Flipping the Cake.

Lately I've come across some stellar cakes on Pinterest that have bucked the rules and said no more to typical horizontal cake layers. Instead, stunning vertical layers are found resting inside, usually in some gorgeous color combination. Most normal bakers would see that and think, "What a unique look. I can't wait to try that out." I think you'll be in no way surprised my first thought was, "Oh man, when you turn a cake sideways, you can fit like so much more frosting inside it." I've pretty much made it my mission to try to get a perfect 1:1 ratio of cake-to-frosting with each forkful, so to manage to make this a reality was a crowing achievement for me. I also tried my hand at watercolor decorating the sides of my cake, so I was going all out into new, uncharted territory here (who am I?!). Happy to report this vertical blue ombre coconut cake with orange flavored buttercream turned out to be a delicious success.

It was almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

Not gonna lie, I was super nervous about trying this out. I figured at worst, we'd end up having some really colorful cake pops if the vertical layers all crumbled when I tried rolling them up. I've been trying this new thing, I believe it's called optimism, where I see the silver lining in situations. I've been wearing florals, trying to be peppy, and viewing the glass as half full instead of asking why the glass doesn't have wine in it. I realize the irony in me trying to be a ray of sunshine when the actual rays of sunshine are zapping my will to live (so, so sweaty). It may be endless summer here, but at least I baked a cake that perfectly encapsulates it: a blend of coconut white cake and citrus-filled frosting; I hear Florida likes oranges or something. Together, these flavors are perfect. Sweet and zesty, with a nice piña colada aftertaste. And naturally, it's low cal. Only 279 calories a slice for 12 slices. This makes about a 7" cake when flipped and rolled up, so it's a cute but substantial little lady.

That requires a boatload of eggs.

I was feeling adventurous, but didn't want to waste a ton of ingredients if I ruined everything in the process. So to make a quick but effective (I mean, it's so pretty) vertical layer cake, you need:

• 1 box cake mix. I used white since I knew I wanted to dye it different shades.
• 6 egg whites
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tsp coconut extract
• 10 ounces diet creme soda
• Dyes: I used sky blue, electric blue, and royal blue Wilton gel dyes
• If you're also an anxious hot mess like I was at this point (I am so great at leaping to the worst possible scenario: ruined cake), might I recommend a paper sack to breathe into or some Klonopin. I hear it's wonderful. 

Preheat your oven to 350 (I did 375, but my cake bottoms got a little too browned), and get ready to make foil art!

Not pictured: the tinfoil hat I was thinking of making.

 If you're not interested in dying your cake layers different colors, just throw some Parchment down on a half sheet pan (18x13 inches) and lightly grease before pouring in all your batter. I used foil to create sections. I used 2 of these pans but only needed 3 sections, so my other pan had one tinfoil section only. Lightly spray with Pam and set aside.

Get ready to whip it. Whip it good.

In my research, I found that just about every vertical layer cake gets its flexibly sound structure from meringue, so I separated 6 eggs, holding on to 3 egg yolks for later. I whipped all 6 egg whites on medium high for about 5 minutes. You'll know things are ready when you can lift up you mixer's whisk and both stiff peaks have formed in the whites and the bit that stays attached to the whisk isn't dripping. Carefully transfer this to a medium bowl, then mix together the egg yolks, creme soda, cake mix, and coconut extract for 2 minutes on medium high. Fold in your fluffy egg whites gently by hand to keep as much air in the cake as you can.

And pray to the baking gods this turns out right.

 I then took 250 grams of plain white cake mix and spooned it into one half of my prepared pan. In hindsight, I'd do half white, half much paler blue next time. There was a lot of white on the inside of the cake, so another transition color for the ombre would've made it perfect. I then took 125 grams of white cake mix, set it in a bowl, and placed a small amount of sky blue dye with it and mixed before turning out into half of one of my little foil gutters. I took another 125 grams of white cake mix, set it in the same bowl, and dyed this electric blue before turning out into the other half of the foil gutter holding the sky blue cake mix. Carefully smooth out, trying not to disrupt between the two blues too much. Finally, I dumped whatever was left (scale be damned! ..but seriously, I can't live without my digital scale) into the same bowl and dyed royal blue before putting into my last foil gutter and smoothing out.

Slightly browned, but still edible!

Now, bake one sheet at a time unless you're lucky and have double ovens for 10-12 minutes at 350. The cake should be peeling from the edges of the pans and springy when touched. Place baking sheets on cooling trays and let cakes rest for 5 minutes. Then place some Parchment paper on top of each section and gently flip the foil/cake off the baking sheet and on to the cooling rack. Lift off the foil and let cakes cool completely. You can try rolling them up into the Parchment paper at this point if you want to, but honestly, I didn't, and my cakes didn't tear apart beyond repair. I let everything cool completely before trimming the edges so all my cakes were exactly the same width.

And then made a mess of my kitchen.

