Vanilla Lavender Wedding Cake
A gorgeous slightly-rustic DIY-accessible wedding cake - this lightly-flavored Vanilla Lavender Wedding Cake is sure to be a crowd pleaser! (One 8-inch tier and one 6-inch tier makes 24 generous servings.)
Equipment
- 1 10 inch cardboard cake circle (or 8 inch circle; I found 10 inches easiest for transport purposes)
- 1 6 inch cardboard cake circle (I prefer Wilton's center-punched circles to make stacking the tiers easier!)
- Ruler (to stack tiers evenly)
- 6 small lavender bunches (for decorating; I used artificial lavender so it wouldn't wilt in the fridge, but fresh or dried would work as well!)
Ingredients
Lavender Vanilla Wedding Cake Layers:
- 4 ⅞ cups all-purpose flour
- 4 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 3 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter (or 3 sticks, room temperature)
- 2 ½ teaspoons clear vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups egg whites (about 10 eggs, or use egg whites from a carton to avoid wasting the yolks)
- 2 ¼ cups buttermilk (room temperature)
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ teaspoon lavender extract (Reserve and add later; I bought the linked extract from Amazon)
- 1-2 small drops Purple gel food coloring (Optional; reserve and add later)
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting:
- 12 ounces cream cheese (one and a half packages; softened)
- 1 ½ cups butter (three sticks; softened)
- 9+ cups powdered sugar
- 3-5 Tablespoons milk
- 1 Tablespoon clear vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
Instructions
Lavender Vanilla Wedding Cake Layers
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare three 8-inch cake pans and two 6 inch round pans with baker's floured cooking spray, or grease and line with parchment rounds.
- Mix together all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) in a stand mixer with a paddle until fully combined. Mix bits of room-temperature butter slowly into the dry mix, on a low speed. Continue to mix until no large chunks of butter remain, and the mixture looks crumbly.
- Pour in egg whites and mix on low until just incorporated. Mix in the buttermilk and vanilla extract in two installments, on a low speed. Add in and oil, and mix at a low speed until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds.
- Using a kitchen scale, pour 680 grams of batter into each of your 8” pans. Stir lavender extract and purple gel color into the remaining batter, and divide batter evenly between the remaining two 6” pans – I had about 450 grams in each of my smaller pans. (Using the kitchen scale is optional, but guarantees your layers will bake to be the same height.)
- Bake for 35-37 minutes, (or until a toothpick or skewer comes out clean). Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then run an offset spatula or knife around perimeter of the pan to separate the cake from the pan, then remove the layers from the pans. Place cake layers into the freezer for 45 minutes, to accelerate the cooling process.
- Once the layers have fully cooled, they can be leveled and any caramelized bits can be trimmed from the sides / top of the cake using a serrated knife if desired. Be sure the layers are completely cooled or chilled before trimming. If you try to trim the layers while they’re still warm, they will crumble and break.
- While you’re waiting…make your frosting!
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- Beat together softened cream cheese and butter; slowly add in powdered sugar alternating with milk until frosting reaches desired consistency. Add vanilla and salt if needed and beat until well combined.
Assembly
- Place a smear of frosting on your large cake circle (to keep the cake from sliding while you decorate it) and center your large first cake layer in the center of the circle. Spread the layer with frosting). Add your next cake layer on top, and repeat the process with your remaining cake layers.
- Next, repeat the same process with your smaller cardboard circle and cake layers. Of note – if your circles aren’t pre-center-punched, be sure to grab a dowel or straw and make your own hole in the exact center of the circle! This will allow you to center the tier on the base tier later on. (You’ll see in the video I used a bit of simple syrup flavored with 1/8 teaspoon of lavender on the top cake tiers – I’d had to leave them in the oven an extra 7-ish minutes to be sure they were done in the middle, and didn’t want them to taste dry. Optional, but not required!)
- Now you're ready to crumb-coat . If you're unfamiliar with crumb-coating, it's just what it sounds like – spreading a thin layer of frosting over the entire outside of the cake tiers to keep crumbs out of your final layer.
- Once your crumb coat has set (this takes about 5-10 minutes in the fridge), add your final layers of frosting and smooth with a cake scraper or pastry cutter. Don’t stress this part too much; you’ll texture the frosting with an offset spatula in a minute! For my larger tier, I was able to smooth the frosting fairly well free-handed, but I struggled getting the sides smoothed on my smaller one. Trimming the layers just smaller than the cake circle and using the cardboard as a guide for my bench scraper worked well for smoothing the frosting on the top tier.
- Texturing the frosting is fairly straightforward – hold a large offset spatula against the side of the cake, and press gently while rotating the cake on the turntable. One tip – I did find that I got a much smoother and more even line with my spatula when I warmed it a bit in hot water and dried it with a paper towel before each pass around the cake.
Stacking the tiers
- ‘How to Make a Tiered Cake’ by Chelsweets is still my favorite video tutorial to date – sometimes seeing the process can be very helpful!
- (Basically, doweling a tiered cake is done to ensure that the top tier doesn’t crush the lower tier, as well as keeping it centered. I used four shorter cut-to-height plastic straws for my base tier dowels, and one taller one cut at an angle in the center to hold my top tier in place.)
- Grab your ruler for this next part! To center a 6-inch cake on top of an 8-inch cake, push the straws down into the base tier just over one inch from the cake edge, placing them evenly at quarter intervals around the cake. Place your last, tallest straw or dowel into the exact center of the cake, making sure to keep it straight up as you press down.
- Now you’re ready – center the hole in the bottom of your top tier cake circle over the tallest dowel and let the top tier gently down onto the base tier. The dowel will poke into the center of the top tier to hold it in place. I found that my cardboard cake circle showed more than I was happy with, so I piped some extra frosting onto the base of the top tier to hide it.
- Add a few sprigs of lavender to the top, center, and around the base of your cake – and find someone to give you a high-five! (Shoot me a DM on Instagram if you can’t find anyone right away!)
Video
Notes
I made vanilla layers for the base tier of this cake and lavender layers for the top tier, but if you want to make both tiers lavender add another ¼ + 1/8 teaspoon of lavender extract (and more purple gel color if you’d like)!
Please note nutrition information is an estimate and may not be exactly accurate.
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice (1/16th base or 1/8th top)Calories: 745kcalCarbohydrates: 98gProtein: 9gFat: 38g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Did you make this Vanilla Lavender Wedding Cake?
Let me know how it went – or make my day and find me on Pinterest or on Instagram and tag @IntensiveCakeUnit in your photo!
Related posts
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting:
Favorite recipes (for Vanilla cupcakes)
Other recipes you may love -
(Click / tap the photos below to be taken to the recipe pages!)
2 thoughts on “Vanilla Lavender Wedding Cake”