Kinako Cake with Painted Buttercream Fall Landscape

My baking is finally in full fall mode. In addition to the pumpkin spice latte cookies I made recently, I also whipped up this kinako cake. If you’re not familiar with kinako, it is a roasted soybean flour used in Japanese desserts. Like my other oil-based cakes, this kinako cake is fluffy, soft, and moist, and it’s not at all dense. Although you can frost this cake any way you like, I love how this fall leaf landscape painted buttercream turned out.

Where to find kinako

I love kinako at all times of year, but its nutty flavor seems especially perfect for fall. You can find kinako at any Japanese market. I get mine at Uwajimaya in Seattle, where it’s usually in the same aisle as other flours, like mochiko. But of course, if you don’t have a Japanese market near you, there’s always Amazon. If none of these words make sense to you, I highly suggest checking out my handy dandy food glossary for an introduction to my most commonly used Asian food ingredients.

How I did the painted buttercream landscape

As for the decoration, how do you guys like this fall painted landscape? It was my first time trying a painted buttercream landscape, and I’m totally in love! It’s a lot easier than it looks too. I used my go-to Bravetart Swiss Meringue buttercream frosting, but you can use pretty much any frosting that can be dyed different colors.

First, I frosted the cake with a base layer of white frosting. Next, I piped the outline of mountains in the lightest shade of green. I used a palette knife to smooth out the frosting, but a butter knife would work too. Then, I repeated that process with the darker shades of green. Finally, I piped the trees in varying shades of fall colors. A lot of my baking supplies are still packed away in moving boxes, so I actually just used a ziplock bag with a small hole snipped in the corner to pipe the frosting. Fancy? No. Effective? Yes.

And that’s it! Voila! I love how this cake turned out. If you give it a shot, let me know how it goes!

Kinako Layer Cake

Kinako is roasted soybean powder. It makes this easy layer cake nutty and rich, but does not contain any butter or nuts! Use your favorite nondairy milk substitute and frosting to make the whole thing dairy free!

No ratings yet

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine Asian American, Japanese

Servings 12

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 cup milk (or nondairy alternative)
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup kinako
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line three 6" round cake tins (or one 8" round cake tin or prep 12 cupcake liners).
• Beat eggs and sugar until the batter is pale, fluffy, and can hold a ribbon shape as it drips off the whisk.
• Beat in oil until homogenous.
• Mix dry ingredients (flour, kinako, salt, baking powder) and wet ingredients (milk, vanilla) in separate containers.
• Alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients into the batter, either by hand or on very low speed.
• Divide batter evenly amongst cake tins. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. (Cupcakes will take about 15-18 minutes.) Let cool, frost, and enjoy.

Tried this recipe?Click on the stars to add a rating, or add a comment below!

Keyword cake, dairy free

Like kinako as much as I do? Check out my kinako blondie recipe!