Autumn Stained Glass Cake

You all have been asking for another simple stained glass cake. I hope this is worth the wait! Stained glass hand painting with some piping gel is always so relaxing. With so many different ways to make stained glass cakes, they always turn out so beautiful. So grab your cup of coffee and let’s make some Autumn cakes because as we all know, “Winter is coming”.

Autumn Stained Glass Cake

prep time: 15 MINUTES cook time: 45 MINUTES additional time: 10 MINUTES total time: 1 HOUR 10 MINUTES

Ingredients

For Cake

• 2 & 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 sticks butter, room temperature
• 3 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup sour cream, room temperature

For Chocolate Buttercream

• 1 stick butter at room temperature
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 4 tablespoons heavy cream at room temperature

For Vanilla Buttercream

• 1 stick butter at room temperature
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 4 tablespoons heavy cream at room temperature
• Golden yellow food gel color

For Royal Icing

• 4 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 5 egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Lemon juice
• Black food gel color

For Stained Glass Window

• White fondant
• Orange piping gel
• Green piping gel
• Edible cake write/food marker

For Garnish/Decorating

• Fake Florals

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Vanilla Cake

1. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy on a medium speed for about 2 minutes.
2. Add eggs and vanilla.
3. Beat butter mixture at a medium speed for about 1 minute.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
5. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture while alternating with water. Be sure to start and end with the dry ingredient mix.
6. On a low speed, mix until creamy. You should not need to mix longer than a minute at most. With that said, be sure not to over mix.
7. Pour cake batter into a prepared pan.
8. Bake for 40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
9. Let cool for 10 minutes in pan. After, invert onto cooling rack and let cook entirely.

Chocolate Buttercream

1. Sift 4 cups of powdered sugar & set bowl aside.
2. Cream butter & shortening.
3. Add cocoa powder & vanilla.
4. Scrape down the sides.
5. Place your mixer on the lowest speed & slowly add in your powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time.
6. Do not worry if your buttercream looks crumbly & dry because we will fix that next.
7. Scrape down the sides one last time.
8. With your mixer on, slowly add in heavy cream.
9. Turn mixer up to a medium speed until you have light & fluffy consistency you are looking for (about a minute or so).

Vanilla Buttercream

1. You’ll want to make two batches. Simply double the buttercream ingredients listed above.
2. Sift 4 cups of powdered sugar & set bowl aside.
3. Cream butter & shortening.
4. Blend in vanilla extract.
5. Scrape down the sides.
6. Place your mixer on the lowest speed & slowly add in your powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time.
7. Do not worry if your buttercream looks crumbly & dry because we will fix that next.
8. Scrape down the sides one last time.
9. With your mixer on a medium high speed, slowly add in heavy cream and a few drops of golden yellow food gel.
10. Turn mixer up to a high speed and whip your buttercream until you have light & fluffy consistency you are looking for.

Royal Icing

1. Sift 4 cups of powdered sugar & set bowl aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites and vanilla until frothy.
3. Add the powdered sugar a 1/4 cup at a time, mixing after each addition, to reach the desired consistency. I like to toss in an extra cup to stiffen my royal icing when I’m using it to outline a design.
4. Add in a few drops of black food gel color.
5. Once at the right consistency, place into a piping bag fitted with a small round tip.

Decorating

1. After your cakes have cooled, level your cakes. If you’d like to make this a 4-layer cake, half each cake.
2. Place your first layer onto your cake turntable.
3. Spread a generous amount of chocolate buttercream on top and spread evenly with your straight or offset spatula.
4. Place your next layer of cake, top with more chocolate buttercream, and spread evenly. Continue these steps for all of your layers.
5. To cover your cake in the golden yellow vanilla buttercream, start from the bottom, and while rotating your cake turntable, pipe on your buttercream in an upward motion.
6. Using a cake frosting scraper, straight spatula, or offset spatula you will want to smooth over your buttercream. The best way is to hold your smoothing tool upright and gently pressed against your cake while rotating your cake turntable.
7. You’ll want to continue this until you have a smooth coating. When you’re doing the final smoothing and you notice the texture of the buttercream become a bit ragged there’s an easy fix! Get a bowl of HOT water and dip your tools into the bowl to warm them up. pat dry and smooth. The warm metal will melt the buttercream and give you a nice SMOOTH finish.
8. Smooth the top of your cake with an offset spatula.
9. Set in the fridge and allow to chill for 5 minutes.
10. Remove you cake from the fridge and begin to roll out your fondant.
11. This part requires some quick movement so make sure your cake is frosted and ready to go before preparing your fondant. Fondant will dry out if left out for too long, so it will need to be placed on the cake immediately while it’s still fresh and pliable. If your crumb coat has crusted or the frosting on your cake is dry, lightly mist your cake with water before covering. You’ll need your frosting to be tacky so the fondant can stick to it.
12. Roll out your fondant and with using your cake pan as a template, cut out a circle of white fondant. This will be your topper. Once cut out, place your fondant on top of your cake.
13. If the fondant is not centered, you should be able to gently remove the fondant and re-center it. If the cake gets damaged once the fondant is removed, simply re-frost the cake and chill it until it’s firm. Re-knead the fondant, buttercream and all, and re-roll it and try again. You got this!
14. Using your cake marker, begin to lightly sketch your stained glass window design. I used a simple pumpkin but you can really let your creativity shine and get your ideal Autumn scene here.
15. With your piping bag of royal icing, trace your design with thin lines of royal icing.
16. Grab your piping gel and start to fill in your sections. Green for the pumpkin stem and leaves and of course orange for the pumpkin (if you’re going for a simple pumpkin).
17. All that’s left is to garnish your cake with your fake flowers. I found a bouquet of Autumn flowers that I thought would be perfect for this cake but you can use any flowers you’d like.

Notes

• Room Temperature Ingredients: Be sure to allow your dairy ingredients to reach room temperature. Room temperature ingredients not only combine more effortlessly (no over-mixing needed) but they also trap air so much better. This trap air will expand and produce a fluffy texture during your baking process.
• Prepared Pan: There will always be the “next best way to prepare your pan” article. Simply put however, the most effective way i find in my kitchen is a light rub of shortening around the sides, parchment paper on the bottom of the pan, & a very light dusting of flour (cocoa powder for chocolate baked goods) all throughout.
• You can use this buttercream right away or place it in an airtight container in your fridge until ready to use. Just be sure to whip before using.
• If you’d prefer to skip the shortening, simply swap it out with 1 additional stick of room temperature butter.
• If you’d prefer a more white, stiffer, buttercream then simply omit the butter & replace with 1 additional cup of shortening. Also be sure to swap out the vanilla extract for clear vanilla extract.
• Make sure you sift your powdered sugar. This will help the sugar mix into the butter & shortening smoothly.
• When all your powdered sugar has been added in, the buttercream will appear dry. Don’t raise the alarms. When adding in your milk or heavy cream, your buttercream will start to have the fluffy texture it‘s known for.
• Keep in mind that your heavy cream should be added in 1 tablespoon at a time. I do this way to make sure I am not drowning my buttercream to the point of a soupy mess.
• Also worth mentioning, if desired, you can easily swap out the heavy cream for equal parts of your preferred milk such as whole milk or buttermilk.