Purple Birthday Cake

My four year old daughter's favorite color is purple. She's painted her bedroom purple, has purple sheets, purple clothes, purple plates, purple cups, and purple stuffed animals. So I wasn't surprised that when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she replied, 'Purple cake'. However, I was a little surprised when she continued and said, 'and purple cupcakes, and purple cookies, and purple ice cream.'

This recipe uses a special purple food coloring that comes in a soft gel paste (available on Amazon). It is highly concentrated, so if you decide to use normal food coloring, you'll need to add several dozen drops, or more, to get the desired color.

Desserts

Prep: 40 min
Chill: 2 hours
Cook: 20 min
Total: About 3 hours
Yields 1 very purple cake

Two Hours Before Starting
4 large eggs, room temperature
½ cup whole milk, room temperature
One to two hours before you plan on making the cake, remove eggs and milk from fridge and let come to room temperature.
½ pound (2 sticks) butter
Place butter on plate and let rise to room temperature.
Cake Pan and Oven Prep
vegetable shortening or butter
flour
parchment or wax paper
Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350°F. Generously grease four 9 inch cake pans with vegetable shortening or butter and cover pan bottoms with rounds of parchment paper or wax paper. Grease parchment rounds, dust cake pans with flour, and tap out excess.
Batter
reserved eggs
reserved milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. Measure 1 cup of this mixture and set aside.
10 ½ ounces (1 ½ cups) sugar
7 ounces (1 ¾ cup) cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
reserved, sliced butter
Add butter pieces and use a pastry blender to cut the butter into small, pea-sized pieces with the flour.
half of reversed egg-milk-vanilla mixture
Add half of reserved egg-milk-vanilla mixture and mix at lowest speed with a hand mixer until incorporated, 5 to 10 seconds.
remaining egg-milk-vanilla-mixture
Increase speed to high, add remaining egg mixture, and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.
Stop mixer and thoroughly scrape sides and bottom of bowl. Beat on medium-high until thoroughly combined and batter looks slightly curdled, about 15 seconds longer.
Pour equal amounts of batter into four separate bowls.
1 drop purple soft gel paste food coloring (available on Amazon)
Add 1 drop of purple food coloring to the first bowl and whisk to combine.
2 drops purple soft gel paste food coloring
Add 2 drops of purple food coloring to the second bowl and whisk to combine.
3 drops purple soft food gel paste food coloring
Add 3 drops of purple food coloring to the third bowl and whisk to combine.
5 drops purple soft food gel paste food coloring
Add 5 drops of purple food coloring to the fourth bowl and whisk to combine.
Baking
Going from the lightest to darkest batter, pour each bowl of batter into a separate prepared cake pan. Spread batter to sides of pan and smooth with rubber spatula. Lift up each cake pan into the air about four inches and drop onto counter to evenly distribute batter and knock out any air bubbles. (Note: If you do not have four cake pans, then bake as many as you are able to, clean your pan(s), prepare them again as noted above, and cook remaining layers.)
Bake until cake tops are a light golden purple and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Cakes may rise in center slightly but will level when cooled.
Remove pan from oven and cool on rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the perimeter of the pan to loosen. Invert cake onto large plate, peel off parchment, and reinvert onto lightly greased rack. Cool completely before icing.
Decorating
18 ounces white icing
2 drops purple soft gel paste food coloring
Normally I'd suggest making your own buttercream frosting, but if you're making a cake for a child's birthday, they'd probably prefer to have store bought frosting. So buy white frosting at the grocery store and place it in a large bowl. Add 2 drops of purple food coloring (or more as desired), and mix together with a spatula.
Place the lightest layer of purple cake on the bottom of a plate or cake platter. Cover generously with prepared purple icing. Top with second lightest purple layer of cake and decorate with icing. Top with second darkest layer and decorate with icing. Finally, place darkest layer of cake on the top and decorate with icing.
purple sprinkles
Decorate top of cake with sprinkles as desired.
Slice and serve with purple ice cream.

From MakeBetterFood.com. Feb 20, 2012. (makebetterfood.com/recipes/purple-birthday-cake/).

MakeBetterFood.com

One to two hours before you plan on making the cake, remove eggs and milk from fridge and let come to room temperature.
Place butter on plate and let rise to room temperature.
Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350°F. Generously grease four 9 inch cake pans with vegetable shortening or butter and cover pan bottoms with rounds of parchment paper or wax paper. Grease parchment rounds, dust cake pans with flour, and tap out excess.
In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. Measure 1 cup of this mixture and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add butter pieces and use a pastry blender to cut the butter into small, pea-sized pieces with the flour.
Add half of reserved egg-milk-vanilla mixture and mix at lowest speed with a hand mixer until incorporated, 5 to 10 seconds.
Increase speed to high, add remaining egg mixture, and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.
Stop mixer and thoroughly scrape sides and bottom of bowl. Beat on medium-high until thoroughly combined and batter looks slightly curdled, about 15 seconds longer.
Pour equal amounts of batter into four separate bowls.
Add 1 drop of purple food coloring to the first bowl and whisk to combine.
Add 2 drops of purple food coloring to the second bowl and whisk to combine.
Add 3 drops of purple food coloring to the third bowl and whisk to combine.
Add 5 drops of purple food coloring to the fourth bowl and whisk to combine.
Going from the lightest to darkest batter, pour each bowl of batter into a separate prepared cake pan. Spread batter to sides of pan and smooth with rubber spatula. Lift up each cake pan into the air about four inches and drop onto counter to evenly distribute batter and knock out any air bubbles. (Note: If you do not have four cake pans, then bake as many as you are able to, clean your pan(s), prepare them again as noted above, and cook remaining layers.)
Bake until cake tops are a light golden purple and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Cakes may rise in center slightly but will level when cooled.
Remove pan from oven and cool on rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the perimeter of the pan to loosen. Invert cake onto large plate, peel off parchment, and reinvert onto lightly greased rack. Cool completely before icing.
Normally I'd suggest making your own buttercream frosting, but if you're making a cake for a child's birthday, they'd probably prefer to have store bought frosting. So buy white frosting at the grocery store and place it in a large bowl. Add 2 drops of purple food coloring (or more as desired), and mix together with a spatula.
Place the lightest layer of purple cake on the bottom of a plate or cake platter. Cover generously with prepared purple icing. Top with second lightest purple layer of cake and decorate with icing. Top with second darkest layer and decorate with icing. Finally, place darkest layer of cake on the top and decorate with icing.
Decorate top of cake with sprinkles as desired.
Slice and serve with purple ice cream.