Pink Castle Birthday Cake

Must admit when I started this one I did get a bit stressed, but once I’d got going it was easier than I thought it was going to be.

 

To start you’ll need 2, 21cm/8” square madeira cakes.

 

Ingredients & method for madeira cake (makes 1 cake)

 

Butter 138g

Margerine 138g

Caster sugar 366g

Vanilla extract 2 tsp

6 eggs

Plain flour 412g

Baking powder 3 tsp

Hot water 5 Tbsp

 

Method

 

Line a 21cm/8” deep square tin with baking parchment. Preheat oven to 180C/gas 4.

Start by blending the butter and sugars together until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Add the vanilla essence.

Add the eggs one at a time. To stop the mixture from curdling add a spoon of the flour as you add each egg.

Once all the eggs have been combined, add the rest of the flour with the baking powder and continue to mix.Ensure all the ingredients have been mixed to a smooth consistency then add the hot water, slowly, until it is completely blended.

Pour the cake mix to the tin and bake for 1hr 15mins. Check it after an hour as you might need to cover the top with foil to stop it burning during the last 15mins.

Once you have removed the cake from the oven leave it to cool for 10-20 minutes then turn it out onto a cooling rack. Don’t leave the cake in the tin to cool completely as it will ‘sweat’ and go soggy rather than stay moist.

I read about this technique on a blog and was a bit dubious about it working, but it does work! Ensure that the oven is at the right temperature before you start. Line the baking tin as usual and pour the Madeira mixture into the tin. Scoop the centre of the cake mix up to the sides so that you can see the bottom of the tin and then pop it in the oven. Avoid opening the door to peek. Don’t worry the cake will fill the hole, bake perfectly and be nice and flat.

 

Ingredients & method for the buttercream

 

500g butter, room temperature

1kg icing sugar, sifted

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp milk

Pink food colouring

 

Method

 

Cream the butter until it turns pale.
Mix in icing sugar.
Add the vanilla extract and mix well.
Add a little milk if necessary to make a smooth consistency.

Add the food colouring, a little at a time until you have your desired colour.

 

Extra’s you’ll need to make the castle

 

Strawberry jam

5 ice cream cones

Pink wafer biscuits

Pink glimmer sugar

Princess sugar shapes

Pink sugar balls

 

Constructing the castle

 

Cut your first cake in half, spread the one half with jam, the other half with some of the buttercream and sandwich together.

Using the second cake, cut in half again, as with the first cake and put the one half to one side. Now cut the half you have into quarters.

Using two of those quarters, sandwich them together with jam and buttercream and place in the centre of the larger one you have already sandwiched together.

Crumbcoat the whole cake and leave in the fridge for an hour.

Once out of the fridge, buttercream the whole cake.

Put the glimmer sugar onto a plate.

Cover the ice cream cones, one at a time, with buttercream then roll in the glimmer sugar. Place one at each corner of the base cake and one in the centre of the top cake, pressing down gently into the buttercream. Add a sugar ball to the top of each cone.

Use two wafer biscuits for the doors and cut some in half for the windows, use a little royal icing to outline them.

Add the princess sugar shapes around the castle walls.