Up next in 10
How to Make a HALF AND HALF Cake
28K views
Sep 6, 2024
With half and half cakes you can offer two completely different flavours in just one cake! They’re great for joint birthday celebrations or just to give people two different options. *Take my FREE course on 10 Frosting Techniques on my ONLINE CAKE SCHOOL https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/free-course/ *LEARN The Basics of Cake and The Basics of Buttercream in my most popular online courses! https://britishgirlbakes.teachable.com/ *My 4 Minute Buttercream recipe https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/recipes/buttercream-frosting/ *READ a written version of this tutorial (with photos!) https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/how-to-make-a-half-and-half-cake/ *SUBSCRIBE to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week! *SAY HI! Website: https://www.britishgirlbakes.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/britishgirlbakes
View Video Transcript
0:00
With half-and-half cakes, you can offer two completely different flavors in just one cake
0:05
They're great for joint birthday celebrations or just to give people two different flavor options
0:13
For a half-and-half cake, you'll need two or four cake layers, depending on how tall you want your cake to be
0:19
I'm using two marble layers for one half and for the other half, chocolate and banana layers
0:25
Both halves of the cake need to be the same height to make a cake level, so stack the large. layers and if the layers for one half of the cake are taller than the other, use a serrated
0:34
knife like a bread knife to trim the top of one or both of the layers so that when they're
0:39
stacked, they're the same height as the other flavor. Now cut all of the layers in half down the
0:45
middle. Prepare your fillings for each half of the cake. I'm using Nutella and Dulceideleche
0:51
for mine. Make your frosting and the easiest way to assemble your cake is to put some frosting
0:56
into a piping bag with the tip cut off. But if you don't have a piping bag, you can just spread it on
1:02
instead. Spread or pipe two dots of frosting onto a cake board and push half a cake layer into one
1:08
dot. Then spread or pipe frosting along the cut edge and press another half of cake into it. The frosting
1:15
will hold the cake layers in place. Since my fillings are quite runny, I'm piping what's called a
1:20
buttercream dam which is a wall around each cake layer to hold in the filling so it doesn ooze out from between the cake layers D for the chocolate and banana cake and Natala for the marbled chocolate and vanilla cake In hindsight I wish I
1:36
chosen flavors that looked more obviously different than these, since the chocolate and banana
1:41
are almost the same colors as the chocolate and vanilla marble. Place the next cake layers on top. The
1:47
frosting down the middle is really important, otherwise the two halves of the cake can fall away from each other
1:53
so this acts as glue to hold them tightly together. A half-and-half cake is a great way to use up extra cake layers
2:00
Now you might be wondering, why would I have extra cake layers? Maybe your batter didn't make enough to make the size of cake you were planning on
2:07
or maybe you made too much so you have one too many cake layers for your cake
2:11
In my case, I bake in bulk, so I have loads of layers in the freezer to pull out whenever I want to make a cake
2:16
but sometimes I'll end up with one lonely banana layer, like this one
2:20
Push the two halves of the cake to stick them firmly together and also push down to level the cake
2:26
Divide the rest of your frosting into two bowls and add any frosting left in your piping bag too
2:32
This is my four minute buttercream and the recipe link is in the video description and it's on British Girlbakes.com
2:38
I am adding melted chocolate to half of the frosting and Dulceilace to the other half
2:44
Spread a few dots of frosting onto one half and wrap that half with parchment paper and the parchment
2:50
will stick to the dots of frosting. Trim the parchment so it only covers that one half of the cake Then use the other flavor of frosting to frost the exposed half of the cake and the parchment will prevent that frosting from getting onto the other half
3:05
This is a crumb coat of frosting to trap any crumbs that come off the cake
3:08
so it's messy, but that's fine because it will be covered up in a minute
3:12
When you peel the parchment off, the frosting will stop exactly in between the two halves of the cake
3:18
For the top of the cake, use the same concept, covering up the other half of the cake with parchment
3:22
before spreading frosting onto this half. Then cover up the frosted side of the cake with parchment paper
3:29
and spread frosting onto the other half of the cake. When you peel the parchment off
3:34
you'll leave some texture behind on the frosting, but since it's just the crumb coat, it doesn't matter
3:40
Put the whole cake into the freezer for 15 minutes until the frosting has set
3:44
so you can touch it without damaging it. Some tiny condensation droplets will form on the frosting
3:50
and that will help parchment stick to it as you cover up the crumb coat on one half, and spread frosting onto the other half
3:57
Spread the frosting on more thickly now, because this is the final layer of frosting
4:01
so you want it to be much neater than the crumb coat. Scrape around this half of the cake with a cake comb to smooth the frosting just like you would normally
4:09
except you're only going halfway around the cake each time instead of the whole way around
4:15
Tidy up the top edge of the cake by swiping the frosting sideways with your offsets bachelor
4:19
and then peel the parchment off to reveal a neatly half cake Put the cake back in the freezer for another 15 minutes to set this frosting and then repeat the process for the other half of the cake covering this side up with parchment and then spreading
4:33
another flavor of frosting onto the other half. Because the first flavor has set, the Dulce
4:39
butter cream, pressing parchment against it won't imprint any texture into the frosting
4:44
so when you peel it off, the frosting underneath will look perfect. The joins are fairly neat
4:50
but I always like to cover mine with something, and for this cake I'm piping some details with two-tone frosting
4:56
which you can make easily by filling a piping bag with one flavour on one side
5:00
and another flavour on the other side, and then push both flavours down to the piping tip
5:05
This is a 1M star tip. These swells or rosettes hide the join of the two flavours of frosting
5:11
and also add some pretty details. If you don't want to blend the flavours of the two halves like this
5:16
like if you're using lemon on one half and chocolate on the other, which don't go together very well, you could use plain vanilla butter cream for piping, tinting
5:24
it with different colours maybe. People are always blown away by half-and-half cakes and excited
5:30
to see inside, and although I wouldn't serve anyone a piece this big, it's fun to show off the
5:35
two flavors within one slice. So delicious. Tell me in the comments which two flavors you'd choose
5:41
for your half-and-half cake. Subscribe to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week
5:46
and visit my Cakeschool for online courses and memberships. Thanks for watching
#Baked Goods
#Bakeries
#Desserts
#Food