When I learned my former rowing coach and good friend was expecting her first child, after congratulating her, I immediately offered to make her a gender reveal cake. She informed me she already knew she was going to have a boy, to which I responded, “sooo, is that a yes?” I decided on a space cake theme after a bit of brainstorming. to figure out the design I wanted to go with as well as the flavors I wanted to try and the end result is fantastic.
Making this cake for my friend was such a fulfilling experience. I hope you can get as much joy from this process as I did. I’d recommend giving yourself plenty of time to do this so you aren’t under any sort of time crunch. The time I listed to complete this recipe was a conservative estimate but may not be super accurate for you. I made the cakes one day, the frosting the next, the fondant molds the third, and assembled on the fourth. While the cake can be fully assembled in one day, its going to be a long day. On to the recipe!
Cake Notes
If you don’t have cake flour, you can make you own by diluting AP flour with cornstarch. I used this recipe, converted to metric. So 1 cup of flour is 120 grams and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch is 8 grams. Anyway, combine the ingredients as I say in the recipe below, no special tricks or tips here. When it comes to fillings in the cake, I used raspberry jammy bits from king arthur flour. They paired really well with the pear jam I made, specifically for this recipe. The title is a poor attempt at a pearl jam reference.
You can choose whatever flavor combination you think will taste good and the cake is delicious on its own. I made a variation of this cake for my wife’s birthday. It had a blueberry jam with a whipped cream frosting between plain white cake. The outside of the cake was decorated with vanilla bean buttercream frosting and fresh blueberries. There are plenty of combinations to try.
Once the cakes are baked and cooled, wrap them in cling film and toss in the freezer until ready to use. If you’re making everything in one day, I think you can probably just store them in the freezer to chill them down a bit and make easier to frost.
Vanilla Bean Frosting Tips
Nothing really important to say here except it is actually helpful to sift the powdered sugar. Didn’t do that with a batch one time and it wasn’t as smooth. When dying the frosting, add a little bit of dye at a time and adjust as needed to get the desired color.
Space Cake Assembly Tips
When leveling your cakes, a serrated knife is recommended since the cake will be rather sticky and will not slice well with a straight edged knife. When piping the ring around the edge of the cake, a second ring can be added to ensure no jam spills out of the side of the cake. The pear jam I made was not very thick, even with the added pectin so I was nervous about the jam leaking out. If you’re using a different jam that’s plenty thick, a single ring of frosting is fine. After finishing the top layer, apply the crumb coat and place in the fridge for ten minutes to cool. This makes applying the dyed frosting so much easier.
Create pink, blue, and purple, and black colored frosting in separate bowls. Reserve a bit of frosting in case you run out of one color and need to make more. Using an uneven spatula, apply dabs of the pink, blue, and purple food coloring to the cake and spread the frosting in a thin layer covering the cake. The colors will look like a camo-style arrangement on the cake and that’s how its supposed to look. Place the cake in the fridge to chill for ten minutes.
Apply a thin layer of the black frosting to the cake. Using your pastry scraper, scrape away parts of the black frosting until the pink, blue, and purple starts to poke through. Once you have reached the desired effect, apply the edible stars, dusting powder and diluted frosting. Less is more with these finishing touches so keep that in mind when decorating.
More Assembly Notes
Once the frosting is done and dusted, apply the fondant and final decorations. This is you chance you express yourself through this cake and make it your own. I hope you enjoy the process as much as I did.
Space Cake
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Fine mesh sieve
- piping bag
- Fondant molds not necessary, but they look cool
- rotating cake stand needed for frosting the cake
- 3 8" cake pans
- uneven spatula
- pastry scraper
- 8" cake round
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
- 374 grams Cake flour
- 350 grams white sugar
- 16 grams Baking powder
- 5 grams Salt
- 170 grams unsalted butter, room temp 12 Tbsp
- 266 ml Buttermilk, room temp
- 4 large egg whites room temp
- 1 large egg room temp
- 13 grams Clear vanilla extract
- 115 grams raspberry jammy bits optional, but highly recommended
Vanilla Buttercream Ingredients
- 454 grams Unsalted Butter, softened 4 sticks worth
- 720 grams Powdered Sugar sifted
- 13 grams vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 59 grams Heavy cream or half&half
Filling and Decorating Items
- Fondant as much or as little as you want to use
- gel food coloring black, pink, purple, and blue for the frosting. Red, gold, yellow, and orange for the fondant.
