Recipe Notes

Below you will find tips and tricks to help achieve the best results possible!

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What is an Ombré Cake?

Ombré is a French word that means “shaded.”  An ombre style cake is a cake where the cake layers or frosting (or both) have colors or tones that shade into each other.

How to Make an Ombre Cake

Making an ombre cake may seem like a daunting task, but it's quite simple! To start, you'll need to bake several layers of cake in varying shades of the same color. You can achieve this by splitting your cake batter into three bowls and adding different amounts of the same color food coloring.

Once your cakes are baked and cooled, it's time to assemble your ombre masterpiece. Start by spreading a layer of frosting on your cake stand or plate, then place your darkest cake layer on top. Spread a layer of frosting on the cake, top with strawberry jam, then repeat with the remaining cake layers, going from darkest to lightest. Once your cake is assembled, cover the entire thing in a generous layer of frosting, smoothing it out as you go.

You now have a beautiful ombre cake that's sure to impress your guests. With a little patience and creativity, you can create a stunning layer cake that looks as good as it tastes.

Ingredients

Food coloring – I recommend using gel food coloring that you can find at your local craft store or online. One step better is to use powdered food coloring. I love the powder food coloring as you only need a small amount and the colors are very vibrate. One popular brand that I use is from The Sugar Art. It may seem a little expensive, but it will last a long time.

Freeze dried strawberries – you can find freeze-dried strawberries in the section of your grocery store that has nuts and trail mix. You can also find it online. I have even seen freeze-dried fruit at the Dollar Store as well.

Jam or fruit spread - I used Bonne Maman Intense Strawberry Fruit Spread that was on sale at my grocery store. You can use any seedless jam, jelly, or spread.

Supplies Needed

Mixer (stand mixer or a hand-held mixer)

Cake pans

Offset spatula (optional)

Bench scraper (optional)

Tips and Tricks

I used 2 boxes of Duncan Hines white cake mix for this recipe. I made the cake batter in my stand mixer according to the directions on the box. I then divided the batter into three bowls and added varying amounts of food coloring to get the desired shade. Each shade of cake batter was added to an 8-inch cake pan. My cake pans are 2 inches deep. Depending on your cake pan, don’t fill the pan too full or it will overflow while baking.

You can make and bake the cake layers in advance. Once the cake is cooled, wrap each cake layer individually in plastic wrap and then place freezer safe storage bag. You can assemble your cake with frozen cake layers or let them defrost for about 10 minutes before assembly.  

I made one large batch of frosting for this cake. I then divided it in half and turned one half into strawberry frosting. The strawberry frosting went on the inside of the cake and the plain white frosting was used to decorate the outside of the cake.

This frosting can get soft depending on the temperature of your kitchen. You can always store it in the refrigerator temporality to help solidify the frosting if needed.

Variations

This is the fun part! The cake layers can be customized with any color palette you desire. I think green ombre cake, purple ombre cake, and blue ombre cake would all look incredible.

You can also switch up the jam filling flavor to your liking, or omit it altogether.

This cake has the ombre effect with the cake layers on the inside. You could also choose to decorate the outside with ombre frosting.