The first thing I did was was pick a theme. I knew about 10 to 15 people were going and the biggest tin I have is a 10 inch circular cake - so that saved the debate on round or square. I wanted to keep it somewhat simple so this was not going to be multiple tiers! Just the one cake will do! Then came the colour scheme, I went for silvers and royal blue plus anything sparkly! I didn't want the cake to be overcrowded so I opted for a cake topper, 'Happy Birthday' writing and of-course the necessary candles. My grandad doesn't drink so no small bottles of champagne were going to appear on this cake! It was going to be simple yet effective and I'd like to think it was!
My friend kindly gave me Jane Asher's 'Easy Celebration Cakes' for Christmas and oh my god, it has been a godsend!! Both the sponge recipe and the butter cream recipe come from the book and from now on I will always use the butter cream recipe. It is the best one I have tried so far.
Sponge Recipe
375g Soft Butter
375g Caster Sugar
375 Self Raising Flour
5 Eggs
3 Teaspoons Baking Powder
Butter Cream Recipe
200g Butter
1 Tablespoon Milk
300g Icing Sugar, Sifted
1) Preheat oven togas mark 4/180c/fan assisted 160c. Grease and line the single 10 inch tin.
2) Put all the ingredients into a food processor or bowl and mix with a wooden spoon - or process on high speed - for about 2 minutes, or until smooth. Pour the mixture into the tin.
3) Cook for approx 1 hours 15 mins until golden brown and coming away from tin.Once cooked, place on wire wrack to cool.
For the Butter Cream
4) Put the butter into a bowl with the milk and mix together. Beat in the sifted icing sugar a little at a time, until the mixture is light and creamy. You can store this in an airtight container in the fridge until needed.Bring to room temperature before using.
Assembly
5) Take the single sponge and cut it in half to make 2 sponges. If need be trim the top of the cake to make it even - if needed. Now you have your sponge and butter cream.
6) Spread the butter cream on the bottom layer and then top with jam. Gently place the top layer onto the bottom layer and cover the top and sides in butter cream. Leave to set - I left mine over night in a cold room.
7) For the royal icing, I used ready rolled - preferably Dr Oetker. I tried the Tesco own rolled icing and it was much thinner and tore a lot easier. Even though the Dr Oetker ready rolled icing is £3.80 a pop, I would never use anything else. It is really good quality royal icing. Unroll the icing very gently and using a rolling pin, lift it up and gently place it down on the cake. Using your hands smooth down the sides fixing the icing into place. I used an icing smoother/polisher to achieve the sharp clean sides and top, gently apply pressure and work your way around the cake. Once satisfied, cut around the bottom of your cake.
8) Time to decorate. I placed a royal blue ribbon around the bottom which instantly started transforming the cake. Next I placed the cake topper in the middle towards the back. This enabled me to place the writing in a crescent moon shape with an '8' and a '0' candles in the middle. I topped it off with a sparkler each side.
I don't have any pictures of the actual cake on the day - as I was the one who presented it. However I do have pictures of my trial run cake - which looked exactly the same except for the 80 candle - they were old ones we had in the cupboard. For the actual cake, we bought new blue sparkly candles!
Sarahs Tips
Both the sponge mix and butter cream mix will change colour when ready. They will both change to a much lighter colour so keep mixing until you achieve that.
I used a cake cuter to cut the cake in half - an absolute essential to achieve the perfect cut. I borrowed mine from a friend but you can easily buy them in stores or online. They're like a giant cheese cutter!
I used a whole jar of jam for the centre.
When covering the cake do not go mad on the butter cream -a light covering will do. If you put too much butter cream on, you will have a very hard time with the royal icing - trust me.
Don't worry if your royal icing doesn't look so neat around the bottom when you've cut it, just use a ribbon to hide it!
If your royal icing tears then gently apply pressure and stick it back together - use a little bit of water if needed as a glueing agent. Then very gently with your finger stroke the tear until it is smooth.
A cake topper is a fantastic item to transform your cake! I bought mine online from Icing On The Cake at http://caketoppersonline.net/ The cake topper was absolutely beautiful and handmade by a lady called Alison. Once placed into the cake you can then spread out the stars as you wish - giving the topper some body.
Most importantly, the best advice I can given is DO A TRIAL RUN! I have never cooked a 10 inch cake before - the first time I cooked the sponge for the trial run it was a total disaster - it sank in the middle!! It sank quite badly and it had an egg stench - Jane Asher's recipe suggested 6 medium eggs, so for my second trial run I decided to only put in 5 eggs which worked - the cake stayed risen.
My second issue was the royal icing. I have had a lot of practice recently with royal icing - the Christmas cake and a three tiered birthday cake (which will be my next post) and for those cakes it was successful...however for this cake it went a little wrong!!! I put on too much butter cream. And then some of the icing tore and thinned out and then my fingernail nicked a bit of the icing and every time I tried to patch up the icing more butter cream spilled out. I got a little bit stressed out...and had to leave the room for a breather. I wanted the icing perfect and it wasn't going that way... When I came back my dad did his best plastering techniques on the cake and actually fixed the hole. Eventually with the both of us, the icing looked respectable. Thank goodness the ribbon was quite thick! It hid a few blemishes!
A trial run lets you play around with colours and themes. I decided to use sparklers - on the trial run we lit one and realised they were quite powerful so one each side would do. Plus these sparklers had been in the cupboard for quite some time and had gotten damp so they took forever to light, so new sparklers were needed. I bought my ones from my local baking shop and they were totally safe for cakes.
I cannot pipe to save my life. So for the lettering I used small plastic letters. They're fantastic for for anyone who like me, can't pipe. They give a really professional finish with minimal effort. Just arrange them as you wish and using edible glue stick them to your cake! I got mine online from Cake Craft World : http://www.cakecraftworld.co.uk/shop/products/id/cbp51.htm
Im pretty sure my grandad was really pleased with his cake! I must admit it did taste pretty good. You can't go wrong with a good sponge cake!
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