- 400 grams Pear jam recipe here: https://trophyhusbandbakeshop.com/?p=581
- edible glitter, edible stars, edible dusting powder
Instructions
Cake Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
- Spray the cake pans with non-stick baking spray. Line the bottom with a round of parchment paper and spray again.
- Whisk the egg whites, egg, and clear vanilla extract in a small bowl and set aside.
- Cut the butter into 1" pieces and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the cake flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt and mix on low for 15 seconds. With the mixer still on low, add the butter pieces one at a time. Let the butter mix into the flour mixture before adding the next piece.
- Once all of the butter has been added, slowly stream in the buttermilk and mix until well combined. Scrape down the bowl.
- Add ⅓ of the egg mixture to the bowl of the stand mixer and mix on medium low until incorporated. Continue two more times until all of the egg mixture has been added. Scrape down the bowl to ensure the mixture is well combined.
- Add the jammy bits in and mix on low speed until just incorporated.
- Divide the cake batter evenly between the three cake pans.
- Bake the cakes in the center rack of your oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out mostly clean with a few crumbs.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for ten minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Wrap the cakes in cling film and store in the freezer until ready to use.
Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting
- Using a stand mixer, beat the butter on medium for 2 minutes. Add the vanilla bean paste and mix again until incorporated.
- Slowly add in the sifted powdered sugar a bit at a time keeping the mixer on low when first starting. Mix until all of the sugar has been added and the mixture is well combined
- Add the heavy cream and mix on medium high for 4 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, beat the mixture to get rid of any air bubbles.
- Cover the frosting and place in the fridge until ready to use.
Assembly and Decoration Instructions
- Take the cakes out of the freezer an hour before assembling to thaw. Once thawed, cut the tops of the cakes so that they're level and thus easier to stack.
- While the cakes are thawing, prepare your fondant decorations. Knead the fondant, add color as necessary, and press into molds to create the shapes you'd like to finish your cake with. If you're not using fondant, skip this step obviously.
- Take the frosting out of the fridge and let it sit out for 15 minutes. Mix the frosting with a wooden spoon to help make it more workable. Fill one piping bag with frosting and cut a 1/2" hole at the tip of the piping bag.
- Pipe a small circle of frosting in the center of the cake round and place the first cake down in the center of the cake round. Pipe a continuous line around the edge of the cake, taking care to not have any cracks or openings.
- Spread a layer of pear jam inside of the circle of frosting. Place the second cake in top and repeat. Lay the third cake bottom side up.
- Pipe a thin layer of frosting around the entire cake to create a crumb coat. Smooth with a pastry scraper and place in the fridge to chill for ten or so minutes.
- In separate bowls, dye the frosting so you have blue, pink, and purple. Leave enough to make black frosting to cover the cake.
- Take the chilled cake out of the fridge and using the uneven spatula, apply dabs of the blue, pink, and purple frosting. Using the pastry scraper, smooth the frosting into a uniform layer. Take care not to mix the colors too much, you don't want it turning to mud.
- Place cake in the fridge to chill for ten or so minutes. While the cake is chilling, dye some frosting black in a clean bowl.
- Take the cake out of the fridge and using the uneven spatula and pastry scraper, apply the black frosting in a thin uniform layer.
- Scrape away the black frosting in sections until the blue, pink, and purple frosting underneath starts to peek through. Once frosting is to your satisfaction, dust with edible dusting powder, glitter, and stars.
- Once the desired effects have been achieved, add the fondant molds to the cake as desired. Once done, take a bunch of pics so you can brag about it later. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week. Leave out at room temperature for 30-60 minutes before serving to allow frosting to warm up.
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