Layered Ombre Cake

A week after making Lincoln's superhero cake, I decided to make a stacked 4-layer ombre birthday cake for my sister-in-law's and my birthdays (I'm 1 day older).  I went with my usual boxed cake, but I tried a modification I saw on Pinterest to make a boxed cake taste like a bakery cake.   It said to add an extra egg, substitute melted butter for the oil (and double it), and use milk instead of water.  Which I did, except for the egg; I thought 3 per box was plenty.  I even used whole milk since I had it.  I decided to go all in for my birthday.

I made 2 layers at a time.  I divided one batch of batter into 2 bowls and then pretty much just eye-balled the coloring.  And since I was stacking 4 layers and had just eaten 2 cake tops from Lincoln's cake the previous week, I wanted to minimize the damage to my waistline by minimizing the amount of leveling my layers would need.  To do that, I pulled out my trusty cake strips that I made when I took a Wilton cake decorating class a few years ago.  Mine are literally strips of old towel sewn together.  I get them sopping wet and then pin them to the outside of the cake pan.  And look at how even those cake tops are!  I didn't even have to level them.

Once I had my 4 layers baked, I let them cool and then stacked and applied a crumb cake using a new frosting “recipe.”   I mixed a can of the Wilton premade buttercream with a can of cream cheese frosting.  It gives a delicious taste and great consistency.  It's not cost-effective if you make cakes a lot, but it was well worth it for my purposes.  Those 2 cans were enough for the stacking, crumb coat, and the final layer.  

And then I waited with breathless anticipation until I got to cut the cake.

And it turned out perfectly!  I could not have been more pleased.   Not only did the ombre coloring turn out perfectly, but it tasted incredible. Basically, this cake was oh-so-decadent.  I highly recommend the cake mix modification.

AND I get to cross off one of my 32 by Thirty-Two goals!