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This cake is all about soft, overlapping marks: lavender beside blush pink, a few tiny flowers and a little white bow. Underneath is a lemon sponge with a thin raspberry jam filling. A palette knife creates the texture, so you do not need perfectly smooth piping to make the decoration feel deliberate.
An original Kumora recipe inspired by the linked cake design. The linked reference is decorating inspiration, not evidence of a kitchen-tested result from this recipe. The cover is identified in its caption.
Before you start
- Digital kitchen scale
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
- Mixing bowls, silicone spatula and cooling rack
- Offset spatula, cake board and turntable
- Piping bags and parchment paper
- Two 6-inch round pans
- Small rounded palette knife
- Fine round piping tip and small star tip
Keep the cake bright, but the colors quiet
Rub the lemon zest into the sugar before beating it with the butter. This distributes the fragrant oils. The milk remains the main liquid; a small amount of lemon juice adds brightness without replacing the entire liquid system.
Use thick, seedless raspberry jam for the filling, inside a buttercream dam. A thin layer is enough to contrast with the frosting and helps keep the cake level.
Find the buttercream sweet spot
For palette-knife decoration, the base coat should be chilled and firm, while the colored frosting should be soft enough to spread without dripping. If both are warm, the new colors will drag through the base.
Load a pea-sized amount on the back of the knife. Press the rounded edge against the cake, then sweep and lift. Practice a few marks on parchment: a thick ridge at the start and a thin edge at the finish are part of the effect.
Build a balanced patchwork
Place three or four lavender marks around the cake first, then add pink between them. Leave some ivory visible. Work around the cake instead of finishing one crowded patch before looking at the other side.
Add a handful of small buttercream flowers where two colors meet. For the bow, use a fine round tip and pipe two simple loops. A few small dots give a pearl effect without needing hard decorations.
Repair without starting over
If a swipe is too thick or the color is muddy, chill the cake until firm and gently lift away just that section with a clean knife. Add a small fresh patch, then leave it alone.
Cover and refrigerate the cake for up to 3 days. The texture is forgiving during transport, but the buttercream still needs a cool car and a level surface.
Lemon and raspberry palette-knife cake
- Makes, at 1×
- One 6-inch, two-layer cake; 8 slices
- Prep
- 1 hr 15 min
- Baking
- 32 min
- Start to finish
- About 3 hr 40 min
Cool the layers completely, then chill the coated cake before applying colored swipes.
Original recipe draft · not yet kitchen-tested. Baking times are estimates; use the doneness checks in the method.
Ingredients
Cake
Filling
Buttercream
Decoration
Let’s make it
- Heat the oven to 175°C / 350°F conventional (155°C fan). Grease two 6-inch (15 cm) round cake pans, line their bases with parchment, and set them on the middle rack when baking. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together.
- Beat the cake butter and sugar for 3–4 minutes until noticeably lighter. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl between additions. Add the vanilla. Rub the lemon zest into the sugar before creaming, and beat in the lemon juice after the eggs.
- On low speed, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions. Stop when the last streaks of flour disappear; do not keep beating.
- Divide evenly between the prepared pans and level. Bake for 25–32 minutes, checking toward the early end. The centers should spring back lightly and a skewer should emerge without wet batter. Cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then turn onto racks and cool completely.
- Beat the buttercream butter for 4 minutes. Add the sifted icing sugar in four additions on low speed. Add cream, vanilla and salt; beat until smooth, then mix on low for 2 minutes to reduce air pockets. Reserve 100 g each for pink and lavender, plus 60 g plain for flowers and a bow.
- Level the cooled layers. Spread a thin layer of frosting on the bottom cake and pipe a dam around its rim. Spread the jam inside the dam, add the top layer, crumb-coat and chill for 20 minutes.
- Apply an ivory final coat and chill for another 20 minutes. Tint the reserved portions pale pink and lavender. Stir each with a spatula until smooth and spreadable.
- Use the back of a small palette knife to apply short colored swipes to the cold base coat. Begin with a few lavender patches and add pink between them, keeping some ivory visible.
- Pipe small white or colored flowers with a small star tip. Add dots and a bow with a fine round tip. Chill until stable before moving the cake.
Contains wheat, eggs and milk. Lemon zest and juice are added to the basic vanilla batter, not substituted for the milk. Choose thick jam rather than a runny fruit sauce.
The little details
- Use zest from the yellow skin only; the white pith can taste bitter.
- Stop before every inch is covered: the ivory gaps are part of the design.
- Keep one palette knife for each color or wipe it between marks.
Your questions, answered
Do I need a special cake palette knife?
A small food-safe offset spatula with a rounded end works. A very wide knife makes it harder to control small patches.
Why is the base coat coming off?
The base is probably too warm or the colored frosting is too stiff. Chill the cake and soften the colored buttercream slightly before trying again.
Can I use another filling?
A thin layer of strawberry jam or plain buttercream works. Avoid a watery filling, which can shift the layers and soften the crumb.
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