High Altitude Sleeping Beauty Mini Tiered Vanilla Cake
This mini tiered cake is made of four tender layers of vanilla cake, decorated like Sleeping Beauty's birthday cake.
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
- (2) 6-inch Round Cake Pans
- (2) 4-inch Round Cake Pans
- Disposable Piping Bag
- Coupler + Tip #12
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 ⅓ cups cake flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 large egg white (save the extra yolk for another use)
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ⅓ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract, optional
Buttercream
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tsp meringue powder, optional
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1-2 tbsp milk, only if needed for consistency
- "royal blue" gel food coloring
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.Lightly spray the bottoms of two 6-inch round cake pans and two 4-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, then whisk until evenly distributed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg white, buttermilk, melted butter, oil, vanilla and almond extracts. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and whisk for 10-15 seconds, until combined.
- To divide the batter evenly between the pans so that your cake layers are all the same height, measure a scant 3/4 cup of batter into each of the 4-inch pans. Then divide the remaining batter evenly between the 6-inch pans.
- Bake the cakes for about 20-25 minutes, until the tops spring back when gently touched, and a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Set the pans on a cooling rack and cool completely before frosting.If the cakes are domed on top, use a sharp knife to slice off a small portion of the domed top before frosting, so the cakes sit flat and level.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar, meringue powder, salt and vanilla, mixing until combined. Increase the speed to medium and whip for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy, stopping to scrape the bowl down several times. Turn the speed down to "stir" and mix for 1 minute.
Assembly and Decorating
- Place one of the 6-inch cakes on a cake board or serving plate. Frost the top and sides of the cake with a messy, fairly thin layer of buttercream.Place the second 6-inch cake on top of the first, making it slightly off-center, towards the right. Frost the top and sides of the cake.
- Place one of the 4-inch cakes on top, and frost the top and sides of the cake.Place the second 4-inch cake on top, making it off-center towards the left, so that it's slightly hanging over the edge of the cake layer underneath it. Frost the top and sides of this cake layer.Remember, the cake is meant to look wonky, and like it's about to topple over. Don't try to be a perfectionist with the buttercream, but just let it look messy and amateurish. If you're nervous that it might actually fall over, you can insert a straw or dowel down through the center of the cake to keep the layers in place.
- Add a few drops of blue food coloring to the remaining buttercream, making the color as deep as you'd like. Fit a piping bag with a coupler and tip #12 (a medium round tip), and fill with the blue buttercream.
- Now pipe the blue buttercream around the cake in messy dollops and swirls. Pile it up in some places and let it look like it's dripping off the sides of the cake here and there.
- Don't forget to finish the cake with pink birthday candles!
Notes
Keep the frosted cake refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 day in advance, then let come to room temperature for several hours before serving. Store leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2-3 days.
This mini tiered cake will yield about 12 servings. To serve the cake, it's easiest to cut the top tier into 4 pieces first, then cut the bottom tier into 8 pieces.
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