I think one of the prettiest cake designs is an ombré buttercream cake. This cake decorating technique blends three shades of buttercream to create a beautiful gradient effect and you can add silk or fresh florals to make it even prettier! With my step-by-step guide and buttercream frosting tips, you can apply this buttercream ombré technique to various other ombré cake ideas :)

dusty rose cake with ombre dark pink bottom to light pink top with silk flowers ontop

Tips for Mixing Frosting Colors

Best colors?: The best colors for ombré buttercream cakes are any colors! You can easily apply this color blending technique to any cake design. While this colorful buttercream cake technique works with any color, it works best when you can clearly see the difference in shades on the cake. If the buttercream colors are too light, it may be hard to see the gradient. I love starting with a darker color on the bottom and ending with a lighter buttercream color on top.
Coloring the frosting: While I typically use meringue based buttercream for cake designs like this, you can apply this color blending technique in any cake frosting you can mix food coloring in. Whipped cream, swiss meringue buttercream, or cream cheese frosting all work.
A major tip for using meringue-based buttercream: Melt a small amount of the buttercream in the microwave and mix in the food gel color. This helps the colors blend more smoothly into the buttercream.

Tools You Need to Frost an Ombré Cake

Frosting Tools:

Rubber spatula
Mixing bowl

Cake Decorating Tools:

Cake turn table
Cake turn table (with spatula and icing comb)
Cake turn table (spatula, icing comb, piping bags and tips):

How to Perfectly Frost an Ombré Buttercream Cake

Tutorial on perfectly decorating an Ombré Buttercream Cake! Includes tips on how you can achieve this beautiful cake design.

Yield: Cake

Author: Sharon Hsu

Instructions

Frost the cake layers: Fill your cake layers, apply a crumb coat and chill until the buttercream is firm.
Apply the second layer: Add another layer of buttercream to fill in gaps and chill the cake in the fridge again until firm.
Prepare your frosting colors: Start with the darkest color. If using meringue-based buttercream, melt a small amount in the microwave, add food gel coloring, and mix with white buttercream to achieve the base color. Skip this step if your frosting takes on color easily.
Frost the cake: Apply the base color to the bottom third of the cake.
For the second color, mix some base color with more white buttercream until it’s a few shades lighter. Frost the middle third.
For the third color, either lighten the second color with more white buttercream or use plain white buttercream. Apply this to the top third and the top of the cake.
Blend the colors: Use an offset spatula to blend the colors into a smooth gradient.
Create a rustic, rippled look: Gently press the tip of the offset spatula into the buttercream and spin the cake on a turntable, lifting the spatula to create indentations. Repeat until you reach the top.
For a finishing touch, I decorated the ombré buttercream cake with silk florals to match the dusty pink theme for my friend's mom's birthday. :)