Painted Floral Buttercream Carrot Cake
Mom and I have been dying to try making a painted cake! Have you seen these before? We only just started diving into really cutesy cake decorating, and it has been a fun little side project that we have been dreaming about building our skills in. Obviously, we still have a LOT to learn! I have never been very talented at cake decorating, but it is something that I would like to continue learning about.
Jill, however, is an incredibly talented artist so I let her take the reigns on this one. She said it was a big learning curve for her, attempting to paint with buttercream frosting rather than paint. It was so fun to watch it come to life, and she wanted it to, of course, look like her artwork. Have you ever painted a cake before?
Underneath the layers of frosting there is an incredible carrot cake! This is Jill’s recipe that we have been baking for years and years now. It is one of our all time favorite cakes. I feel like you either love or hate carrot cake, and we love it. This recipe does not include nuts, though you could add about 1/2 cup of walnuts in at the end, if you prefer.
ingredients & recipe:
CARROT CAKE:
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup cooking oil such as coconut or avocado, liquid state
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups finely grated carrot
1 cup unsweetened coconut
15 oz crushed pineapple, drained
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
1 cup salted butter, softened
16 oz cream cheese, softened
6-8 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp whole milk
* To make a painted cake, we ended up using a basic buttercream recipe of 1/2 cup butter, 4 cups powdered sugar, and a few tablespoons of milk. You want the frosting to be stiff! The above recipe does not include enough frosting to also “paint” the cake.
DIRECTIONS:
Make the cake. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease and flour three 8-inch cake pans and set aside,
In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, buttermilk, carrot, coconut, and pineapple.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add this into the liquid ingredients and mix until a consistent batter forms.
Evenly divide the cake batter amongst the cake pans, filling about 1/2 way. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let sit in the cake pans for about 10 minutes before sliding a knife around the edge and releasing the cake. It is very moist and soft!! Let cool to room temperature on a wire cooling rack before frosting.
To make the frosting, cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add in the remaining ingredients until the frosting has reached a desired consistency. You may want it on a bit of the softer side since this cake is so moist.
Frost the cake by spreading cream cheese frosting in between the layers and all around the outside.
This cake is incredibly moist and flavorful. We love it for a big fancy cake or even cupcakes! It’s perfect for a spring celebration. If you want to paint your own cake, I highly suggest using a thick and crusty buttercream. We used a few different tools to make this happen including a palette knife, piping bags and frosting tips, and even legitimate paintbrushes. It was a labor of love!
xoxo Kayla
