This stunning cake uses LorAnn’s liquid gel food colorings to create a Victorian style, Lambeth cake perfect for your fall celebrations.
Lambeth style cake is the method of “over-piping” a cake with intricate designs of piped details, scrolls and garlands, over top one another in rows to give impressive depth and layering to the cake. The Lambeth cake was a popular cake technique in Europe in the 19th century. Today, this cake design is buzzing and professional cake designers have seen a surge of Lambeth cake orders due to the rise in Victorian TV shows like Bridgerton, The Great British Bake-Off, and The Crown.
Picking the right food coloring for your Lambeth designs
Color is a big part of creating a lavish and gorgeous Lambeth cake. The variety of colors and piping designs that go into creating a Lambeth cake is rewarding, but also time-consuming. When coloring your frosting for Lambeth cakes, we recommend using gel food colors so you can achieve the bold and vibrant colors you are looking for quickly and with less drops. Gel food colorings are highly pigmented colorings, so bakers are able to achieve the desired coloring results in less drops than other food colorings, which is a huge cost-affective and time plus when creating your Lambeth cake color palette. Especially if you are a professional cake designer and have many orders piling up in your queue!
Why Do Gels Only Take A Few Drops To Achieve Desired Color?
Like most gel food colorings/paste, LorAnn’s Liquid Gel Food Colors are water-based and contain glycerin, where the semi-thick coloring creates a more concentrated form of food coloring and most colors can be achieved in 3-4 drops! This is a major reason why gel food colorings are the preferred colorings by professional bakers and candy makers. LorAnn’s Liquid Gel Food Colors are packaged in a convenient squeeze bottle dispenser for 1 oz. and 4 oz. sizes. This helps easily squeeze, gel food color drops into your creation since they are thicker in consistency.
Materials Needed for Lambeth Cake
1-2 large piping tips like 1M or 4B, depending on how many colors you plan on using
Petal Tip
Small round tips – Round Tip 3, Open Star Tip 13, etc.
Disposable Piping Bags or Reusable Piping Bags
Variety of Gel Food Colorings – For this Lambeth Cake we used Coral, Orange, and Lime Green and created multiple shades in light to dark.
Cake Scraper
Luster dusts, edible god leafs, and sprinkles – Don’t forget the pumpkins to make fall inspired! Our favorite sprinkle mixes come from Sprinkle Pop and they have a ton of really cute NEW sets for fall.
Piping Tutorial
- Cover your cake completely with buttercream (colored and flavored how you wish) to create your base. Smooth the cake with a scraper.
- With the leftover buttercream separate into three or more bowls depending on how many colors you wish to use. Use LorAnn gel colors to color your desired frosting options. Pro Tip: In 1-2 bowls start with 1-2 drops each of colors to create light, pastel color(s) and then with the remaining bowls use 3-4 drops for a more vibrant hue.
- Place colored frostings into piping bags fitted with a variety of tips.
- Pipe a cake border (like a shell border or any preferred border design) at the bottom of the cake with a 1M tip or any other desired tip.
- Not pictured below but if desired, using another tip (like a 4B tip) pipe a second row above the cake border to create a fuller bottom and a bolder cake.
- Using a biscuit cutter or another round tool, lightly indent half circles into your cake to help create a guide for piping the draped frills or garlands.
- Using a petal tip, pipe the half circles to create your gorgeous draped row.
- Using a small round tip, build another draped frill/garland above the first draping to build another intricate row.
- Top your cake with any cake design you wish. Add sprinkles, luster dust, edible gold leaf, etc. to make your own unique Lambeth cake design. Do not be afraid to have fun with this cake! The more rows built on top of each other the more flamboyant and lavish your cake will be.
Get Your Swiss Buttercream Recipe For Your Lambeth Cake!
Ingredients
2 ¾ sticks salted butter
6 large egg whites, room temperature
1 ¼ (250g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon LorAnn Butter Vanilla Bakery Emulsion
3-4 drops Assorted Liquid Gel Food Colors (We used Coral, Orange and Lime Green)
Pinch of salt
Directions
- Before starting, wipe down the mixing bowl, whisk attachments, and all other equipment with white vinegar to ensure there is no fat residue on anything.
- Add the egg whites and sugar to a stand mixer bowl and set over a double boiler.
- Stir constantly until the egg whites reach 140°F-144°F. Remove from the heat and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Using a stand mixer, whip the egg white and sugar mixture on high speed using the whisk attachment until medium-stiff peaks form.
- Turn mixer down to the lowest speed and slowly add the softened butter in chunks.
- Next, add the butter vanilla flavor and whip on high speed for 8 minutes.
- Place the bowl back over your double boiler to soften the butter a bit more, about 30-60 seconds until small puddles form at the bottom of the bowl (this process is called tempering).
- Transfer to the paddle attachment and beat for 5 more minutes on low speed until it is shiny and completely smooth.
- Divide buttercream into separate bowls and color using LorAnn Liquid Gel Food Colors of choice.
*Double this recipe if you want more buttercream for cake decorating.
