I first saw this cake design done on a fondant cake. The fondant surface does lend itself to a smooth backdrop for painting a cake with food coloring. However, as most of you know, I’m not a fondant fan. So I grabbed the challenge to make my version of this beautiful balloon cake onto a buttercream cake.

The challenge started with an assortment of supplies:

Assorted craft paint brushes
Small, natural round sponges (from my local craft store)
Paste food coloring
water

The cake needed to be visually amazing on the inside as well, so I chose 3 8″ layers of vanilla cake (my favorite King Arthur Vanilla Cake mix). I colored the layers yellow, pink, and purple. The filling includes layers of fresh fruit puree, and mascarpone whipped cream filling.

The fruit puree is simply 1 1/2 c of fresh berries cooked down for 8-10 min with 1/2 c sugar, 1/2 c water, 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, and 3 Tbsp cornstarch. Strain to remove pulp and seeds, chill.

Mascarpone whipped cream: 1 1/2 c heavy cream, whipped with 3/4 c powdered sugar til stiff peaks form. Add 1 tsp vanilla, and 8 oz mascarpone cheese. Whip til stiff and smooth.

The cake was filled, layered, and then frosted with buttercream frosting til smooth.

Buttercream:

I used 3 sticks of salted butter, 5 c powdered sugar, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, and a few Tbs of heavy cream til smooth, and spreadable.

I chilled the cake for at least 1 hour, to harden the surface. The I starting the “Painting” process. FIRST, put on rubber gloves! I mixed each food coloring with 1-2 Tbsp of water, on a small plate. Using the small round sponges, I dabbed “balloon” shapes around the cake, and over the top. On the sides, I allowed each balloon to “drip” down the side – to give the image of a balloon string! I made “corrections” to the design using a paint brush.

A few coordinating artificial flowers on top completed this design!