Ingredients
Leopard Print Cake
- 2 1/2 cups cake flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3/4 cup butter, softened at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/8 cup cocoa powder, for the chocolate spiral
- Orange food coloring, for the orange spiral
- 3 cups chocolate buttercream frosting
Leopard Print Fondant
- 2 cups light orange fondant
- 1/2 cup chocolate fondant
- 1/4 cup orange fondant
Steps
Leopard Print Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two 8-inch extra-deep cake pans with baking spray and parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and vanilla.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg mixture.
- Alternate adding in the flour mixture and the buttermilk until completely combined.
- Divide batter into 3 bowls, one with two-thirds of the batter and the other two with the last one-third divided.
- Add cocoa to one of the bowls and orange food coloring in the other. Place batters in piping bags.
- Pour half of the white batter between the two prepared pans and create a chocolate swirl in each.
- Top the chocolate swirl with an orange swirl and cover with another chocolate swirl.
- Top each pan with remaining batter, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. Set aside to cool.
- Cut each cooled cake in half. Place a layer on a cake plate and top with 1/2 cup of chocolate buttercream. Repeat until all cake layers are used.
- Cover cake completely with remaining buttercream.
- Roll leopard fondant onto a rolling pin and drape over the cake. Smooth out with your hands and trim the excess fondant from the bottom. (Cake can be placed on a can with a smaller diameter than the cake itself so the fondant drapes evenly and can be trimmed easily.)
- Serve immediately. Cake will keep up to 5 days covered.
Leopard Print Fondant
- Roll chocolate fondant into a 3-by-12-inch rectangle.
- Form orange fondant into a 1 1/2-inch log and place on top of the rectangle.
- Roll the rectangle over the log, almost completely covering while leaving approximately 1/8 inch of the orange color exposed.
- Cut the log into approximately forty 1/2-inch pieces.
- On a surface sprinkled with powdered sugar, roll out the the light orange fondant to approximately 1/2 inch thick.
- Place the leopard spots randomly across the light orange fondant and cover the surface with a sheet of parchment.
- Roll the fondant out to 1/4 inch thickness, and remove the parchment to reveal leopard print fondant.
- Set aside while you frost the cake.