Stork Celebration Cake

how_make

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC and grease and line three 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl using  hand mixer, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and mix until combined.
3. In another large bowl whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. Add some of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, beating until just combined. Pour in ½ the milk and mix until fully incorporated. Repeat with flour mix and milk, finishing with the dry ingredients and until just combined. Fold in sprinkles.
4. Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans. Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely on a rack.
5. Meanwhile, make buttercream: in a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy.
6. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and incorporate until smooth. Add heavy cream, vanilla and salt and beat until smooth and fluffy.
7. Remove about 1 ½ cups of the icing and split into three bowls. Using pink, yellow and blue food colour, mix each to desired colour.
8. Place the bottom layer of the cake on your serving platter and spread with buttercream and sprinkles;; repeat with the second layer of cake. Place the last layer of cake on top then frost the cake entirely  with a crumb coat and refrigerate until firm.  Add a ½ inch thick layer of plain white buttercream.
9. Using an icing comb comb against the side of the cake, slowly turn the cake to scrape off a layer of buttercream. Continue doing this a couple times until the stripes are clean, being sure to wipe the comb clean in-between each turn. Freeze for 30 minutes or until solid.
10. Meanwhile, melt candy melts according to package directions. Transfer to piping bags. On a parchment lined sheet pan, pipe candy melts into balloon shapes.  Stick a wire stick in the bottom while still wet, and turn the tip to coat in chocolate. Let in the freezer until completely hard.
11. Pipe coloured buttercream in the grooves between the white buttercream. Using a flat scraper, go around the cake to remove any excess coloured buttercream. It will smear to begin but since the white buttercream is so cold, only the coloured buttercream will be removed.
12. Using any remaining coloured icing, place into a bag and pipe rosettes on the top of the cake. Decorate cake with balloons and sprinkles!