Ube Cake
Prep Time: 120 mins | Cook Time: 20 mins | Yield: two layer, 8-inch round cakes
We've already established that my favorite flavor is ube. Growing up in the Philippines, I had ube cake for almost every birthday until I was ten years old. Now, ube cakes in the Philippines usually have a stronger ube flavor, and dyed wayyyy too purple to be natural. Just Google 'Goldilocks Ube Cake' and you'll know what I mean.
I have been watching way more than my fair share of YouTube during the pandemic and this video from The Icing Artist inspired me to decorate an ube cake in a more fun, less traditional way than how I had it growing up. My decorating is nowhere near as good, but it's not bad for a first try! The cake itself is pretty simple, and if you're not up for the complicated stripe frosting, you can always frost simply with the mascarpone frosting (which, by the way, is also not the traditional pairing for ube cake). This was very fun to make, but I hope to be able to make more cakes and practice this decorating technique more in the future!
Ingredients
For the ube cake:
· 2 cups all purpose flour
· 1/2 cup ube powder (I use this brand purchased from my local grocery, but available through Amazon)
· 1 1/2 cups sugar
· 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
· Pinch of salt
· 11 tbsp butter, softened at room temperature
· 2 tbsp vegetable oil
· 4 tbsp water
· 3 eggs
· 1 tbsp vanilla extract
· Food coloring (I used 8 drops each of red and blue food coloring)
For the frosting:
· 2 8 oz tubs of mascarpone
· 2 cups heavy whipping cream
· 2 cups powdered sugar
· 1/2 tsp almond extract
· Food coloring (I used 12 drops each of red and blue food coloring)
Tools:
I highly suggest using a number of tools that will help frost the cake with stripes. The first is a decorating turntable. Any brand will do (I use a Wilton one), but it will make it easier to frost.
You'll also want an icing comb that will create the treads for your stripe pattern. I used this one purchased from my local Michael's. This comes with a set of three but I used the boxiest comb. In addition to the comb, you'll want to use either a tip that will match the width of the treads that the comb will make or use a ziploc bag with a hole roughly the same size. I used a filling tip that seemed to work well; the angled cut made it easier to glide across the cake.
Lastly, you'll want to have an angled spatula both to spread your frosting and eventually scrape the stripes at the end of your decorating.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325˚ F using convection setting. If this setting is not available in your oven, preheat oven to 350˚ F.
Combine dry ingredients into a large bowl, making sure to thoroughly mix all ingredients together. Slowly add butter, 1 tbsp at a time, and mix with dry ingredients, until the mixture turns into a crumbly consistency.
Add the wet ingredients into the mixture, making sure to incorporate all the ingredients together. This should create a thick batter.
Finally, add food coloring (adjust until you find the shade of purple you like), making sure to mix the food coloring completely into the batter.
Grease and line two 8-inch round cake pans. Spread batter evenly between the two pans and make sure to even out the batter before putting into the oven.
Bake for 18-20 mins if using the convection oven setting or for 20-25 mins in a normal oven setting, or until a toothpick comes off clean when poking the center of the cake.
Remove from oven and cool cakes completely before frosting.
To make the frosting, combine whipping cream, mascarpone, and almond extract in a medium bowl until it forms a creamy mixture. Whip the mixture until soft peaks form.
Separate one third of the mixture and put into a small bowl. Add food coloring (adjust until you achieve the shade of purple you like) to the smaller batch for your colored frosting.
Take one of your cooled cakes (and level if you need to) and place onto a 10-inch cake board or directly onto a turntable. Make sure to keep the cake in place by putting a small bit of frosting underneath the bottom layer.
You may frost the top of the bottom layer using just the regular frosting. To create a circular striped pattern, like the one pictured above, use a piping bag with a round piping tip or use a ziploc bag with the tip cut off.
Place second cooled, leveled cake on top of the first layer, making sure the cake is even and adjusting as necessary.
Frost the whole outside of the cake using the regular, not dyed frosting with your angled spatula. Use the turntable while you spread the frosting to make sure you have an even coat.
Refrigerate for 20 mins so that the frosting sets slightly.
Place the icing comb against the side of your cake, enough to make an indent. Turn the turntable while keeping the comb steady to make 'treads' on your frosted cake. This will create the wells you can fill in with the purple frosting.
Using your angled filling tip, pipe the purple frosting into the wells created by the icing comb. Don't worry about filling it in all the way, just make sure you're piping a consistent amount of frosting across the cake.
Once all the treads have been filled with the purple frosting, use the edge of your angled spatula to smooth out and scrape excess frosting. This motion should fill in your treads and create smoother stripes.
Decorate the top with purple piping or leave as a blank canvas!
You may serve as is or refrigerate for at least 20 minutes for the frosting to set.
Enjoy!
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