Short & Sweet: The first of many...

The first of many...

Last weekend I took a well needed trip home to celebrate my niece's first birthday, which was the perfect opportunity to make yet another dripping cake. I just can't get enough of this style.

For this cake I went for a classic vanilla sponge with vanilla buttercream, and strawberry jam, which got the seal of approval from the birthday girl.

Pink and white vanilla dripping cake

Prep time: 2 hours
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Serves: 20-25 slices

Ingredients:

For the cake:

450g caster sugar
450g margarine or softened butter
9 free range medium eggs
450g self raising flour
2 tsp vanilla extract/essence

For the buttercream:

500g softened butter
1kg icing sugar
1-2 tsp vanilla extract/essence
food colouring of choice

Method:

Firstly, preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius, and line three 8 inch cake tins with grease proof paper.

Place the margarine into a mixer or bowl and mix for a minute or two until smooth and of a lighter colour. Then add the sugar, and mix on a medium speed until they are completely combined.

Next, add the eggs into the mixture one at a time, mixing well between each addition. This will prevent the mixture from curdling, and incorporate as much air as possible for a light fluffy sponge.

Once all the eggs have been added sift the flour into the mixture, along with the vanilla and fold into the mixture, being careful to not knock too much air out.

Finally, place the mixture into the prepared cake tins and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown and springy to touch.

Once the cakes have cooked, place on a wire rack to cool completely.

In the meantime, place the butter into a mixer and mix for a couple of minutes, until it is soft and of a lighter colour. Gradually add in the sifted icing sugar, and vanilla until combined. You can also add a small amount of milk if the buttercream is too stiff.

To construct the cake place a tablespoon of strawberry jam onto the first layer of cake, and then place another tablespoon of buttercream on top, smoothing over until level (you can also pipe these so they don't merge). repeat this step for a second time, until all three layers of cake are stacked.

Next, you need to crumb coat the cake. This is where you cover the whole of the outside of the cake in a thin layer of buttercream, and leave it to set so that the crumbs do not show through the outer later of icing. I do this by piping all the way round the cake and smoothing over with a palette knife at a 90 degree angle. Place in the fridge or a cool place for 30 minutes.

For the outer layer of buttercream repeat the step above but leave a larger amount of icing on the cake so you cannot see the sponge. Again I do this by piping all the way around the outside of the cake and smoothing over with a palette knife.

Next, to create the drip mix two tablespoons of icing sugar with 2 tsp of milk. You may need more of each ingredient depending on how thick/thin you would like the icing to be. You can also add any food colouring of your choice.

Place this into a piping bag with a small round nozzle, and pipe around the edge of the cake, placing a small amount of pressure in the areas you would like it to drip.

To create the rose design on top, separate your spare buttercream into two, leaving one as plain white, and add a small amount of food colouring to the other. Place these into a dual icing bag prepare with a Wilton 2D/six point star nozzle.

Pipe onto the top of the cake starting from the outside. To create a rose start in the middle and work your way outwards in a circular motion. Repeat until the top of the cake is completely covered.

I finished off my cake with a dusting of silver edible glitter, and a cute 'one' cake topper that I purchased from Amazon.

I hope you enjoyed learning how to make this show stopping, but simple cake, that everyone will enjoy!

The first of many...

Pink and white vanilla dripping cake

Ingredients:

Method:

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