Pink Boysenberry Vanilla Checkerboard Cake

If you're looking for a unique and delicious cake recipe, look no further than this delicate and sweet boysenberry checkerboard cake!

This cake features alternating layers of vanilla and boysenberry-flavored cake, arranged in a checkerboard pattern for a stunning visual effect, because, we're all about the aesthetic!

Now if you're thinking, what the heck is a boysenberry? Or where can I buy such a thing? Let us break it down for you...

Boysenberries are a cross between blackberries, loganberries, and raspberries. Visually, they resemble blackberries but have a bigger size and lighter reddish-purple color than the blackberry’s dark coloration. The taste of a boysenberry is that of a cross between blackberries and raspberries (drooling)! 

Now, where can you find boysenberries? Since they are a seasonal fruit, summertime being their season of choice, it can be incredibly hard to find and bake with them. Luckily, we have an extract that works wonderfully in any and all creations to bring you that sweet flavor all year long. 

For this recipe, we're going to elevate a traditional vanilla box mix cake into something worth eating!

So grab two box mix cake mixes and let's get baking!

We're using our Amoretti® Boysenberry extract and Purple Food Color to brighten up and flavor this cake. The goal is to achieve a light pink colored cake, and our food color does that perfectly!

Ingredients

For the Cake:

• Two vanilla cake box mixes
• 2 tsp. Amoretti® Boysenberry Extract
• 3-6 drops of Amoretti® Purple Food Color
• 2 greased 8-inch pans
• Sprinkles

For the Buttercream:

• 3 cups of butter
• 1 tsp Amoretti® Boysenberry Extract
• 2-4 drops Amoretti® Purple Food Color
• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp Amoretti® Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract (optional)

Directions

For the cake:

1. Preheat your oven to the temperature listed on your cake mix of choice. Start with one of the cake mixes. Since this recipe relies on cake mixes, follow the recipe on the back of your mix.
2. Once you've combined your wet and dry ingredients, add in your Boysenberry Extract and Purple food color to ONE of the cake mixes. You want to make sure you have contrast in this recipe so that the checkerboard pieces stand out. Be sure to only add color and flavor to one of your mixes.
3. Pour your batter into a greased 8 inch pan. 
4. Make the second cake as the box calls and pour finished product into a greased 8 inch pan.
5. Bake until toothpick comes out clean

For the Frosting:

1. Let your butter sit out for 10-20 minutes prior to making the buttercream.

2. Once softened just ever so slightly, place butter in a stand mixer with paddle attachment and whip until light and fluffy.

3. After the butter has been whipped, add in half the powdered sugar and mix until combined. Then, add in the remaining powdered sugar and milk.

4. Whip until light and fluffy.

5. Add the boysenberry extract and food color and mix until combined.

For the Checkerboard Pattern:

1. Once your cakes have been taken out of the oven and cooled, level off the top and cut each layer in half, evenly. 
2. Grab 2 different sized (but large enough to cut a cake); one big and one slightly smaller, cookie cutters, cake rings, or fondant cutters and cut rings out of each layer of cake.
3. To place together: grab a large outer ring of vanilla cake, and place the middle ring of our pink boysenberry cake and smaller piece of vanilla cake in the center. Repeat with the second layer.
4. To place together the Boysenberry Pieces: take the outer ring of the pink boysenberry cake, and add the middle ring of vanilla and small ring of the boysenberry in the center. Repeat with the second layer.
5. Start off the bottom of the cake with the vanilla layer, add some frosting in between, then the boysenberry layer and repeat until finished.
6. Frost the entirety of the cake and decorate with sprinkles or anything else you may like.
7. There you have a beautiful, light, and fluffy Boysenberry Vanilla Checkerboard Cake!