Blue Ombré Ruffle Cake

A ruffle cake for a boy? Sure, why not! As long as it's not super frilly ruffles in "girl" colours, ruffles would totally work for a boy. So for this cake, I went with a blue ombré "straight" ruffle buttercream cake. 

The cake is a tall, 4-layer Devil's Food Cake, filled with 3 layers of whipped dark chocolate ganache. I used crusting "American" buttercream for the ruffles because I find that it holds up better than Swiss meringue buttercream ruffles, especially on super hot days. 

blue ombré buttercream ruffles

With ruffles, I find it easier to dye the buttercream for the darkest shade first, and then gradually lighten it by adding more white buttercream for the subsequent ruffle layers. To get this nice shade of blue, I mixed Wilton's Royal Blue with some Delphine Blue food gel. I used piping tip no. 104, and piped the buttercream with the same technique as this pink ruffled elephant cake. 

when being blue is a good thing

Each shade of blue made up 4 layers of ruffles on the cake. Think I used a total of six shades of blue and a final layer of white buttercream for the ruffles! 

six shades of blue!

To top the cake, I made a fondant figurine of the birthday boy's favourite stuffed bunny. The actual stuffed toy is pretty flat! So, I had to make the figurine flat too, of course. 

the birthday boy's fave stuffed toy*

cute l'il fondant bunny

flat from the side

view of the wings at the back

The bunny's head is deceivingly large, so it's pretty heavy in relation to the body. I had to let the head dry separately from the body before placing it on top so that the weight of the head wouldn't cause the body to go out of shape. 

in the cake box*

The bunny has pink wings on its back and a small pink ribbon on one of its ears. Once the head and body were dry, I attached the pieces together with some royal icing, using a toothpick for support. To help stand the bunny figurine on top of the cake, I used long BBQ skewers, making sure that the skewers hit the cake board once they were poked in. This provides support for the heavy figurine and prevents it from sinking into the cake. I then placed the bunny through the skewers, lining them up with holes that I pre-made on the bunny's feet before it dried. 

lovely blue ruffles & a sweet bunny on top

I added the birthday boy's name, cut out of fondant using letter cutters, and stood them up on the cake board after they had fully dried, using some royal icing. 

close up of the bunny 

It's a rustic, simple buttercream cake, perfect for a 1st birthday celebration with with birthday boy's loved ones. Apparently he was pretty cranky at his party, but luckily, his mummy managed to snap a few pics when he wasn't crying! Happy 1st Birthday, little Jayden!

Birthday boy Jayden*

One Happy Family!*

*pics courtesy of Jayden's mummy