Churro Layer Cake

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This Churro Layer Cake has tender, moist layers of cinnamon cake all covered with a creamy cinnamon buttercream! It’s full of flavor and totally addicting!

This post is sponsored by Challenge Butter, but all opinions are my own.

Churro Layer Cake

Cinnamon is one of my favorite ingredients and flavors. It makes everything better. And for me, churros are all about the cinnamon. A delicious, warm churro covered in cinnamon? Sign me up!

So a Churro Cake has natural appeal. Give me all the cinnamon and sugar! It’s in the cake and the frosting, so you get plenty of cinnamon in every bite.

I actually spent a lot of time thinking about this cake before making it. I love adding fillings and textures to cakes when it makes sense and this seemed like a fun cake to try to add something interesting to texture wise. Since churros are kind of pastry/doughnut-like, I thought adding something that would give the filling texture like that might be fun. Sadly though, something like that ends up soaking up moisture and just being kind of doughy and strange. I tried taking the churros you see on this cake and grinding them up to do something with them, but they are actually filled with some chocolate, so that wasn’t quite right. And then I made a crumble and that just tasted like cookies.

So alas, there’s no cool filling in this cake. BUT! It’s covered in churros and FULL of cinnamon, which is what I love about churros. So let’s dig into this baby!

Ingredients for Churro Cake

The ingredients used in this cake are fairly straight forward and you likely have most of them on hand already. The only thing that you may have to add are the ready-made churros, which I found right in our grocery story.

Cinnamon Cake

• All Purpose Flour
• Baking Powder – To help the cake rise.
• Cinnamon – Ground cinnamon gives the cake it’s primary flavor.
• Salt – For flavor.
• Butter – I use my favorite unsalted Challenge Butter. Challenge Butter is a high quality, creamy butter that goes from farm to fridge in just two days, ensuring that it’s nice and fresh. It has no added hormones, artificial flavors or fillings, so you can feel good about feeding it to your family. If you haven’t tried it before, you definitely need to. It will definitely elevate your baking and cooking. We love it! And if you can find their butter spread, that’s wonderful too.
• Vegetable Oil – For extra moisture.
• Sugar – Sugar adds both sweetness and moisture.
• Vanilla Extract – For flavor.
• Eggs – Large eggs.
• Milk – I use 2% milk.

Cinnamon Buttercream

• Butter – Unsalted Challenge Butter, it’s the best!
• Powdered Sugar – Adds volume to the buttercream and helps achieve the right consistency.
• Vanilla Extract – For flavor.
• Cinnamon – Also for flavor.
• Cream – You can use water or heavy cream to help achieve the right consistency.
• Salt – For flavor.
• Churros – These are for decorating. I bought pre-made ones (linked in the recipe below), but you could also make your own. Our grocery store bakery even makes churros bites sometimes that are fresh.

How to make a Churro Layer Cake

1. Preheat oven: Bring your oven to 350°F and prepare three 8 inch cake pans.
2. Combine dry ingredients: Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.
3. Cream butter mixture: Add the butter, sugar, oil and vanilla extract to a large mixer bowl and cream until light in color and fluffy.
4. Add eggs: Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until mostly combined after each.
5. Alternate dry ingredients and milk: Add about half of the dry ingredients and mix until mostly combined, then add the milk and mix until well combined. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix just until well combined.
6. Bake: Divide the cake batter between the pans and bake for 22-25 minutes.
7. Cool cakes: When the cakes are done, remove from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.
8. Make buttercream: Start by beating the butter until smooth and creamy.
9. Add powdered sugar: Add about half of the powdered sugar and mix until well combined.
10. Add flavor: Add the vanilla extract and cinnamon, then part of the water or cream and mix until well combined.
11. Remaining powdered sugar: Add the rest of the powdered sugar and mix until well combined.
12. Adjust consistency: Add the final water or cream, as needed, to get the right consistency of buttercream.
13. Build cake: Level the cake layers to begin. Place the first layer of cake on a serving platter or cardboard cake circle.
14. Continue layering: Add a cup of buttercream, then the second layer of cake, another cup of buttercream and then the final layer of cake.
15. Frost cake: Frost the outside of the cake and pipe swirls around the top border.
16. Decorate: Use churros to decorate the cake, then serve.

Tips for Success

• Cream Butter & Sugar Well: Cream your butter, sugar, oil and vanilla for the full 2-3 minutes, or until the mixture becomes lighter in both texture and color. This adds air to the cake batter that is needed to help it rise and be nice and fluffy.
• Avoid Over-Mixing the Batter: Particularly after adding the flour. Over mixing can lead to a more dense cake.
• Tips for Frosting the Cake: If you could use a little help with frosting your cake, check out this tutorial for Frosting a Smooth Cake. It will teach you everything you need to know!

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