While my cakes were cooling (which, when they're less than an inch thick happens in about 5 blinks of an eye), I made my orange buttercream. I used:

• 1 cup of butter at room temp
• 2 12 ounce bags of Swerve confectioner's
• 1 TBS vanilla
• 1 tsp orange extract
• 6 TBS skim milk
• Dyes: sky blue, electric blue, and purple

I ended up not using any regular powdered sugar to cut the Swerve as I usually do; this cake was going to live in the fridge so the rolls stayed, well, rolled, and I find when Swerve is served cold from the fridge, it doesn't give off much of that cooling effect it does when it's at room temp. You could always use 24 ounces of regular powdered sugar, but this will drastically change calorie count (a cup of Swerve is about 44 calories; regular powdered sugar is 480 a cup).

To make, cream the butter for a minute or two before adding one bag of Swerve, the extracts, and 2 TBS of milk. Blend on low until incorporated, then scrape the bowl before adding in the other bag of Swerve and 4 more tablespoons of milk. Mix well, then grab your cooled cakes.

The moment of truth...

Slather a thin layer of frosting onto each cake. Remind yourself to breathe, and get ready to roll. Literally.

Some breakage, but still cake!

Roll up the white layer first from the short end, since it will be the inside of your cake. Things will crack and break, but the frosting will help hold everything together. The world's most delicious glue! Take the end of the white cake roll, and place it flush to the lightest blue shade of frosted cake. Continue to roll up. Place this flush with the final layer of dark blue cake and roll up. Flip that cake and set it on it's side (now bottom). What you have should look like this:

Cinnamon roll adjacent.

As you can see, I was cracking up. Well, the cake was, too, but not to worry. Wrap your cake roll tightly into two layers of plastic wrap, and then place into the freezer to firm for an hour. All cracks will get covered with frosting later, but again, you can try rolling these up when they're still warm if that bothers you.

Like a straight jacket for your cake. Stop the cracks!

While this is setting up, make sure your frosting gets covered up as well. You can leave it out so it stays at room temp and is easier to spread. Once your cake is firmed up, spread a thin layer of plain white frosting all over the top and sides.

Remember, if you've made it this far, you're kicking so much ass.

I used enough frosting on top to completely cover up the edges of the roll and create a flat surface. You don't need as much on the side if you're watercolor decorating it. I took my remaining dye (there won't be a ton, but you don't need much), split it into three bowls, dying one sky blue, one electric blue, and another purple.

And then I went crazy, from the looks of it.

I used a small angled spatula to swab blotches of each color all over my cake, trying to layer colors vertically (everything about this cake is vertical, apparently) instead of horizontally because things will get blended together. I then took my bench scraper and gently scraped the edges of my cake, causing the frosting to blend together. I cleaned off my bench scraper before giving a second pass. Then I came back in and added small splotches of various colors anywhere that looked too empty or didn't have much overlap. I finished up by first smoothing only those new splotches with my small angled spatula and then giving a final once over with the bench scraper.

Thinking about peacocks for some reason...

Definitely use colors that will look pretty when blended together. Purple and orange won't look nice blended together, and no one likes ugly cake. They'll still eat it, but it's the principle of the situation. You can also watercolor the top of your cake, using a long angled spatula to smooth instead of a bench scraper, but I had florals on my mind (I told you, I'm a regular ray of friggin' sunshine).

I never miss an opportunity for sprinkles, people.

I placed my remaining frosting into three bags fitted with piping tips:

• a 2D tip for the purple
• a 32 open star for the electric blue
• a 16 open star for the sky blue

I made roses around the entire border of the cake by swirling my 2D tip in a circle, starting in the middle of a small section of border and swirling my way out and around. I came back in with the electric blue and made large stars by piping a mound of frosting and quickly pulling away. I did these at random, but tried to cover up any weird white space between or under roses. I finished up by using the tiny tip on the sky blue frosting to make the littlest, most adorable stars to fill in any remaining white space. I had about 6 tablespoons of frosting left, and maybe mainlined one bag onto some cake scraps and ate to sample the goods. This is why you never throw away cake scraps until you're totally done decorating. You're welcome.

And then, of course, I added sprinkles. A finishing touch is a finishing touch.

I am definitely the kind of person that refuses to learn a new skill unless I'm immediately good at it (this is why I don't sew or play team sports). This may or may not be an awful way to approach trying new things, but at least I'm willing to give new techniques for a hobby I'm good at a chance. Otherwise I'd still be making nothing but horizontal layer cakes with plain smoothed buttercream. Moral of the blog, try the crazy new vertical cake trend because it's way easier than it looks. And if all else fails you've still got a cake to eat. So it's like the world's best win-win. I'm telling you, that 50% cake to 50% frosting ratio is a game changer!!! And so is this flavor combo. Coconut flavored anything tastes great, but add in that citrus buttercream, and this is quite possibly going to be my new summer flavor go-to. Lemon, schememon. I will say using so many egg whites does give a spongy texture to the cake, so if you're not into that, try using fewer egg whites (I think 4 would've still done the trick). I'll try that next time for posterity and because we're going to eat this cake in a hot minute. Literally. Minutes are hot in Florida. Everything is hot in Florida. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go put up my indoor Halloween decorations because Autumn is my happy place, and I much prefer spooky linings to silver ones. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Rarely has my first attempt at anything yielded such nice results. Where there's a will to eat cake, there's a way.