Galaxy Cake | 7th Blogiversary

This galaxy cake is a 6 layer tall skyscraper! Rich and moist layers of chocolate cake is sandwiched with creamy mocha ganache and encased in a colourful coat of vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. Then finally, swirled with strokes of fuchsia, midnight blue, and splatters of gold dust for that galaxy cake look.

What You Need to Make a Galaxy Cake

It’s simpler than it looks to make a galaxy cake. All you need is buttercream in a few colours, an offset spatula and a long cake scraper.

Here are the colours that I used to get the galaxy effect. To achieve the specific colours you see in my photos, I used a combination of gel food dye (all by Americolor). The exact measurements are in the recipe:

• Black buttercream – a combo of black and brown food gel
• Purple buttercream – regal purple and violet
• Navy buttercream – royal blue and navy blue
• Pink buttercream – electric pink and dark pink

How to Make the Galaxy Cake Buttercream Effect

Here the steps to getting that galaxy cake effect with buttercream:

1. Crumb coat entire cake in white (neutral) frosting then refrigerate until the frosting is firm
2. Start adding the different colours in random horizontal strokes
3. Using a cake scraper, hold it vertically against the cake and slowly smooth out the strokes, dragging the strokes together and letting the colours blend in
4. Keep adding different colours and blending it across the cake until satisfied with the effect
5. Mix gold food dust with some vodka to make gold food paint – this is for the stars. Using a paintbrush, dip into the food paint and flick it on the cake to get a splattering of stars that resemble the milky way.

Galaxy Cake for My 7th Blog Anniversary 

Happy 7th Birthday to my baby! (Actually, at this point, I’m closer to my 8th blogiversary than my 7th. Apparently still haven’t broken out of my procrastination habit.)

I can’t believe that I’ve been blogging for more than half a decade.

7 years ago, my blog was this dinky little thing on a free platform called Blogspot. I was 17 and I hit publish on my first post ever on April 18th, 2010. I still remember it. It was a recipe for malted chocolate cookies. The pictures were horrendous.

17 year old me never could have imagined where this blog would go and where it could take me. In these past couple of years, my blog has given me so many crazy opportunities which also led me to meet some of the loveliest people on the planet. My work has been featured in magazines (and online) and I also got to collaborate with brands and share my baking with others at their celebrations. But these are not the only reasons why I keep on blogging.

My blog has given my life colour

Without it, I probably would have taken a very straight path of getting an education then a career. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that path, but I’m so grateful for the wonderful opportunities that my blog has given me.

My blog propels me

Yes, I’m occupied all the time with my blog and baking “career” but it’s a good kind of occupied. Yes, my brain never gets a rest from recipe development/recipe planning/comments/emails/client inquiries/invoices/costs analyses/grocery shopping/cleaning the kitchen but it’s a good kind of stress. It’s the kind that tirelessly pushes me to keep going. This mentality spreads into other aspects of my life and it keeps me focused on improving and getting better in every direction.

My blog has given me purpose and a medium for self-expression

I find that my thoughts just flow and make sense when I’m at my keyboard and typing. Whether I’m nervous, uncertain, stressed to the breaking point, happy, hopeful, or nostalgic, whatever it is, it has been so easy to unload a bit of that emotional burden onto this space and feel secure about it. It definitely helps that you guys have been a great audience too (Hi, Kayle).

My blog has become part of my identity

It’s not just that I’m a baker. Being a blogger takes dedication, passion and an unwavering motivation to keep doing. When I say that I’m a blogger, these are the characteristics that I am expressing. When I meet other bloggers, this is what I see in them.

The reason why I started my blog was simple: I liked to eat dessert (lots of it). It’s still true today and that’s one thing that will never change.

7 Lessons I’ve learnt in 7 Years

To cap this all off, I like to look back and see how I have grown. Here are 7 lessons (not necessarily blogging related) that I have learnt in the last year:

1. Nothing is constant except change (ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, turn and face the strange). Accept change, accept things that can’t be changed.
2. Sometimes, things in life are outside of control, BUT there will always be choices. Move forward by making the best of what is within control.
3. Let go of things that didn’t go as planned, ruminating is pointless, and so will thinking about “should haves” and “could haves”
4. Allow time for spontaneity. Just BE. Literally stop and smell the roses.
5. Choose happiness. Always.
6. Self-worth does not depend on accomplishment or achievement or money. Self-worth is not conditional.
7. It’s ok to do what’s best for yourself. And no, it’s not being selfish, it’s about self-care.

