Miss SP's 50th Birthday Cake - Part 2 (and maybe part 3 as well!)

Things have been a bit quite on the baking front this week.  Work has been insane and the new health regime has picked up a notch with my gym membership - I can say with all honesty that whoever invented the concept of a spinning class has pure evil at their core!  As much as I would love to say that I pushed the pain aside to get the next stages of Miss SP's cake completed for her big day, the overriding justification is that I'm not going to be able to comfortably sit down for about a week!

Lemon Madeira Cake - For the 23cm round cake
450g unsalted butter
450g caster sugar
450g SR flour
225g plain flour
8 large eggs
zest of 3 lemons

Preheat the oven to 160C.  Grease and line the cake tin with baking parchment.

Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light, fluffy and pale.  Sift the flours together in a separate bowl.

Beat the eggs into the creamed mixture, one at a time, following each with a spoonful of flour, to prevent the mixture curdling.

Sift the remaining flour into the creamed mixture and fold in carefully with a large metal spoon.  Add the lemon zest.

Transfer to the lined baking tin and bake for 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 hours.  When the cake is ready it will be well risen, firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre will come out clean.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin then, leaving the lining paper on, wrap the cake in foil or place in an airtight container for at least 12 hours before cutting , to allow the cake to settle.

Cakes to Inspire and Desire

I've also made a 20cm round cake for the top tier;
Lemon Madeira Cake - For the 20cm round cake
350g unsalted butter
350g caster sugar
350g SR flour
175g plain flour
6 large eggs
Zest of 2 lemons

I followed the same method as listed above except for one small detail.  One of the girls in our group is unable to eat wheat.  So that she can still have a slice of cake I replaced ordinary flour with gluten and wheat free (Doves brand came highly recommended which was a good thing seeing I couldn't find any other brands available!  This has lead me to the conclusion that gluten free members of the population have got it tough).  I checked out the website for Doves flour range and while they do make an SR flour neither of my local supermarkets stocked it, just plain flour.  I opted to use this and added 2 1/4 tsp baking powder to the first sifting stage.  So far this seems to have worked pretty well but the cake is still 'settling'.  Also, the packet advised that gluten and wheat free flour could be used in place of regular flour but that more liquid should be added to the mixture - annoyingly it didn't give any guidelines in what amount of liquid should be added so I opted to add the juice of the two zested lemons.  Again, looks as though this has worked pretty well but I won't know until tomorrow when I cut the cake, fingers crossed.

Covering the cake board
The next step was to cover the cake board.  I rolled out some sugar paste until it was larger than the size of the board.  Using vodka (or any other clear spirit) brush the board so the sugar paste has something to stick to.  Lay the rolled out sugar paste over the board ensuring that there are no air bubbles.  As you can see mine has a few 'dinks' in it.  I'm hoping that the cake will cover these up, otherwise I'll make sure they go at the back of the cake!  This is a catch phrase in our Tuesday night class!

Covering the cake
I decided not to split the cake in half and then sandwich it with butter cream.  Icing a whole cake is still difficult enough for me!  So to add a little more lemon kick I used a skewer to pierce holes all over the cake and then poured some limoncello over it.  Next, the cake needs to be trimmed so as it is level.  The trimmings are the cooks perk ;0)

Traditionally speaking, marzipan is used as the first layer for covering the cake.  None of us are all that fond of marzipan though so I have opted to go for two coats of sugar paste.  To do this, follow the same method as for covering the cake board, use some string or cotton to measure the size of the cake, this is then used as a guide for rolling out the sugar paste.  The natural enemy of sugar paste is water, I have learnt through bitter experience of having a work station right buy the sink that water drops can leave great big craters in the surface.  For this reason I have used apricot jam as the glue for the sugar paste instead of vodka.

Use some sugar paste to cover any little holes at the base of the cake.  After trimming about half the cake off in an attempt to get an even top to my cake I ended up flipping it over.  This meant there were quite a few gaps to plug!!!  So pleased I hadn't gone for the butter cream sandwich!

Trim the excess sugar paste from around the base of the cake and smooth the top and sides.  The sugar paste needs to dry a little bit before I can add the second coat, otherwise the icing has a tendency to be lopsided if you accidentally apply a little too much pressure.

Tomorrow is the turn of cake number two!