Ingredients

Cake

  1. 225g butter, room temperature

  2. 2 cups + 2 tbsp (340 grams) caster sugar

  3. 1 tsp Queen Vanilla Extract

  4. ¼ cup (60ml) vegetable oil

  5. 4 large eggs, room temperature

  6. 2 ¼ cups (340g) plain flour

  7. ¼ cup (40g) corn flour

  8. 2 ½ tsp baking powder

  9. ½ tsp baking soda

  10. ¾ tsp salt

  11. 1 ¼ cups (300ml) buttermilk

  12. 2 tsp Strawb’ry & Cream Flavour for Icing

  13. 3 tsp orange zest

  14. 2 tsp lime zest

  15. Queen Pillar Box Red Food Colour

  16. Queen Green Food Colour

  17. Queen Yellow Food Colour

Buttercream

  1. 500g butter, room temperature

  2. 6 cups (700g) icing sugar

  3. 1 tbsp milk

  4. 3 tsp lemon juice

  5. 3 rolls (105g) Fruit Tingles

  6. Queen Rainbow Natural Food Colours

Method - Cake

  1. 1

    Preheat oven to 170°C (fan forced). Grease and line three 20cm round cake tins.

  2. 2

    Combine butter, sugar, vanilla and oil in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on high for 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time and beat well between each addition.

  3. 3

    Sift in dry ingredients and start mixer on low to combine. Pour in buttermilk while mixer is going and increase to medium speed until incorporated.

  4. 4

    Evenly split cake batter into three bowls (approx. 550-560g per bowl). Add 1/8 tsp Red Food Colour and Strawb'ry & Cream Flavour to the first bowl, 1/8 tsp Yellow Food Colour, 2 drops of Red Food Colour and orange zest to the second bowl and 1/8 tsp Green Food Colour and lime zest to the third bowl. Mix to combine.

  5. 5

    Pour into prepared pans and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely.

  6. 6

    When completely cool, carefully slice the domed top off each cake layer to level.

Method - Buttercream

  1. 1

    Crush fruit tingles in a mortar and pestle or food processer until fruit tingles resemble small crumbs.

  2. 2

    Beat butter in the bowl of a stand mixer for 6-8 minutes until pale and fluffy. With the mixer off, sift in the icing sugar and fold to combine. Add lemon juice and milk and beat until combined, approximately 2-3 minutes.

  3. 3

    Divide buttercream into two bowls - add 1/3 of buttercream to first bowl and 2/3 buttercream to second bowl. Add fruit tingles to the smaller portion of buttercream and mix to incorporate.

Method - Assembly

  1. 1

    Place lime cake on a cake stand and top with half of fruit tingle buttercream. Smooth with a spatula then top with orange cake followed by remaining fruit tingle buttercream. Place strawberry cake on top, sliced side down.

  2. 2

    Add an even crumb coat of plain buttercream to the top and sides of the cake then chill for 30 minutes to set.

  3. 3

    Neatly ice the outside the crumb coated cake with plain buttercream, until cake layers underneath no longer show through.

  4. 4

    Place 1 tbsp of plain buttercream each into 3 small bowls. Using Rainbow Natural Food Colours, add 6 drops red to the first bowl, 6 drops yellow to the second bowl, and 7 drops green and 3 drops yellow to the third bowl. Mix to combine.

  5. 5

    Using a butter knife, place a line of each coloured icing on the inside of a piping bag, leaving space between each line for the remaining plain buttercream to show through. Spoon remaining buttercream into piping bag and pipe buttercream kisses onto the top of the cake.

Recipe tips:

Don’t try to level cakes while still warm, they will be too soft to work with and difficult to neatly level.

We baked our cakes in the oven with 2 tins on a higher rack and 1 on a lower rack.

A crumb coat is a light layer of icing spread over the entire cake to trap crumbs and make sure they don’t show through or get it the way of a perfect finish.

For perfectly leveled cakes we used this foil & paper towel method from Craftsy.

Comments & Reviews

I made this cake for my daughter’s party. Each layer of the cake was moist and delicious. I cooked the cakes on 160 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes in my Bosch oven. I used just over half of the buttercream (both the fruit tingle portion and plain butter cream portion) as we prefer a light coat of icing through layers and on the outside of the cake. Worth the time investment, recipe produces a memorable cake that all will enjoy.

Simone

The cake is really good. I didn’t have the lime flavour but I was going to use cinnamon flavouring instead. Does anyone know it that would work?

Anabel

Hi Anabel! You can certainly use our Cinnamon Baking Paste in the same was as our Lime one, however the flavour might clash a little with the Passionfruit. We would suggest doing Cinnamon, Raspberry and Vanilla Bean layers instead. Hope that helps – The Queen Team

Queen Fine Foods

The cakes were delicious, and cooking the layers at 120 fan assisted, rotating the pans, gave perfectly even cakes. But the buttercream was sooooo sweet, even the 12 year old turned it down. Very pretty, I’ll play with the icing mix to calm it down.

Annie

Hi Annie! Thanks for the feedback, we’re so glad to hear you enjoyed the cakes. As an alternative to traditional buttercream (which is always very sweet!), you could try’Ermine Icing’, a buttercream made with flour. It takes a little more effort, but the end result is silky smooth and much less sweet than traditional buttercream. Happy baking!

Queen Fine Foods

I made this cake a week or so ago, it was crazy fun…and tasted amazing!

rachel

The fruit tingle cake looks great.I’ll be making it when I buy the queen ingredients.

Pam