Gluten Free Vegan Rosette Cake

There’s something so satisfying about piping icing and a rosette cake has loads of it. Is the cake half icing? Maybe. For my first attempt at an ombre rosette cake it could have turned out worse, but I think I could make it neater next time.

If you fancy having a go yourself and you haven’t tried before, from this experience I have learnt:

1. Make more icing than you think you need, you will need a lot of buttercream and it’s tiring if you have to keep whipping more up.
2. When piping your top row make sure your roses hang over the edge so that it’s easier to cover the join with the roses on the top.
3. If you need to move your finished cake to a different location, use cake dowelling, or make sure your cake is really cold before travelling so it doesn’t end up leaning after not being perfectly flat on the journey.

I made a vanilla sponge filled with jam and a buttercream with a hint of almond, but use whatever flavour you want. I will put a link to the cake I made in case you want to use it or for quantity reference.

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You will need:

• 4 inch cake tin
• Stand or hand held mixer
• 6 inch cake board (optional)
• Turn table (optional)
• Palette knife
• Piping bag
• #3 star piping tip

Ingredients:

Cake

• 2 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 6 tbsp cold water
• 80g (4 tbsp) hard vegetable shortening
• 280g (1½ cups) caster sugar
• 240g (1 cup) gluten free flour
• ½ tsp xantham gum
• Pinch salt
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 240ml tinned coconut milk
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

Buttercream

• 240g-280g (1-1¼) hard vegetable shortening
• 750g- 875 (6¼-7¼ cups) powdered icing sugar
• 75ml-88ml tinned coconut milk
• ½ tsp almond essence
• Gel food colour

Jam for filling if desired.

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Step 1

Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F gas mark 3)

I essentially used this cake recipe without the lemon to make a cake instead of cupcakes. I used golden caster sugar in mine which gave them the darker colour, but feel free to use regular caster sugar. Follow the steps in the above recipe or your cake recipe of choice.

Fill the tins to three quarters full, using any extra batter to make one or two additional cupcakes. Bake three deep layers in four inch cake tins. Set your baked cake aside to cool completely.

Step 2

To make the buttercream, cream the vegetable shortening, then beat in the sugar a bit at a time until light and fluffy. The buttercream will be quite thick at this point.

Step 3

Whisk the coconut milk to remove any lumps or separation from the tin. Combine with the almond extract and add to the rest of the buttercream. Beat with a stand or hand held mixer for five minutes to ensure the icing will hold its shape.

Step 4

Place your cake board or baking paper onto the turntable if using. Tape the baking paper to the turntable to keep it in place or skip if you are using a cake board. Wipe a small bead of buttercream in the centre and place the bottom layer of cake on top, this will hold your cake in place as you decorate.

Step 5

Spread a layer of jam on the cake followed by a layer of buttercream, before adding the next cake layer. Repeat to stack all three layers of cake. Straighten up the cake and smooth the filling to make the sides of the cake flat. Speed chill in the freezer for ten minutes to make sure that you keep the shape you’ve just created.

Step 6

Cover the outside of the cake in buttercream, smoothing using a palette knife. Focus on the shape of the cake rather than making the sides look smooth, as this will be covered anyway. Speed chill in the freezer for five minutes.

Step 7

While the cake is chilling, divide the remaining buttercream into four equal sections. Add royal blue gel food colour to one piece of buttercream for the darkest blue and mix until the colour is even. Transfer to a piping bag with a #3 star tip and pipe on to the bottom of the cake in a circular spiral motion.

Step 8

Squeeze any remaining blue icing out of the piping bag and mix a spoonful of it into another section of icing to create a shade lighter than the first layer, keep adding until you get the desired colour. If you run out of the original blue icing then use more food colour. Pipe in the same icing bag to give slightly darker tinges to the outside of the roses. Pipe your next layer on to the cake, starting the row in the centre of bottom roses.

Step 9

Mix the third bit of white icing in the same bowl as the last colour, so that the traces for the previous colour will give it a hint of colour without actually adding any, transfer to the same piping bag and pipe on to the cake. Make sure to go up to and slightly over the top of the cake with this layer.

Step 10

For the top roses just add the final bit of white icing to the same piping bag, this will tinge the edges with blue. Try to line your roses up with the gaps between the top layer of edge roses.

And you’re done!

Thanks for reading 😊