Watermelon Cake

Pink Velvet Cake with Buttercream and Fondant!

I needed to make a watermelon CAKE. The idea has been on my bucket list for a long time, and when a lot of my fans on YouTube started asking for it, the decision was made! It is actually relatively easy on the ‘novelty cake’ scale of difficulty. I made a pink vanilla cake with matching pink Italian Meringue Buttercream. Chocolate chips made the perfect seeds! And I painted my white fondant to get the rind and skin to look just right. And who doesn’t like watermelon? Don’t tell me - I don’t want to know them.

*Your chocolate chips will sink to the bottom of your batter while baking, and that’s ok, don’t sweat it!*

**Cake Tips: Using food colouring is not an exact science (I wish!). The more you work with it you will find that different brands saturate in different ways. Also, colour affects different mediums in different ways. Even if you add the exact same food colouring to cake batter, fondant, buttercream, royal icing, modeling chocolate, etc. you will find that the colours do not match. This is because all of those mediums have a different base colour, so therefore they don’t turn out the same result. Be patient, and take your time. Learning the colour wheel helps too. Sometimes, you may want to dull a colour down a bit, and adding in the opposite colour on the colour wheel can do this! You must learn to trust yourself and experiment. It is a BIG part of cake decorating.

I painted my watermelon cake in stages, letting it rest for about half an hour in between. Painting fondant can be tricky because the sugars are dissolving. If you brush too much in one area, it will begin to remove the colour. So take your time. Rest in between, and keep playing with the colour until you feel it matches your model. You can even test your paint on a spare piece of white fondant to see how it will turn out – I highly recommend this!**

Share this recipe

1 x portion of Yo’s Pink Velvet Cake
1 batch of Yo’s Italian Meringue Buttercream
Wilton Red Red Icing Colour
2 ¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (divided)
1 x recipe of Watermelon Simple Syrup
4lbs White Fondant
Wilton Moss Green Icing Colour
Wilton Kelly Green Icing Colour
Wilton Buttercup Yellow Icing Colour
Wilton Ivory Icing Colour
Clear food grade alcohol (like vodka or rum) or lemon extract
Watermelon (used as a model)

Item Name:	Availability:
Simple Syrup Soaker Bottle	Add to Cart -
Serrated Knife
Mixing bowls
Paint brushes with Round Tips
Palette Knife
Ball Tool
Pointed Sculpting Tool

Preperation

Prepare Pink Velvet Batter

Prepare your Pink Velvet Cake batter. Pour half of your batter into your prepared pans, sprinkle with chocolate chips, and top with remaining batter according to the proportions listed below.

9” round cake pans - 1 ½ lb of batter and ¼ cup chocolate chips each

9” stainless steel bowl - 3 ½ lbs of batter and ½ cup of chocolate chips

Bake Cakes

Bake your bowl at 350 degrees for approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes, and your 9” round pans for approximately 40 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out completely clean. Let cool completely in their pans.

Prepare and Dye Buttercream

Prepare your Italian Meringue Buttercream, and divide into two bowls. Set one bowl aside. Colour ½ cup of your buttercream with Wilton Red Red Icing Colour, until it is bright red. Slowly add this to your remaining white buttercream little by little.

Prepare Simple Syrup

Prepare your Watermelon Simple Syrup, and set aside.

Level Cakes

Remove your round cakes from their pans, and level them. Level bowl cake with a serrated blade flush against the top of the bowl, using the bowl lip as a guide.

Layer and Fill Cakes

Spread your buttercream on the top of your first round cake. Then sprinkle ¼ cup of chocolate chips. Repeat this process with your other 2 round cakes. Place your bowl cake on top of your layered round cakes.

Carve Cakes

Carve away the outer crust of your stacked cakes, maintaining the dome shape.

Crumb Coat and Chill

Using the other portion of your Italian Meringue Buttercream, crumb coat and ice your cake. Give your cake a chill between crumb coating and icing.

Cover Cake

Roll out 4lbs of white Fondant until it is ⅛” thick. Cover your cake, and trim away any excess fondant.

Paint Cake

Mix Wilton Moss Green, Wilton Kelly Green, Wilton Buttercup Yellow and just a touch of my Wilton Red Red, and dilute it using a bit of clear alcohol. Using a round tip paint brush, paint a base coat onto the cake. Allow to dry.

Add Watermelon Details

Add more Wilton Moss Green to your mixture, deepening the colour. Paint dots all over the cake to create a speckled pattern. Allow to dry.

Add Watermelon Stripes

Add darker stripe-like patterns, softening the lines with brush. Use a drier brush to smudge and soften the stripe pattern. Allow to dry.

Add Watermelon Nub

Add a little nub that is on the bottom of any watermelon where they have cut the stem. This isn’t totally necessary, but it’s a cool little detail!

Congratulations!

If all went well, you should see something that looks like this...