My eldest brother recently received planning permission to start building his new house (woohoo!) so naturally his birthday cake this year featured a house. To keep the cake nice and "manly" I used square sandwich tins. It made a fun change to my usual round sponges.
Such fine drawing skills comes from years of art school training. You can see from the level of detail on the roof and windows that I have a painting degree. Hahaha!
I originally intended to ice the sides of the cake as well but ended up having a bit of a jam explosion. That's what happens when you go, "ah there's not much left in the jar, I might as well use it all." I think it adds to the fun character of the cake though. It's a cake to make you smile.
As my brother says, it's hard to go wrong with a plain sponge cake. It just works. And the more jam, the better!!
And lastly... a tractor cake for my youngest nephew's birthday. It's non stop birthdays in my family at the moment. This probably isn't my finest work, but it does resemble a tractor so it's all good. Fondant modelling definitely requires more patience and precision than I posess!
That's meant to be my nephew in a boiler suit jumping out of a tractor. Classy work.
Happy house sponge cake
8oz caster sugar
8oz margarine/softened butter
4 large eggs
8 oz self raising flour, sifted
filling and icing:
a jar of strawberry jam
a pack of writing icing pens
350g icing sugar
125g softened butter
2 tbsp milk
a few drops of vanilla extract (optional)
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease and line two 18cm/ 7 inch square cake tins. Beat together the sugar and butter/margarine for 5 minutes with your mixer until pale, soft and very fluffy. Crack the eggs into a jug and lightly whip together with a fork before gradually adding to the sugar mixture, mixing well after each addition. Add a tablespoon of the flour with the last lot of egg if the cake mixture starts to curdle/split. Add the remaining flour and mix until fully combined.
Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake in the centre of the oven for about 25 minutes until well risen, golden and firm to touch. Leave in the tins for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Beat together the icing sugar, butter, milk and vanilla for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Use half the icing to sandwich the sponges together along with a generous spread of jam. Top the cake with the remaining icing and decorate with a writing icing or sprinkles.