High Altitude Butterfly Pea Flower Cake
A high altitude recipe for a soft, fluffy vanilla cake, naturally flavored and colored a beautiful blue by using butterfly pea flower powder in the cake and buttercream.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
- 8-inch cake pans (x3)
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 ¼ cups cake flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
- 2 tsp butterfly pea flower powder (see notes)
- 2 large eggs (room temperature)
- 2 large egg whites (room temperature)
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Buttercream
- 2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp meringue powder, optional
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¾ tsp butterfly pea flower powder
- 2 tbsp milk, only if needed for consistency
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350F, position a rack in the center of the oven, and spray the bottoms of three 8-inch cake pans with non-stick spray.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, then whisk to distribute the ingredients evenly.
- In a liquid measuring cup, measure the milk, then add the butterfly pea flower powder. Stir to dissolve.
- To the dry ingredients, add the blue milk, along with the eggs, egg whites, melted butter, oil, and vanilla extract. Whisk for about 15-30 seconds, until well combined.
- Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Tap a few times against the counter to pop any large air bubbles.
- Bake the cakes for about 21-25 minutes, or until a cake tester or a toothpick comes out clean, and the tops spring back when lightly touched.
- Set the pans on a wire rack, cover them loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting. When ready to frost and assemble the cake, remove the cakes from the pans.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for one minute until smooth, then beat in the vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, combine the powdered sugar, meringue powder, salt and butterfly pea flower powder.
- With the mixer running on low, add the powdered sugar mixture by spoonfuls, mixing until thick and combined.
- Increase speed to medium and whip for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl down several times, until light and fluffy. Add the milk only if needed for desired consistency. Note that in warmer weather, when the butter is softer, you'll rarely need to add the milk. I only added a small amount of the butterfly pea flower powder for a pale blue color; you can add more as desired for a richer color.
Assembly and Decorating
- Fill and frost the cooled cakes with the buttercream. See this post for a helpful video tutorial.
- To decorate the cake like the one shown in today's recipe post, fit a piping bag with a coupler and tip #70, then fill with leftover buttercream.
- Pipe a ruffly border around the top and bottom edges of the cake, as shown in today's video.
Video
Notes
- Store leftover cake in an airtight container or cake carrier at room temperature for up to 2-3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months.
- For a smaller cake, cut the cake recipe in half, and bake the cake in three 6-inch cake pans. Make just 3/4 the buttercream recipe for a 6-inch cake. The cake shown in today's photos and video is a 6-inch cake.
- The butterfly pea flower powder has a strong, earthy aroma on its own. However, it does not impart a strong flavor into the cake or buttercream, since only a small amount is used. I felt like the flavor it added simply enhanced the vanilla, giving it a richer flavor.
- If the cake batter is not blue enough for your liking, whisk in another 1-2 tsp of powder before baking your cake.
- Note that you should not change or substitute any of the ingredients in this recipe. Adding another acidic ingredient, such as buttermilk or lemon juice or sour cream, can change the blue color to purple.
- I wanted a very pale blue buttercream, so I used just a small amount of the powder and mixed it into the powdered sugar before whipping it with the butter. This gave it a pretty speckled look, with specks of undissolved powder visible in the buttercream. For a richer color, you can dissolve the powder in two teaspoons of milk to make a food coloring paste, then whip the paste into your buttercream.
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