Midnight Galaxy Cake
A gorgeous dark theme take on the galaxy dessert trend that is easy to achieve and fun to make! Paint with buttercream!
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 1/2 cups (430 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups (265 g) caster sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (125 g) unsalted butter
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) milk
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp Greek yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 5 drops purple foodgel + 5 drops pink food gel PURPLE
- 5 drops blue food gel+ 5 drops teal food gel BLUE
- 8 drops teal food gel GREEN
- 4 tbsp cocoa powder +10 drops black food gel BLACK
Purple Frosting
- 1 batch Swiss meringue buttercream frosting
- 12 drops purple food gel
- 12 drops pink food gel
- 2 tsp boysenberry flavouring
Chocolate Planets
- 4 cups (800 g) dark chocolate, melted
- 1 1/2 cups (300 g) white chocolate, melted
- 6 drops blue candy food gel
- 6 drops pueple candy food gel
- 6 drops blue candy food gel
Black And Green Frosting
- 1/2 batch Swiss meringue buttercream frosting
- 5 drops purple foodgel + 5 drops pink food gel PURPLE
- 5 drops blue food gel+ 5 drops teal food gel BLUE
- 8 drops teal food gel GREEN
Decorations
- sugar crystals sprinkles
Instructions
Chocolate Planets
- For this you can either use coloured candy melts or you can colour the chocolate yourself.
- To colour the white chocolate, split it into three mixing bowls. Add the different chocolate food gels and mix until well combined.
- To make the large and small spheres you’ll need some special molds. If you google the following, you’ll find the ones I used in the video: LARGE SPHERE MOULD: Martellato Polycarbonate Chocolate Mold Half-Sphere 100mm, 2Cavities. SMALL SPHERE MOULDS: Martellato Polycarbonate Chocolate Mold Half-Sphere 50mm, 8 Cavities
- Splatter each coloured chocolate in the spheres using a small spoon. Then let it chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Then add the dark chocolate in the sphere mold. Use the back of a small spoon to spread the chocolate all around the half spheres then turn the molds upside down into a baking tray to empty it of excess chocolate. Add the spheres back in the fridge to chill for 1hour.
- These molds are really smooth so the half sphere chocolates will come out really easy. Place one half of the chocolate spheres onto a warm frypan to slightly melt it and sandwich it with another sphere. Use a finger to go around the seam. Place the spheres back in the fridge until you’re ready to place them on the cake.
Purple Frosting
- Add the purple and pink food gel along with the boysenberry flavouring to the frosting and mix until well combined.
Black And Green Frosting
- Split the frosting into two bowls with more in one bowl than the other. Add black food gel to the bowl with more frosting and mix until well combined. Add the teal food gel to the other bowl and repeat.
Coloured frosting.
- This is the frosting you’ll use to get the galaxy effect. Split the frosting into three separate bowls. Use the colour combinations to colour each bowl of frosting.
Cake
- Please note: To make the 6 layered cake you see pictured; you’ll need to double the cake recipe only. All other measurements are enough to fill, crumb coat and finish decorating the cake.Preheat a fan-forced oven to 140°C (275°F) or a conventional oven to160°C (320°F). Spray three 20 cm (8 in) cake tins with oil spray and line the bottoms with baking paper. Set aside.
- Add the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to a large mixing bowl and mix with a hand mixer until well combined.
- Next, add the softened butter and mix on low speed until the mixture reaches a crumbly, sand-like texture.
- Add the eggs, milk, oil, Greek yoghurt, boysenberry flavouring and vanilla, and mix on low speed until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. Scrape down the side of the bowl and mix for another 20 seconds.
- Split the batter into four separate bowls. Colour each one in the three different colours using the colour combinations listed in the ingredients list.
- Add each coloured batter into a separate piping bag and pipe little squiggles of the batter in each cake tin alternating between each one.
- Bake for 50–60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle a cake comes out clean. If the toothpick is coated with wet batter, continue baking, for 10 minutes at a time, until fully baked.
- Allow the cakes to cool to room temperature in the tins, then chill them in the fridge overnight. Chilling your cakes overnight makes them easier to trim and decorate, so I always bake my cakes the day before I decorate them.
- To trim your chilled cakes, use a cake leveller or large serrated knife to carefully trim the crust off the top of each cake before you trim each cake in half. You’ll end up with 6 layers of cake.
- To crumb coat your cake, add a dab of purple frosting onto an 8” cake board or flat serving plate. Use a small offset spatula to spread the frosting around before adding the first cake layer. Gently press down the centre of the cake layer to make sure it’s stuck to the frosting underneath.
- Add the purple frosting to a piping bag and frost a ring around the top of the cake. Fill the centre with more frosting. Use your small offset spatula to smoothen out the frosting before you add the next layer of cake. Repeat with the remaining layers.
- Add more frosting around and top and sides of the cake. Use the small spatula to smoothen out the top and sides of the cake, taking care to fill in any gaps in between each layer of cake.
- Use a cake scraper (otherwise known as a bench scraper) to smoothen out the frosting on the sides and top. Get it as neat as you can. This should just be a neat, thin layer of frosting which is aimed at trapping any cake crumbs so that random bits of cake crumbs don’t show up on the final layer of frosting. Chill for 2 hours or overnight.
- Add the black and green frosting into two separate piping bags and frost the cake with black frosting to begin with. Use a cake scraper to spread the frosting around the top and sides of the cake. It doesn’t have to be 100% perfect but just make sure it’s fairly even. Then frost some of the green frosting on the top and sides of the cake and repeat. Pop it back in the fridge for 3 hours to chill completely.
- Now the fun part! Making the galaxy! This part is all about layering.Layers upon layers upon layers! So just have fun with it. I used some sponge brushes. I bought them from my local craft supply store. Just give them a wash before you use them. Go around the cake layering each colour on top of one another until you’re happy with the galaxy effect.
- To finish the cake, add the sugar crystal rock sprinkles at the darkest spots of the cake to make them look like space rocks floating around your cake!
Video
Notes
Storage
Cake can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days.
Tools
Large sphere mould: Martellato Polycarbonate Chocolate Mold Half-Sphere 100mm, 2 Cavities
Small sphere moulds: Martellato Polycarbonate Chocolate Mold Half-Sphere 50mm, 8 Cavities
Nutrition
Calories:339kcal | Carbohydrates:29g | Protein:5g | Fat:20g | Saturated Fat:13g | Polyunsaturated Fat:1g | Monounsaturated Fat:5g | Trans Fat:1g | Cholesterol:23mg | Sodium:105mg | Potassium:254mg | Fiber:3g | Sugar:13g | Vitamin A:142IU | Vitamin C:1mg | Calcium:80mg | Iron:4mg
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