Publications
- 380g - cake flour
- 300g - white sugar
- 7,5ml - bicarbonate of soda
- 2,5ml - salt
- 3 - eggs
- 300ml - sunflower oil
- 15ml - vanilla essence or vanilla seeds from 1 vanilla pod
- 375ml - amasi or buttermilk
- 30ml - vinegar or lemon juice
- - food colouring of your choice
- 500g - butter or baking margarine
- 15ml - egg white powder (omit if not available)
- 1 - packet icing sugar
- 60ml - boiling water
- - vanilla essence or other flavouring and colouring of choice
- - strawberry- or vanilla flavoured buttercream
- - sweets/small gifts to place in the middle of the cake in the colour of your choice
- 1,5kg - white fondant
- - icing sugar for rolling out the fondant
- - fondant flowers
1. Cake “box” batter Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a rectangular 25 x 35 cm beer crate box or baking tin.
2. Sift together the cake flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
3. In another bowl, mix together the eggs, oil, vanilla, amasi and vinegar.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix very well to make the batter.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared beer crate box or baking tin and bake for about 25 minutes until done (when a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean).
6. Buttercream Beat the butter or baking margarine until light and fluffy, then add the egg white powder (if using).
7. Gradually add the icing sugar and beat well.
8. Gradually add the boiling water if the icing becomes too thick, and beat the buttercream very well for about 10 minutes until it becomes light and fluffy.
9. Add your flavouring of choice and beat again until incorporated.
1. Cake Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line five 20cm cake tins with baking paper.
2. Prepare 1½ quantities of the “box” cake batter.
3. Divide the batter into five equal portions and use the food colouring to make five shades of batter, in this example starting from very pale pink to an intense dark pink.
4. Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tins and bake for about 20 minutes until cooked and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
5. Cool completely on wire racks.
1. Assembling the cake Using a cake wire, cut off the top crust of all the layers so that each layer is the same height.
2. Cut out a 10cm round from the centre of four of the layers. Keep the palest pink layer intact to place on top.
3. Use a little buttercream to stick the bottom cake layer onto a 20cm cake board. Start with the darkest pink layer.
4. Place the rest of the cut layers on top of one another, sandwiched with buttercream and going from dark to light. Make sure all are well aligned.
5. Fill the hole with sweets or small gifts and top with the remaining intact layer of cake.
6. Coat the sides and top of the cake with buttercream, and use a cake scraper to smooth the coating.
7. Place the cake in the freezer or refrigerator for 15 minutes. Spread with another layer of buttercream when the cake is ice cold. This must be very neatly applied and will determine your end result. Place the cake in the freezer or refrigerator until the icing is very hard.
8. Lightly brush a little water over the buttercream before placing the fondant icing on the cake.
