Two-Tier Birthday Cake with Marshmallow Fondant ~ My first fondant attempt on a two tier cake

I made this cake on my birthday last week. Every year, at Christmas, I used to make homemade fondant and decorate a small fruit cake… but I had never tried fondant on a regular sponge cake… so  to experiment fondant on a two tier cake I made this on my birthday… Bottom layer of the cake was a Vanilla Buttermilk cake and top layer was a Dark chocolate Cake and I layered and lightly crumb coated the cake with Buttercream Frosting and then covered and decorated the cakes with homemade Marshmallow Fondant… I really enjoyed making this cake :) …. 

Vanilla Buttermilk Pound Cake

(Recipe Source ~ Passionate About Baking)

I halved the recipe and baked the cake in an 8” pan

Ingredients:

2 ¼ cup / 240 gm all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

⅔ cup / 150 gm unsalted butter, room temperature

1 ¼ cup / 275 gm sugar

3 eggs

130 ml buttermilk {or substitute recipe below}

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

To make buttermilk substitute 

Take 130 ml milk at room temp; add 1 tsp white vinegar. Let it stand 5-10 minutes. When it curdles, it’s ready.

Method:

• Grease and flour the sides of two baking pans. Line the bottoms and sides with parchment paper.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F
• Sift the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Reserve.
• Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract.
• With beater on low add the flour and buttermilk alternately in three lots.
• Divide the batter between the two pans.
• Bake for 50-60 minutes till golden brown on top and the tester comes out clean.
• Cool completely.

Dark Chocolate Cake

I have made this cake umpteen times and this is one of my most trusted recipes for dark chocolate cake… I only made half amount and baked in a 6” pan

Ingredients:

2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1¾ cups granulated sugar
⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1½ cups water
¾ cup cooking oil
2 eggs
1½ tsp vanilla essence
Method:

• Grease and lightly flour two 9 -inch baking pans. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add water, oil, eggs and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixture on low to medium speed till combined. Beat for 2 minutes on medium to high speed. Pour batter into prepared pans.
• Bake in a 180°C / 350°F for 30-35 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks. Arrange the cake in to desired shape and frost the cake with butter icing or fill and frost the cake with whipped cream. 

You can find the recipe for Butter Cream Frosting here

You can find the recipe for MarshmallowFondant Recipe here

To assemble the cake, torte each of the cake layers horizontally into two thin halves.  Sandwich the cakes with a light spread of buttercream and cover the cake with a thin layer of buttercream. Then cover each cake in rolled fondant and decorate as you like.