Ombre Pink Smash Cake

I found gorgeous ombre cakes on Pinterest. My favorite ideas had shades of pink icing or the inside of the cake had beautiful pink layers. I about died when I saw Layla Grayce pin this cake.

But who am I kidding. I can barely frost cupcakes. I ruffle fabric, not frosting. And I am more of a cupcake girl so I had my heart set on making these instead.

But time runs out and you find yourself 48 hours before the party and a million things to do. So I was forced to leave Pinterest world and come back to reality. I then came up with a brilliant idea of mixing cake box mixes instead! I bought 3 Duncan Hines cake mixes: Red Velvet, Strawberry Supreme, and French Vanilla. And they actually taste good together or this idea would not have turned out so brilliant.

I first mixed up each cake mix separately. Then I just started playing around with the colors. Which is a very yummy adventure. I quickly found that the red velvet will turn everything red so you dont need much of it when experimenting.

I ended up with about 7 different colors. I found you really only need 3-4 colors since cupcakes are so small and the colors bleed into each other once baked. I only ended up using 4 of the 7 following colors. I ommited the first 3 since they were too similar.

1. All Red Velvet

2. 1 part Red Velvet, 1 part Strawberry

3. 1 part Red Velvet, 1 part Vanilla

4. 2 parts Strawberry, 1/2 part Red Velvet

5. All Strawberry

6. 2 parts Vanilla, 1 part Strawberry

7. All Vanilla

Now just start layering them in your cupcake liners. I did darkest to lightest but you could do it either way.

Bake, frost, sprinkle and Voila! A pretty in pink cupcake that tastes lovely.

I only needed 24 cupcakes and if you do the math 3 cake boxes means you’re left with lots of batter. I poured the rest in layers into a giant cupcake pan.