It's the day after St. Pauls Carnival and having danced into the early hours I thought I would spend my Sunday with Edie relaxing in the beautiful sunshine writing about cake.
I said I would bake for some friends when they next visited and this happened to be for St. Pauls Carnival. I immediately thought 'Carnival Cake', and started searching around for various inspirations.
To stay in keeping with the Caribbean carnival theme, I went for a coconut and peach sponge. For the icing I wanted something really bright, colourful and sparkly.
I came across a brilliant video tutorial for an icing technique by Sweetapolita's Rosie Alyea, which I've put at the end of this post. Wanting to try something new I thought this was the perfect way to go about it. A basic vanilla buttercream frosting in three different colours which you blend into one another in layers around the entire cake. Brilliant! I'm a big fan of cream cheese frosting and to stop the cake from being too sweet I thought that would be a nice choice for the filling.
I actually found that the peach flavour was a little too subtle in this recipe, so next time I would add some peach jam in between the layers along with the cream cheese frosting to give it that extra kick.
Now I just needed something sparkly…
Ingredients
Coconut and peach sponge
370g unsalted butter
370g self-raising flour
370g golden caster sugar
6 eggs
200g desiccated coconut
2tsp baking powder
420g can of peaches - pureed
Cream cheese frosting
60g unsalted butter
100g cream cheese
1/2tsp vanilla
250g icing sugar
Vanilla buttercream frosting
200g unsalted butter
600g icing sugar
70ml full fat milk
2tsp vanilla extract
Red, green and yellow food colouring
Sugar paste letters
Purple glitter
Purple sugar paste
You will also need two 8inch cake tins.
Coconut and peach sponge
1. Pre-heat the oven to 170C/150C-fan/325F/Gas 3. Lightly grease and line the bottom of your cake tins with baking parchment.
2. Measure your flour, caster sugar, coconut and baking powder into a large bowl and mix together.
3. Add the butter and whisk until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.
4. Whisk the eggs until they become light in colour with a little foam on top, then add to the rest of the mixture until just incorporated.
5. Add in the pureed peaches and whisk on a medium speed until all of the ingredients are blended together.
6. Split the cake mix between the two cake tins and bake for 50 minutes or until the sponge springs back when you press your finger lightly on the top and it's coming away from the sides of the cake tin slightly.
7. Take the sponges out of the tins after about 10 minutes and leave them to cool on a wire rack.
Cream cheese frosting
8. Measure the butter into a bowl and whisk for about 5 minutes, then add the cream cheese and whisk again for about 2 minutes.
9. Add the icing sugar and vanilla and whisk again for a couple of minutes until all of the ingredients are fully incorporated.
10. Chill the cream cheese frosting in the fridge while your sponges are cooling down. Doing this will also make a firmer frosting which is handy when you're using it to sandwich two cakes together. Sometimes it can splurge out of the sides if it's too soft. If this does happen, don't worry, just tidy it up with a spatula.
11. Once the sponges have cooled and you're ready to add the cream cheese frosting, apply a thick layer on top of one of the sponges and spread evenly with a small spatula. If you are adding peach jam, spread a thick layer on the sponge before the cream cheese frosting. Now place your second cake upside down so the bottom is facing upwards. This will ensure that the surface is nice and flat when you add the vanilla buttercream.
Vanilla buttercream frosting
11. Measure the butter into a large bowl and whisk for about 5 minutes until it's pale in colour. Add the vanilla, milk and icing sugar and whisk again until all of the ingredients are completely blended together.
12. Before you add any colour to the frosting you need to add a thin layer of frosting all over the cake to seal in the crumbs. This is called a crumb coat. Once you have done this chill your cake for about 20-25 minutes.
12. Split the frosting into three bowls with a little more in one bowl than the others; this will be the icing for the top of the cake.
13. Add the colouring to each of the bowls until you reach your desired tone. The next part is a little easier if you have a rotating cake stand, but you can manage without one. Using a small offset spatula smooth the coloured frosting over the top of the cake, making sure it spreads about 1cm over the edge. Rinse the spatula and smooth the frosting over the bottom third of the cake, then the same again for the middle third. Now carefully blend all three colours together using a medium sized spatula, turning the cake around as you go. I added some multi-coloured hundreds and thousands and a little bit of pink glitter to the top of the cake, but you could add anything that takes your fancy.
Sugar paste letters
14. Sprinkle a little icing sugar onto a clean surface, knead your sugar paste until soft and pliable and then roll out to about 2mm, then cut out the letters. I find it easiest to use a dressing pin to do this. Wet the tops of the letters with a damp finger and then sprinkle glitter all over them. Leave them to chill in the fridge for a while before carefully placing them onto the cake.
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| This is Edie (eed-ee) |
I said I would bake for some friends when they next visited and this happened to be for St. Pauls Carnival. I immediately thought 'Carnival Cake', and started searching around for various inspirations.
