21st Birthday Cake

21st Birthday Cake

Isn’t this a flamboyant cake?!
Three layers of moist madeira cake, topped with white chocolate and ‘stuff’.
The brief?
Ultra-girly.

The roses are handmade:
This is the first time I’ve ever made roses.
I used a tutorial in my favourite magazine ‘Cake Baking and Decoration’ and, if I do say so myself, they worked a treat.  You can almost smell’em.
There were more than a few disasters.
1) The first ‘test’ white chocolate mud-cake had to be thrown away.  If you saw my previous rant    post   … erm …  sermon(!), you will have noticed that ‘wet cakes’ are not a personal favourite.
2) The next white chocolate cake was distinctly un-chocolatey.  So we ate that one.
3) I gave up and made a madeira, flavouring it with white hot chocolate of the Thorntons variety.  How Posh.
4) The lady in the shop didn’t give me enough ribbon.  I had to re-buy.

Other than that, I was most pleased.
Here it is, buttercreamed:
This was the first coat.  The ‘crumb coat’.  Since then, I have researched perfect buttercream covering and levelling a cake.  Here are two excellent tutorials:
Jenniffer White ‘Cup a Dee Cakes’ 
Nelscakeboutique 
I have truly learnt what I would do differently.

I love making cakes and I desperately need more people to practice on to perfect techniques.  I made this purely for the cost of ingredients – really, to keep honing my skills.  If anybody in the area would allow me to experiment, I’ll more than happily bake you a cake for a contribution towards ingredients!

The Madeira Cake recipe: (8″ round)
350g (12 oz)   unsalted butter
350g (12 oz)   caster sugar
350g (12 oz)    self raising flour
175g (6oz)      plain flour
6     large eggs

* Pre-heat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas 3. Grease the cake tin and line it with baking parchment.
* Cream the butter and sugar until light, fluffy and pale. Sift both flours into a separate bowl.
* Beat the eggs into the creamed mixture, one at a time.  Always follow each egg with a spoonful of flour.  This will stop the mixture curdling.
* Sift the remaining flour into the mixture.  Fold it in carefully with a large metal spoon.
* Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for around an hour and a quarter, although mine needed another half an hour.  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.
* Allow the cake to cool. leaving the lining paper on.  Wrap the cake in foil or place in an airtight container for at least 12 hours before decorating.