More creative cake recipes:

Bacon Chocolate Cupcake (bacon basketweave and bacon compote)

Golden Hazelnut Praline Chocolate Cake (hand painted gold chocolate sail)

Reese Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake (handmade chocolate honeycomb)

Ombre Oreo Cake (chocolate shard wreath)

Recipe for galaxy cake (chocolate mocha) 

Galaxy Cake | Mocha Chocolate

The entire universe, on a cake! A tall layered chocolate cake coated in a colourful blanket of swirled buttercream to achieve this galaxy appearance.

Prep Time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

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Ingredients

  

Chocolate Cake

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttermilk*
• 1 cup strong black coffee
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• * to make buttermilk stir 1 cup milk and 1 tablespoon vinegar together, let sit for 5 minutes

Mocha Ganache

• 10 oz milk chocolate I used callebaut, chopped
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 pkg Starbucks Via Instant Coffee I used Pike Place

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• 300 ml egg whites I use get mine from Costco
• 2¼ cup white sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 4 cups unsalted butter room temp, cut into cubes
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• Americolor Food Gels: Black Brown, Regal Purple, Violet, Royal Blue, Navy Blue, Electric Pink, Deep Pink

Instructions

 

Chocolate Cake

• Preheat oven to 350°F
• Grease 6-inch round baking pans
• Whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl
• In another bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, buttermilk, coffee and vanilla extract
• Slowly add liquids to dry ingredients and stir gently until mixed together
• Pour batter evenly into prepared pans
• Bake 20-25 minutes until the centre of the cake is set

Mocha Ganache

• Place chopped chocolate into a bowl
• Microwave heavy cream until it simmers at the surface
• Pour hot cream over the chocolate into the bowl, let sit for 1 minute
• Stir together until combined, place in fridge to set

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• Fill a pot with water and place on high heat on the stove to boil.
• Whisk together sugar, egg whites, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer
• Once water starts boiling, remove the lid and turn heat down to medium-low
• Place bowl of egg whites and sugar directly on the pot, hovering over the boiling water
• Vigorously whisk by hand until sugar is completely dissolved and mixture is slightly foamy.
• Remove bowl from pot and transfer to the stand mixer
• With the whisk attachment on, whisk on low speed until mixture cools down
• Then increase speed to medium-high and whisk until stiff peaks
• Back on med-low speed, slowly add cubes of butter into the mixture (now a meringue technically)
• At some point, the buttercream will look curdled and gross, THIS IS NORMAL, DON'T PANIC
• Keep adding butter and beating it all together until you reach a silky smooth texture
• Divide buttercream into 5 bowls, add food gels to get 5 different colours:
• For black buttercream: add 3 drops black gel colour and 2 drops brown gel colour
• For purple buttercream: add 1 drop regal purple and 2 drops violet
• For navy buttercream: add 1 drop royal blue and 2 drops navy blue
• For pink buttercream: add 1 drop electric pink and 2 drops deep pink
• For white buttercream: no colour needed

Assembly

• Cut and level off the tops of the cakes as needed to create a flat surface
• Place one layer of cake on a plate/cakeboard and place on a spinning turntable/lazy susan
• Pipe a ring of white buttercream, then spread a layer of mocha ganache within the ring
• Place the second layer of cake on top
• Repeat with the whitebuttercream and ganache until you get to your last layer of cake
• Crumb coat the entire cake with white buttercream, then refrigerate for 20 minutes
• Once cake is cold and crumb coat is hardened, start applying your outer layer (the galaxy part)
• Randomly apply strokes of each colour of buttercream all over the cake
• Using a pastry scraper or spatula, gently smooth out the sides of the cake: place your scraper/spatula gently against the cake and in one motion, turn the lazy susan 360 degrees so that your scraper/spatula ends back where it started. You will drag and smear the different colours and that is GOOD because you want the them to blend together.
• Put excess buttercream that you dragged off the cake into a "waste bowl"
• Keep smoothing it out until you’re happy with how it looks, then smooth out the top of the cake.

Author: chocolate + connie

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: buttercream, cake, chocolate, galaxy, meringue, swiss

Did you make this recipe?

Leave a comment below and tag @chocolateandconnie on Instagram.

Credits

Chocolate cake from Hershey’s