Go Back
+ servings
A cake in the shape of an open book with pink flowers and green leaves and scrolls.
Print Recipe
5 from 1 vote

Open Book Cake

Learn how to make an open book cake with these step by step instructions and decorating guide. An awesome birthday cake idea!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time45 minutes
Decorating time2 hours
Total Time3 hours
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 1 10 inches by 6 inches cake
Calories: 8535.3kcal
Author: Priya Maha

Equipment

  • Wilton round tip 3 and star tip
  • Disposable piping bags
  • Knife (to carve the cake)

Ingredients

Cake

  • 300 g butter
  • 300 g granulated sugar
  • 275 g self-raising flour
  • 25 g cocoa powder
  • 5 eggs
  • 75 ml milk
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • teaspoon baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting and Decoration

Instructions

Making the royal icing flowers

  • Follow the tutorial in the link provided above for the royal icing flowers. While the tutorial is for buttercream flowers, pipe the same flowers with royal icing (link for the icing is also provided above). The flowers can be made a few days in advance.

Baking the cake

  • Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
  • Beat butter and granulated sugar till soft and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  • In another separate bowl, sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt 3 times. Fold in the sifted ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with milk, starting and ending with flour.
  • Finally add vanilla extract and combine well.
  • Pour the batter into a 6 inches by 10 inches rectangle cake tin. Level the top and bake the cake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out without any wet batter.
  • Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool completely before decorating.

Making the butter icing

  • Sieve icing sugar to break lumps.
  • In a separate bowl, cream butter till soft. Add icing sugar, a little at a time, beating continuously. Add vanilla and continue beating until butter and icing sugar are well combined.
  • The icing should be quite stiff, and it should not be sticking to your finger when lightly pressed.

Carving the book cake

  • Start by carving the center of the open book.
  • Place the cake with its longer side lying horizontally. Measure the length of the cake and use a toothpick to mark a line that runs vertically right down the center of the cake. And then, cut out a triangle wedge on the top surface of the cake, right in the center. Make sure the depth of the wedge does not go more than half of the thickness of the cake itself. Then, slice off another tiny triangle piece at the bottom, exactly opposite the top wedge.
  • Next, slice off the sides of the cake slanting outwards to denote the pages on an open book.
  • Once that is done, clean all the crumbs on and around the cake. Cover the top with butter icing and smooth it.
  • For the sides of the book (ie the pages), use a star nozzle for this. When piping the butter icing onto the sides of the cake. press the nozzle against the cake so that the icing comes out from the nozzle serrated, and that produces the stacked papers design.

Decorating the open book cover

  • Next is the book cover. With some dark pink icing (using the round tip), pipe a long line all around the book for the cover. Also pipe in the tiny triangle piece cut out earlier.
  • At this stage, the book is literally ready to decorate it's open pages.
  • For the open pages, pipe the birthday message with a round tip. Next, with some green icing, pipe the scrolls and arrange the pink royal icing flowers. Pipe some green butter icing leaves. If the icing is too stiff, soften it by adding some butter. For the finishing touches, add silver dragees at the end of each scroll. And that completes the open book cake.

Nutrition

Calories: 8535.3kcal | Carbohydrates: 1079.7g | Protein: 72.3g | Fat: 457.2g | Saturated Fat: 280.6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 22.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 120.5g | Trans Fat: 17.3g | Cholesterol: 1954.7mg | Sodium: 4982.8mg | Potassium: 1212.8mg | Fiber: 14.9g | Sugar: 854.2g | Vitamin A: 14434.8IU | Calcium: 573.6mg | Iron: 10.7mg