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!

Limoncello 'Tiramisu'

Tonight we have friends coming around for dinner so of course I have been planning the menu all week! One of our guests is a dedicated vegetarian and two others are 'freedom' eaters. This is the name they give themselves, as a general rule they are veggies but if the urge takes them they will eat meat guilt free. Having once been a veggie catering for one (or three) doesn't phase me all that much. The main course (Tomato, Mascarpone and Mozzarella Lasagne) is one I used to make all the time when I had friends round for dinner during that stage of my life so I know it satisfies carnivores as well as leaf eaters. This really set me on my course for the rest of the menu ... an Italian Job!

Starter: Ruby Red Pomegranate, Blue Cheese, Parsley and Shallot Crostini

Main: Tomato, Mascarpone and Mozzarella Lasagne - I'm even making my own pasta sheets

for tonight's dinner.

Spinach Salad - not many meals go by in this house without this as a side dish!

Roast Tomato Salad - will blog about this just as soon as I've made it ;0)

Garlic and Rosemary Bread - again, not made it yet but will post as soon as I do!

Dessert: Limoncello 'Tiramisu' - not a real Tiramisu thanks to a few Chocolate Teapot

touches ;0)

Limoncello 'Tiramisu'

568ml double cream

250g mascarpone

75ml Limoncello

5 tbsp caster sugar

300ml Limoncello

Lemon Cupcakes (this would by the CT touch - recipe follows, otherwise use 16 sponge fingers)

Dark chocolate to decorate

Put the cream, mascarpone, sugar and 75ml of liqueur (Grand Marnier or Cointreau could also be used) in a large bowl and whisk together until the consistency of thickly whipped cream.

Get the serving dish ready. Slice the cupcakes in half and use 1/3 of them to line the bottom of the dish. Pour some of the 100ml of Limoncello over the top. Cover with 1/3 of the cream mixture. Repeat the layers until all the cupcakes, Limoncello and cream are used, ending with the cram layer. Grate dark chocolate over the top to decorate.

Cover and chill for a few hours. It can be kept for up to 2 days.

Serves 6

I found this recipe on the net but I'm not 100% sure where I found it!

Lemon Cupcakes

110g unsalted butter, at room temp

225g golden caster sugar

2 large eggs

150g SR flour, sifted

125g plain flour, sifted

90ml semi skimmed milk, at room temp

2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tbsp sour cream

Grated zest of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 180C/ fan 160C and line a 12 hole muffin tray with cupcake cases.

In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth, which should take 3-5 mins using an electric hand mixer. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for a few mins after each addition.

Combine the two flours in a separate bowl and combine the milk, lemon juice and sour cream in a jug. Add one third of the flours to the creamed mixture and beat well. Pour in one third of the milk and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk have been added, incorporating the lemon zest with the last third of flour. Don't worry if the mixture starts to curdle, simply add another spoonful of plain flour and beat well.

Carefully spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, filling them to about two-thirds full. Bake in the oven for about 25 mins until slightly raised and golden brown. To check they are cooked, insert a skewer in the centre of one of the cakes - it should come out clean.

Remove from the oven and leave the cakes in their tins for about 10 mins before carefully placing on a wire rack to cool.

Makes 12 cupcakes although even after over filling my cases I still had enough mixture to make 15.

Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery

This recipe makes really really good cupcakes, I'll be making these again for afternoon tea in the not too distant future.

Please excuse the lack and quality of photo's too. I'm hoping to get a nicer photo of the finished product tonight when it is served ... but knowing me I'll be so engrossed in conversation that I will completely forget!

A Girly Girl Birthday Cake

I made this cake at the request of one of my friends as she needed a cake for her Mum's 80th birthday today.  My remit was pretty open, it just needed to be pink and flowery, along the same lines as Miss SP's birthday cake, and because the Birthday Girl doesn't really have a sweet tooth it needed to be more on the lemony side. Oh, and it needed to be gluten free too!  Apart from that I could do whatever I wanted.

I started off by making a sponge cake that was in a cake decorating book I got for Christmas.  Only problem was it sunk in the middle owing to some over zealous batter dipping in the centre on my part.  The book instructed that sponges tend to peak in the middle so to prevent this you should make a dip in the batter in the centre.  The cake itself is fine, I just couldn't face trying to 'pad out' the dip, so I've popped it in the freezer and I'll make it into a trifle one day soon.

After this I returned to my new 'old faithful' cake recipe. To make it more lemony I added the zest and juice of 2 lemons and then just evened out the amount of cream required once the lemon juice was in.  In hindsight though I should have just kept the cream amount the same, gluten free cakes do tend to be dry and crumbly even after soaked with a limoncello syrup.

The cake has a lemon curd (shhhhhhhhhh - don't tell Hubby where all his lemon curd went to!) and buttercream centre and was then 'dirty iced' with more buttercream before being covered with fondant icing.  I then used pale pink flower paste to make the flowers and stuck them on to the cake with some royal icing.  The centres are also made with royal icing.  The cake design is based on one in Eric Lanlard's book, Glamour Cakes (that I also got for Christmas!)

My friend came around to pick the cake up last night and seemed very pleased with it ... fingers crossed it tastes OK!