I actually don’t care for the name “Naked Cake” – with the internet these days those two words don’t bring up good things, but that is what these cakes are known by so that is what I guess I have to call them. What else could we call them? Maybe light on the frosting cakes? 🙂 I don’t know. Anyway. For our one year bloggerversary back in 2016, we had a celebration with a week of giveaways over on Instagram @thekusilife – it was lots of fun! That week to celebrate, my sweet friend Marli – from Marli’s Cakes took the time to demonstrate how to make a Naked Cake for me. I had lots of fun with her and the cake not only turned out gorgeous, but delicious too! (This doesn’t always happen, its usually one or the other)
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She made it look so simple and I was taking pictures through the whole process – she kindly agreed to let me do a post about it. I know its been well over a year since we had our 1 year bloggerversary, but shortly after that I got pregnant and all things blog went to the wayside. I have been going through a creativity course and we were talking about getting rid of clutter both mentally and physically – when we do, it is so freeing! I realized I have almost 50 blog posts that I started but have not finished, so I decided to clear out some of the clutter here too and work on some of the posts that I really love, so here you go!
First off, we baked our cakes in these 6 inch cake pans – I love this size! I chose rainbow chip from Betty Crocker – my favorite brand to use if I am going to use a boxed cake! Marli knows how to doctor up a cake mix! It was so delicious and moist!
Add to the cake mix:
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 1/3 cups water
- 2 TBS oil
- 2 tsp flavoring (vanilla, almond, coconut etc.)
- 4 egg whites (for white cake) 3 egg whites and 1 egg for any other cake
Marli swears by Bakers Joy (no Pam or no-name brands for her!) when you are greasing up your pans – they always come out smoothly! Allow your cake to cool in the pans for about 10 minutes before you remove them. Marli always goes around the edge of the cake with a knife to make sure nothing is stuck to the side!
Marli then demonstrated how she cuts the top off of the cake to make it flat. She used a cake turntable like this:
You hold your elbow firmly to your waist with the knife in your hand and slowly turn the cake turntable with your other hand, this allows you to slice the top of the cake off, and it is totally straight!
She said there are all sorts of fancy tools to cut your cake and make sure it is level, but she finds this method is just as good!
I love this! My cakes are always kinda lopsided – this eliminates that entirely! After leveling all three cakes we moved one to the cake stand I wanted to use – I picked this one up at the Dollar Spot at Target a few years back!
We made a basic butter cream frosting recipe –
- 2 cubes butter (MUST BE ROOM TEMPERATURE),
- 2 cups powder sugar
- 1 tsp of vanilla
- 1 tsp milk for thinning – if you need it!
If you want your frosting to be on the whiter end rather than off white you can purchase clear Mexican Vanilla. Just mix the butter adding the sugar slowly so you have a slightly firm frosting. I just make sure my mixer arm stands up straight in the frosting bowl – then I know its not too runny!
Using a piping bag and a large tip – Marli says really any one you want, fill the top of the cake in a circular motion like so.
Place the next layer, crumb side up and do the same, frost in a circular motion.
Place the last layer on top, crumb side down.
Using an angled cake spatula like this, turn the cake slowly over the frosting layers to smooth them out – you can scrape any access icing on the edge of a plate or bowl.
You will ice the top just the same way you did the other layers.
Then using your cake spatula, smooth out the top layer on the top and the edge. Marli put the cake stand on top of her cake turntable and spun it – helps you get an even, beautiful layer!
I LOVE this (ONE) my sister Meg helped me cut out on some gold sparkly paper with her Cricut. The font is called Chloe – you can get it for free HERE. I just taped a few toothpicks to the back in order to put it in the cake.
I just picked up an inexpensive bunch of flowers at Smith’s. I chose this one because it had a little of everything – large flowers, small flowers, leaves, and sprigs. I think that is key to making your top look amazing. Marli has lots of experience placing flowers as she has made countless wedding cakes, but as I watched her, she cut the flowers down and began placing them in different areas, mixing it entirely up. She made sure the cake looked amazing from really any angle! We then placed the ONE in the top of the cake. Just don’t be afraid to change it up or switch flowers around!
The flowers came with this fabric wrapped around them and Marli added it to the base of our cake stand for the perfect touch!
Not only is it gorgeous . . . .
it was definitely delicious too! None of my family members are big fans of frosting – but they enjoyed this Naked Cake for sure! Thanks again Marli!!!
Do you and your family like frosting?
See the Happy!
Wow the cake is beautiful! I love your instructions and recipe. Seems like I can make this too!
Thanks so much Crystal! I felt like Marli did such a great job, makes us newbies feel like we can do it too!