Hair. Thats probably what you thought when you first saw the title of this post wasn’t it? You probably either sighed like a hipster because ombre hair is now so mainstream, or you rushed to click it because you thought you’d finally found a how-to guide about dying your hair to achieve the ombre look. Well, I’m not sorry to disappoint you, because whilst ombre hair may go wrong and you may have to pay to repair the possibly permanent damage, with this ridiculously simple recipe, you definitely cannot go wrong. Seriously.
Today I’m feeling blue. Not blue in a sad way, blue in a my-name-may-be-strange-but-my-mother-is-Beyonce-so-I’m-fabulous-by-default way.
So today its – yes, you guessed it…BLUE OMBRE ICING!
When you look at pictures you probably think “oh my goodness how long must that take! That looks so hard, what even?!” Thing is, its not hard at all. Its so easy thats its almost hard to believe! Bake your favourite cake and fill it with whatever icing you like and then follow the instructions below!
You will need:
Butter
Icing Sugar
Milk
Gel/liquid food colouring (gel is more ideal if you can get it) – probably two packets.
I haven’t put measurements because how much icing sugar and butter you need depends entirely on how your icing you’re cake and how big your cake is.For example even if its a small cake, you’ll need more icing than normal if you’re going to pipe roses all around it. Measure out (or blag it like I do) appropriately. I always say do more than you think you need just in case something goes wrong you’ve got some extra icing to repair it!
Start off by making plain icing by creaming together your butter and sugar and adding a drop of milk if the mixture becomes too thick. Although since we’re adding quite a viscose mixture to our icing, we want it fairly thick because the food colouring will make the icing thinner and more viscose anyway.
This was mine:
Very very little by very very little, add in some of the food colouring until you get the shade of the lightest colour you want to put on the bottom layer of your cake.
This was mine:
Then pipe or smooth it right onto your cake!
Then add some more food colouring to your icing mix to make it slightly darker, BUT, make sure you keep checking the consitensy of your icing. If it becomes too runny, add some more icing sugar to thicken it, and then add some more food colouring to get the right shade to need to make the darker colour that goes on top of your first shade…and PIPE! Also if it gets TOO thick, add a drop of milk.
The last addition of food colouring is the most important because you need to make it distinctly darker, however you also need to make sure that your icing is not runny at all and its the right consistency for the way your icing your cake! if it gets too runny, follow the same instructions as before: add more icing sugar, then add more food colouring to get the right shade.
As you can see, mine looks a bit runny! I added some more icing sugar and made up the food colouring before I piped!
*Tip* – make sure the room you’re piping/icing in isn’t too warm because with the food colouring it makes the icing even more susceptible melting a little. Also remember, once you’ve finished icing your cake, pop it in the fridge for about 10 minutes so the icing can set well!
Pipe away!
Et voila! A ridiculously easy ombre iced cake! Now go and post it on Instagram and Facebook and watch your friends fawn over your crazy baking skills – and never tell them how easy it is!
Enjoy!