla cupcake recipe I have used previously for my Christmas Tree and Golf Course cupcake cakes was the base for this cake and was easy enough to convert to gluten-free. After a quick search of the interweb on how to convert cake recipes to gluten-free, most suggested that you can use the same quantity of flour but you may need to add an additional egg. So this is exactly what I did (I can’t guarantee that this works for everything, but it certainly works in this instance). In addition to the gluten-free flour, you need three eggs, sugar, vanilla paste, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, sour cream, vegetable oil and milk.
Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the sugar and vanilla paste and mix well until combined. Be prepared for a fine layer of flour if you mix this too quickly. As the gluten-free flour is incredibly fine, I ended up with a nice thin layer of it over my bench.
You will then need to add the softened butter and mix until you have a fine crumb mixture. Meanwhile, in a small bowl or jug, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, oil and additional vanilla paste.
Add this to the flour mixture and mix until just combined before slowly adding the milk and again, mixing until combined. The batter will be quite thin and runny, which is perfectly fine, making it easy to be poured into your prepared cake tin before baking in a preheated 175°C oven for 45-60 minutes (this is an 8″ tin in case you are curious).
You will need to keep an eye on how this one bakes because I found it did take longer than usual so if you find it needs to keep baking check it in 5-10 minute intervals until cooked through. Once removed from the oven, leave in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out to cool completely.
Whilst the cake is baking you can certainly make your buttercream if you would like. I just used a standard buttercream of butter, icing sugar, vanilla paste and milk. All you need to do is beat the butter and icing sugar together until creamy and pale, then add the vanilla paste and milk. Simple!
Once your cake has cooled, cut it into your three layers.
Place your first cake layer onto a cake board or your stand with a little of the buttercream to keep it in place. Using a measuring cup or an ice cream scoop, place a mound of buttercream on top of the layer and smooth it out. For this size cake, and so there was not a massive amount of buttercream in the middle, I used two of my large ice cream scoops for each filling layer. Feel free to adjust it based on the size of your cake and your personal preference. Put the next layer of cake on top, add the same amount of buttercream again, spread it out and then add your top cake layer.
At this stage, I tend to put the cake in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to firm up a bit before applying the crumb coat. Once the crumb coat is applied, place the cake back in the fridge for it to set before adding the final layer of icing. You do not have to make it look really pretty, just get it relatively smooth as you are going to cover the whole thing in sprinkles.
I tried a couple of different methods to apply the sprinkles. First I attempted the method from the original post that I saw where you put another cake board on top and roll the cake in the sprinkles. Firstly, I had iced the top of my cake, but regardless I did find it a bit awkward but from the looks of it my cake was larger in diameter than Kate’s so that wouldn’t have helped.
Next I tried pressing the sprinkles into the side of the cake with my hand. Needless to say they went everywhere and those that did make it onto the cake were only small patches.
The third method was to get some baking paper, spray it with non-stick spray (I used a canola oil spray), pour some sprinkles on top of the sprayed area, shake away the excess then press the strip against the cake, rubbing the back of the paper to transfer the sprinkles.
It was still a little patchy in spots at times, but it was the method that worked best for me. Sprinkles still went on the floor, and I was finding them months later, but once the cake was mostly covered, any patchy spots were covered by pressing sprinkles there by hand.
To finish off the bottom of the cake, I stuck some ribbon to the cake board. I chose green, because I had some and they are one of the sprinkle colours, but choose a colour to “team with your theme”.
The cake went down a treat, along with the cherry ripe and jaffa macarons that were made to accompany it in the two-tone macaron tower.
| Servings |
slices
|
- 1 3/4 cups gluten free cake flour (not self-raising)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon bicarb/baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla paste or seed from 1 vanilla bean
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 3 large egg(s) room temperature
- 1/3 cup sour cream full-fat
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup milk
Ingredients
|
|
- Preheat the oven to 175°C and line your cake tin with baking paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the caster sugar and vanilla paste then mix well until combined.
- Add the softened butter and mix until you have a fine crumb texture.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl/jug, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, oil and additional vanilla extract.
- Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, stirring until combined.
- Slowly add the milk and mix until just combined.
- Pour into your prepared cake tin and bake for 45-60 minutes (the gluten free flour seemed to extend the baking duration so keep an eye on it in 5-10 minute intervals until cooked through).
- Remove the tin from the oven and allow the cake to cool for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.
To decorate, use your icing of choice (such as this vanilla bean buttercream and cover with gluten free sprinkles/hundreds and thousands.
Feel free to share a few words before you go