Fault Line Cake Tutorial

The recent trend is fault line cakes. It brings a whole new genre to buttercream cakes. Learn to make this new torn buttercream cake technique with vanilla and chocolate buttercream, no sprinkles. Cake recipe and tutorial included.

If you look on Instagram these days, it's all about fault line cakes and stripped buttercream cakes. Sounds like we are bringing buttercream cakes back to life with a whole new look. I'm loving this trend.

Although, I wish everybody didn't load cakes with sprinkles. I mean, I do love sprinkles but customers don't fancy their cakes with sprinkles everywhere - at least my customers.

I made this for a friend's birthday and I wanted to make something a little different than one loaded with sprinkles or crystal sugar. That's why I made this chocolate and vanilla cake.

About this fault line cake

This is a very simple and easy cake to make. Below I have given you the recipe as well as the full tutorial. I also used this recipe to make our Vanilla Birthday Cake.

For the cake, I have used two layers of vanilla cake and one layer of chocolate cake. You can, of course, use all three layers of vanilla or all three layers of chocolate cake. You can use any cake recipe you want for this - see my post over 30 plus layer cakes.

For the frosting, I have used my signature American buttercream frosting, and yet any butter-based frosting would work just as well. I say butter-based because an all-butter frosting will chill well between additions making it easier to work. See my 30 plus buttercream recipes.

The timeline for decorating this cake

• Bake the cakes - vanilla and chocolate (recipe below) a day ahead works best.
• Cool the cakes completely at least 3 hours (or 1 hour in the freezer).
• Prepare the filling - I used vanilla pastry cream.
• Prepare the frosting - I used American buttercream.
• Fill and stack the layers - Chill for 15 minutes.
• Crumb coat - chill for 15 minutes (prevents crumb into the rest of the buttercream coatings).
• Second coat of buttercream - chill for 15 minutes (will prevent smudging).
• Apply chocolate buttercream - chill for 10 minutes (this prevents smudging.
• Apply top and bottom buttercream - chill for 15 minutes
• Paint with edible gold color.

Ingredients and Substitutes

• All-purpose flour - Yes, regular all-purpose flour works great. No need to look for anything else. And if you have only self-raising flour on hand use it but reduce the baking powder by half.
• Unsalted butter - I always use unsalted so I can control the amount of salt. And yet, if salted butter is all you have, use it and omit salt in the recipe.
• Sugar - I'm using white sugar so I can have a white cake. It's always best to use fine-grain white sugar so it dissolves easily in the butter.
• Buttermilk - If you don't have buttermilk don't worry. It takes just 5 minutes to make homemade buttermilk for baking.
• Vanilla - A good quality vanilla is very important especially in a vanilla cake. I'm using vanilla bean paste but you can use vanilla extract too.
• Cocoa powder - I'm using Dutch-processed cocoa powder. It will give our cake a rich dark color.

Step by step instructions

You will need

• 2 layers - vanilla cake - recipe below
• 1 layer - chocolate cake - recipe below
• 120 ml simple syrup
• 1 cup vanilla pastry cream
• 1 kg American buttercream
• 100 grams melted chocolate (for chocolate)

Prepare Cake

• Preheat the oven at 160 C / 320 F.
• Grease and line three 7-inch baking pans with parchment paper (use three 6-inch round cake pan for a tall cake).
• Combine the cocoa powder with hot water - set aside to cool.
• Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add eggs, one at a time.
• Followed by the vanilla extract.
• Lastly, add the flour and buttermilk in three batches.
• Scrape the sides and bottom to ensure you have a smooth batter.
• Divide the batter into three approximately.
• Pour two parts into two prepared baking pans - this is your two vanilla layers.
• Add the cocoa powder mixture into the third part and add to the third prepared baking pan - this is your chocolate layer.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes.
• When done, cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
• Invert onto a cooling rack and cool completely before decorating.

Filling and frosting

• Make and cool simple syrup.
• Prepare vanilla pastry cream for the filling and cool in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
• Prepare vanilla American buttercream.
• Melt the chocolate and set aside to cool - for the chocolate buttercream.

Assemble

• Once cooled, cut the domes off the cake layers.
• Brush each layer with the cooled simple syrup.
• Place a cake layer on the cake board or cake stand.
• Place buttercream in a piping bag with a small opening.
• Pipe a border and a circle in the center of each layer (see video).
• Fill the center with pastry cream (or other fillings).
• Then, top the second cake layer on top followed by filling and frosting and the last cake.
• Place the cake in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes.
  Tip - This helps the buttercream chill and holds the layers together and the filling will stay in place too.

• Spread about 2 cups buttercream around and top of the cake.
  Tip - This is your crumb coat and helps prevent crumbs from getting into the other layers of frosting.
• Chill the cake for 15 minutes.
• Add more buttercream - the second layer of frosting.
• Chill for another 15 minutes.
• Use a bench scraper to smooth the sides of the cake and an offset spatula to smooth the top.
• Chill in the fridge for another 10 minutes.

• Combine the melted cooled chocolate to 2 cups vanilla buttercream.
• Spread the chocolate buttercream on the sides of the cake in the middle section - Chill for 10 minutes.
  Tip - this will prevent the chocolate buttercream from smudging into the vanilla buttercream.
• Then, spread vanilla buttercream over the top and bottom section on the cake. Making sure to keep the chocolate buttercream exposed (see video).

• Smooth with a spatula and bench scraper as needed.
• Chill the cake for 15 minutes or until firm.
• Mix edible gold luster dust with lemon extract or alcohol.
• Paint the vanilla buttercream edges around the exposed chocolate buttercream with gold.
• Add the remaining frostings - chocolate, and vanilla in a piping bag with a star tip.
• Pipe swirls on top of the cake.
• Top each swirl with a chocolate ball or other decorations.

Frequently asked questions

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