Cotton Candy Layer Cake

This pretty pastel-colored Cotton Candy Layer Cake is topped with pink and blue frosting, fluffy cotton candy, and drips of colored white chocolate ganache. Cut into this deliciously moist cake to find layers of swirled pink and blue cotton candy-flavored cake. It's as fun inside as it is out!

This Cotton Candy Drip Cake will be a hit at your next birthday party, baby shower, or any big celebration.

Cotton candy is spun sugar but it has a uniquely sweet flavor which is imparted in this cake.

Each of the marbled pink and blue cake layers is flavored using cotton candy oil and is moist and delicious. The frosting is flavored using cotton candy oil too.

This cake was so much fun to decorate. I frosted the cake using white icing and then added dabs of pink and blue before smoothing out the surface.

I colored white chocolate ganache using pink and blue food coloring and dripped it down the sides of the cake.

Then, I scooped up all the excess pink, blue, and white icing into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and piped a border around the cake. The final touch was adding cotton candy and some swirly pops to the top and cotton candy crunch around the bottom.

I love that this cake is as pretty on the inside as it is on the outside.

RECIPE

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Cotton Candy Layer Cake

Prep Time

1 hr 30 mins

Cook Time

36 mins

 

This festively colored cake will be fun to serve at a birthday party or baby shower. Each pink and blue marbled cake is layered with cotton candy-flavored frosting.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cake, cotton candy cake, drip cake, ganache drips, layer cake

Servings: 12

Calories: 825 kcal

Author: Beth Klosterboer

Ingredients

Cake:

• 2 ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (or 13 oz or 368 grams)
• 1 ½ cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• ¼ teaspoons baking soda
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoons table salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, very soft
• 1 ¼ cups whole milk, divided (room temperature)*
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon cotton candy flavoring

Frosting:

• ¾ cup salted butter, softened
• ¾ cup shortening
• 1 tablespoon cotton candy flavoring
• 32 ounces confectioners powdered sugar
• 3-5 tablespoons heavy whipping cream or whole milk

Pink and Blue Ganache Drips

• 2 ounces pink candy melts
• 2 ounces blue candy melts
• ¼ cup heavy whipping cream, divided
• 4 teaspoons light corn syrup, divided

Optional Decorations:

• cotton candy
• cotton candy crunch
• pink and blue crystals
• pink and blue swirl lollipops

Instructions

Vanilla Cake

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Grease four 6-inch round cake pans with pan release or butter, then line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper.
3. Dust the cake pans with flour, then tap out the excess and set aside.
4. Combine the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl).
5. Blend on low speed for a few seconds using the paddle attachment just to mix the ingredients together.
6. With the mixer turned on low speed, add one small (1-2 tablespoon) chunk of softened butter at a time allowing the butter to mix with the dry ingredients until it resembles course sand before adding another piece of butter.
7. If needed, you can use your hands to break up any large chunks of butter.
8. Stir together ½ cup of the milk with the vegetable oil and add it to the mixing bowl.
9. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Be sure to set your timer and mix this for the entire 2 minutes.
10. Then, scrape the bowl to ensure there are no lumps of flour.
11. Whisk together the eggs and cotton candy flavoring with the remaining milk.
12. Turn the mixer on low speed and slowly pour in half of the egg mixture.
13. Once it is blended, stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl.
14. Turn the mixer back on low speed and slowly add the remaining egg mixture.
15. Mix just until combined.
16. Divide the batter in half (3 cups in each half).
17. Stir 5 drops of pink food coloring into one bowl of batter. Mix only until combined.
18. Then, stir 4 drops of blue and 1 drop of purple food coloring into the other bowl of batter.
19. Spoon dollops of pink and blue cake batter into the cake pans, alternating colors as you fill the pan. Each pan will get 1 ½ cups or 12 ounces of batter in each.
20. Bake the cakes on the middle rack in your oven for 30-36 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean. Rotate the pans after the cakes bake for 24 minutes to ensure the cakes bake evenly.
21. Remove the cakes from the hot oven and tap them once on the counter. This will release air and will prevent too much shrinking.
22. Set the pans on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove the cakes from the pans and set them directly on the cooling rack.
23. Allow the cakes to cool completely.
24. Before frosting, wrap the cooled cakes in plastic wrap and place them in the freezer for about an hour to firm up. This will make frosting and stacking your cakes easier.
25. When ready to frost the cakes, be sure to peel the parchment paper off the bottom of the cakes.

Cotton Candy Frosting

1. Beat the butter in your stand mixer using medium speed until smooth and creamy.
2. Add the shortening and beat until light and fluffy for 3-5 minutes.
3. Scrape down the bowl and add the cotton candy flavoring.
4. Beat until well combined.
5. Sift the powdered sugar over the butter mixture.
6. Start by mixing on low speed then increase the speed to medium and beat until combined.
7. With the mixer running, add two tablespoons of the heavy whipping cream and beat until creamy.
8. If desired, add more cream a little at a time until the frosting is easily spreadable.
9. Assemble the Cake
10. Cut the domed tops off the cakes.
11. Set one cake on a 6-inch round cake board.
12. Spread a ¼-inch thick layer of frosting over the cake.
13. Stack another cake on top and repeat until all four cakes are stacked.
14. Frost the top and sides of the cake.
15. Divide the remaining frosting into two bowls.
16. Color one pink and the other blue.
17. Spread dabs of each color all over the white cake.
18. Smooth out the sides of the cake allowing the pink and blue to blend with the white. Reserve any frosting your scrape off the cake and place it into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. You can use this to decorate the top of your cake.

Pink and Blue Drips

1. Pour 2 ounces of the pink candy melts into a small bowl, then pour on 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream and 2 teaspoons corn syrup.
2. Microwave on high power for 25 seconds, let sit in the microwave for 1-2 minutes, then remove and stir until melted and smooth.
3. If not all melted, heat on high power for 10-second increments, stirring after each until melted.
4. Repeat this process with the blue candy melts, and the remaining cream, and corn syrup.
5. Allow the pink and blue ganache to cool and thicken. You want the ganache to be thin enough to drip but not so thin that it just drips off the side of the cake. It might take up to 30 minutes to cool enough. If it gets too cool, just reheat it to thin it out.
6. Use a spoon, a pastry bag, or a squeeze bottle to drip the ganache over the top edge of the cake, alternating colors.
7. Make the drips varying lengths.
8. Let the ganache dry for 15 minutes before adding decorations to the top of the cake.

Optional Decorations

1. Sprinkle cotton candy crystals around the bottom edge of the cake.
2. Pipe pink and blue swirled frosting over the top edge of the cake.
3. Just before serving top the cake with cotton candy and some lollipops.

Recipe Notes

Note that cotton candy will dissolve once it is exposed to air, so it will only look nice for a short time on top of your cake.

*To warm milk to room temperature, heat it in the microwave for 30 seconds.

You can use white candy melts and food coloring to make your pink and blue ganache.

• Author
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Beth Klosterboer

Hi, I'm Beth Klosterboer, a professional chocolatier & baker, cookbook author, and event planner. I love sharing recipes for happy occasions here on Hungry Happenings. I also create easy fudge recipes to share at HowToMakeEasyFudge.com, rice krispie treat recipes at HowToMakeCerealTreats.com, and easy cookie recipes at HowToMakeEasyCookies.com

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