Gender Reveal Cake Recipe
Looking for perfect way to do a gender reveal for a baby shower? Look no further, this gender reveal cake recipe is great fun, uses an ulta-shiny mirror glaze, and has a nice thick pink or blue middle icing that you can use to reveal the gender to everyone. It uses a lemon sponge cake and lemon buttercream icing so both looks and tastes great!
Prep Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: Medium
Serves: one 8” (20cm) Cake
Ingredients
For mirror glaze
Condensed Milk - 200g
Water - 150g
Sugar - 150g
Leaf Gelatin - 7 sheets
White Chocolate (+30% cocoa butter) - 300g
Blue Food Dye
Pink Food Dye
For the Buttercream Icing
Unsalted Butter - 400g (Room Temperature)
Icing Sugar - 500g
Lemon Juice - 0.5 Lemons
Blue or Pink Food Dye (Depending on Gender)
For the Cake
Plain Flour - 330g
Baking Powder - 1.5 tsp
Baking Soda - 0.5 tsp
Salt - 0.5 tsp
Lemon Zest - 4 Lemons
Sugar - 300g
Lemon Juice - 150g
Double Cream or Yogurt - 80g
Olive Oil - 230g
Eggs - 4 Large
Optional: White chocolate buttons to decorate.
Method
Gender Reveal Cake Step One - Sponges
Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F) for a fan oven, and oil and line two 8” cake tins (you can use 1 cake tin and cutter sponge in half later if you don’t have two tins)
In a bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In another bowl whisk together on a low speed the lemon zest, sugar, lemon juice, double cream / yogurt, olive oil, and eggs. Just until combined - you don’t want to whisk too much air into the mix.
Stir the liquid mix into the flour mix until combined, divide into the two cake tins, and bake in the oven for about 1 hour (until a knife comes out clean). Remove and let cool.
Gender Reveal Cake Step Two - Filling
Place the unsalted butter, cut into cubes, in a bowl and whisk.
In 2 to 3 increments, whisk in the icing sugar, then the lemon juice (add more or less lemon juice according to your personal taste).
Place about a third of the icing in a separate bowl and whisk in either the pink or blue food colouring (whichever reflects the gender), keep mixing and adding, until you have your desired colour.
Cut the very top parts off the cake to make them flat on top, fill the sandwich later with the coloured icing (not right to the edge as you don’t want the colour to bleed out), and place the other sponge layer on top.
Gender Reveal Cake Step THree - IcIng
With the cake assembled, use the remaining uncoloured icing to cover the entire cake.
You want to leave as smooth a finish as possible, as the mirror glaze shows up imperfections in the buttercream. Once you’ve got it fairly smooth, place the cake in the freezer (or fridge) for 30 minutes to firm up the butter.
Remove the cake from the freezer and smooth any remaining blemishes, which should be easier now the cake’s cool.
Return to the freezer.
Gender Reveal Cake Step Four - Boiled Milk
After the cake’s been in the freezer for about 30 minutes it’s time to start making the mirror glaze (you can leave the cake in the freezer whilst you do this).
Finely chop the white chocolate and place in a bowl. In a separate bowl, place the gelatin sheets in cold water to soak for about 5 minutes.
Then in a pan bring to the boil the water, sugar, and condensed milk.
Once boiling take off the heat and stir in the gelatin.
Gender Reveal Cake Step Five - Melting Chocolate
Pour the condensed milk mix over the white chocolate and leave for 1 to 2 minutes whilst it melts.
Then stir the mixture until it combines. Careful not to whisk any air into the mixture as you’re mixing - the bubbles will set on the top of the mirror glaze.
Gender Reveal Cake Step Six - Sieve
Pour the mixture into two bowls (using a sieve to catch any unmelted gelatin or chocolate clumps).
Now it’s time to colour the two mixes with different colours. Choose one of the mixes and stir in the blue colouring (keep adding and mixing until it’s the right colour).
Repeat with the other mix and the pink colouring.
You now need to let the mixes cool to around 32°C (90°F) - the consistency of runny honey if you don’t have a thermometer. This takes around 10-15 minutes, and stir the mixes occasionally to stop a film developing on top.
Gender Reveal Cake Step Seven - Pour
Once the glaze is at 32°C (90°F), remove the cake from the freezer and place on a wire rack with something to catch the glaze run-off underneath.
Pour each mirror glaze over the cake in a pattern of your choosing (note the blue’s quite a strong colour against the pink so use sparingly to get the right balance on the cake).
Gender Reveal Cake Step Eight - Gender reveal Cake
Place any decorations on the cake if you want them (I coloured in white chocolate buttons using the food dye and placed them on the cake, and also used a bit of edible gold glitter on top).
Place the cake in the fridge until needed so the glaze stays firm, and remember to take it out long enough before cutting for the buttercream to return to room temperature.
And that’s it, hope you enjoy!