St. Patrick's Day Top Hat Cake (Print-Friendly Version)

A vibrant layered cake shaped like a top hat, filled with marshmallows and decorated in festive green hues.

# What You'll Need:

→ Cake

01 - Cooking spray
02 - 660 g all-purpose flour
03 - 1 tbsp baking powder
04 - 1 tsp kosher salt
05 - 600 g granulated sugar
06 - 225 g unsalted butter, softened
07 - 240 ml vegetable oil
08 - 6 large eggs
09 - 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
10 - 240 ml whole milk
11 - 240 ml sour cream
12 - Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple food coloring

→ Frosting & Assembly

13 - 920 g powdered sugar
14 - 565 g unsalted butter, softened
15 - 80 ml heavy cream
16 - 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
17 - 1/4 tsp kosher salt
18 - 1 1/2 cups Lucky Charm marshmallows
19 - Green, black, and yellow food coloring

# How to Make It:

01 - Preheat oven to 175°C. Line one 20 cm cake pan and five 15 cm cake pans with parchment paper and grease with cooking spray. In a large bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, and kosher salt.
02 - In a separate large bowl, beat granulated sugar and softened butter on medium-high speed until combined. Add vegetable oil and continue beating until smooth and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in vanilla extract.
03 - Add one-third of dry ingredients to wet mixture, mixing on medium-low speed until a few dry streaks remain. Add milk and beat until incorporated. Repeat with another one-third of dry ingredients, then add sour cream and mix. Finally, add remaining dry ingredients and beat until just combined.
04 - Divide batter equally into six bowls. Tint each portion with red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple food coloring respectively.
05 - Pour purple batter into prepared 20 cm pan and bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely.
06 - Distribute remaining batters into prepared 15 cm pans and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool thoroughly.
07 - Using a handheld mixer on medium speed, beat powdered sugar and butter until smooth. Add heavy cream, vanilla extract, and kosher salt, then beat until fully combined.
08 - Level tops of cooled cakes if necessary. Using a 7.5 cm round cutter, remove centers from orange, yellow, green, and blue layers to create hollow rings.
09 - Place purple layer on serving platter and frost with a thin coat of buttercream. Stack blue, green, yellow, and orange layers in order, frosting between each. Fill central cavity with marshmallows. Top with red layer and apply a crumb coat over entire cake. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to 2 hours until firm.
10 - Tint approximately 1 1/2 cups of reserved buttercream green. Spread smooth green buttercream over cake surface using an offset spatula and bench scraper.
11 - Divide remaining buttercream into two portions: one cup dyed black and half cup dyed yellow for decoration.
12 - Using black buttercream, pipe a 2.5 cm thick belt around the base of the cake above the rim. Shield lower cake portion with parchment paper for clean edges.
13 - With a piping bag fitted with a medium round tip, pipe yellow buttercream buckle centered on the black belt to complete hat embellishment.

# Additional Tips:

01 - Cake layers can be prepared up to one day in advance and stored tightly wrapped in refrigerator or frozen for up to two weeks.
02 - Use cake scraps with extra frosting to form cake balls for serving alongside.

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