Buttercream Galaxy Cake with step-by-step tutorial
Galaxy cakes are so beautiful but who wants to spend time making that galaxy mirror glaze and have it not turn out!? No one so I made a buttercream galaxy cake using American buttercream!
Most galaxy cakes are made with a mirror glaze. Galaxy mirror glazes are made from condensed milk, white chocolate, water and gelatin to produce a shiny liquid topping that you pour over the cake. The black, navy blue, pink, purple, etc. create a marbling over the cake resembling a galaxy.
What cake to use for galaxy cake?
Any cake, even cake mixes are fine. I used my favorite vanilla cake recipe and it’s the base for a lot of my other cakes but you can certainly use any other 8 or 9 inch vanilla cake recipe. My only suggestion would be to keep it a butter/oil cake and not a sponge cake.
How To Make American buttercream?
American buttercream is incredibly easy to make. Essentially, the butter gets beaten with powdered sugar for 5-10 minutes. This ensures that the sugar is fully dissolved and the texture becomes fluffy instead of gritty. Add in the vanilla and cream, beating for another couple minutes.
How to Make Black Buttercream Frosting
Black icing can be tricky to make but with a few secret ingredients, it’s possible. Obviously we’ll need black food coloring, just make sure to use GEL food coloring, it’s much more potent and will prevent the frosting from splitting.
To avoid using so much food coloring in the buttercream I also used black cocoa powder to make a chocolate buttercream. This will also work with regular cocoa powder but you may need to balance the reddish hue with a drop of dark blue food coloring.
How to make a galaxy cake with American buttercream?
Galaxy cakes are easier than they look. I say that often but whenever something intimidates me, it turns out to be much simpler than expected. I’ve been wanting to make a galaxy cake but I was intimidated by mirror glaze so I just tried this out and it totally works. You don’t even need a piping bag!
- Butter: using room temperature butter allows you to incorporate more air for a fluffy buttercream and it will give you the right consistency for spreading frosting.
- Powdered Sugar: I find that it’s not necessary to sift powdered sugar if you beat it for 5-10 minutes, scraping the edges every couple minutes.
- Vanilla Extract: You can also use maple or almond extract if you prefer but I add vanilla to EVERYTHING.
- Cream: This makes the buttercream creamier and more spreadable.
- Black cocoa powder: You don’t NEED this but it’s easier to make black buttercream using both cocoa powder and food coloring. Regular dark cocoa powder will work as well but I got good results with this black cocoa powder from amazon.
- Gel Food Coloring: THIS WON’T WORK WITH LIQUID FOOD COLORING! Gel food coloring is much more potent. With liquid food coloring, the amount you would need would probably split the frosting and the colors would be a little off. I have this Americolor Gel Food Coloring set, also from amazon.
- Offset Spatula and/or multi-purpose scraper: You don’t need both but they are both useful. Any of these would be fine, I prefer metal over plastic though. PRO TIP: when you use a metal spatula or scraper, heat it up under hot water before using it and it will spread the frosting so much nicer.
- Small paint brush: to create the white ‘stars’ in the galaxy, use a short, wide brush, similar to these in size.
If the directions aren’t clear, make sure to watch the video (I’ve updated the recipe since but the method is the same). Hope you guys enjoyed this post & if any of you make this I HAVE TO SEE IT! Tag me @baranbakery on instagram. Leave a comment if you have any questions or requests for future videos/recipes, etc. As always, have a blessed day and happy baking!
Love, B