To stay in keeping with the Caribbean carnival theme, I went for a coconut and peach sponge. For the icing I wanted something really bright, colourful and sparkly.
I came across a brilliant video tutorial for an icing technique by Sweetapolita's Rosie Alyea, which I've put at the end of this post. Wanting to try something new I thought this was the perfect way to go about it. A basic vanilla buttercream frosting in three different colours which you blend into one another in layers around the entire cake. Brilliant! I'm a big fan of cream cheese frosting and to stop the cake from being too sweet I thought that would be a nice choice for the filling.
I actually found that the peach flavour was a little too subtle in this recipe, so next time I would add some peach jam in between the layers along with the cream cheese frosting to give it that extra kick.
Now I just needed something sparkly…
The Carnival Cake
Ingredients
Coconut and peach sponge
370g unsalted butter
370g self-raising flour
370g golden caster sugar
6 eggs
200g desiccated coconut
2tsp baking powder
420g can of peaches - pureed
Cream cheese frosting
60g unsalted butter
100g cream cheese
1/2tsp vanilla
250g icing sugar
Vanilla buttercream frosting
200g unsalted butter
600g icing sugar
70ml full fat milk
2tsp vanilla extract
Red, green and yellow food colouring
Sugar paste letters
Purple glitter
Purple sugar paste
You will also need two 8inch cake tins.
Coconut and peach sponge
1. Pre-heat the oven to 170C/150C-fan/325F/Gas 3. Lightly grease and line the bottom of your cake tins with baking parchment.
2. Measure your flour, caster sugar, coconut and baking powder into a large bowl and mix together.
3. Add the butter and whisk until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.
4. Whisk the eggs until they become light in colour with a little foam on top, then add to the rest of the mixture until just incorporated.
5. Add in the pureed peaches and whisk on a medium speed until all of the ingredients are blended together.
6. Split the cake mix between the two cake tins and bake for 50 minutes or until the sponge springs back when you press your finger lightly on the top and it's coming away from the sides of the cake tin slightly.
7. Take the sponges out of the tins after about 10 minutes and leave them to cool on a wire rack.
Cream cheese frosting
8. Measure the butter into a bowl and whisk for about 5 minutes, then add the cream cheese and whisk again for about 2 minutes.
9. Add the icing sugar and vanilla and whisk again for a couple of minutes until all of the ingredients are fully incorporated.
10. Chill the cream cheese frosting in the fridge while your sponges are cooling down. Doing this will also make a firmer frosting which is handy when you're using it to sandwich two cakes together. Sometimes it can splurge out of the sides if it's too soft. If this does happen, don't worry, just tidy it up with a spatula.
11. Once the sponges have cooled and you're ready to add the cream cheese frosting, apply a thick layer on top of one of the sponges and spread evenly with a small spatula. If you are adding peach jam, spread a thick layer on the sponge before the cream cheese frosting. Now place your second cake upside down so the bottom is facing upwards. This will ensure that the surface is nice and flat when you add the vanilla buttercream.
Vanilla buttercream frosting
11. Measure the butter into a large bowl and whisk for about 5 minutes until it's pale in colour. Add the vanilla, milk and icing sugar and whisk again until all of the ingredients are completely blended together.
12. Before you add any colour to the frosting you need to add a thin layer of frosting all over the cake to seal in the crumbs. This is called a crumb coat. Once you have done this chill your cake for about 20-25 minutes.
12. Split the frosting into three bowls with a little more in one bowl than the others; this will be the icing for the top of the cake.
13. Add the colouring to each of the bowls until you reach your desired tone. The next part is a little easier if you have a rotating cake stand, but you can manage without one. Using a small offset spatula smooth the coloured frosting over the top of the cake, making sure it spreads about 1cm over the edge. Rinse the spatula and smooth the frosting over the bottom third of the cake, then the same again for the middle third. Now carefully blend all three colours together using a medium sized spatula, turning the cake around as you go. I added some multi-coloured hundreds and thousands and a little bit of pink glitter to the top of the cake, but you could add anything that takes your fancy.
 |
| This is what my kitchen looked like at this point.. |
Sugar paste letters
14. Sprinkle a little icing sugar onto a clean surface, knead your sugar paste until soft and pliable and then roll out to about 2mm, then cut out the letters. I find it easiest to use a dressing pin to do this. Wet the tops of the letters with a damp finger and then sprinkle glitter all over them. Leave them to chill in the fridge for a while before carefully placing them onto the cake.
***
*Tips*
Don't press the letters down into the icing too much at first as you may want to lift them off and re-arrange them.
You may not need to add all of the milk to the buttercream icing, but you can always add more if necessary. You can also use cream.
Do watch the video at the end as it gives lots of handy tips.
Finally, this is my Carnival Cake theme tune!…
Sister Nancy - Bam Bam
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