Stylish Christmas Cake
Featured in the Cake Decorating Heaven's website:
You need:
8" Victoria Sponge cake (2 8" sandwich tins)
Vanilla buttercream
Jam (any) (optional)
Equipment:
Palette Knife Spatula
Cake Leveler
10" or 12" round cake board
1 pack of Rosemary
1 Unwaxed (organic) Orange
1 Pomegranate or a small pack of fresh pomegranate seeds
7 Chocolate balls
Edible bronze dust
Edible gold glitter spray (optional)
Edible gold stars
Edible gold sugar pearls
To make this cake I used a classic 8" Victoria Sponge recipe. You will normally find recipes for a classic 8" Victoria Sponge having 2 layers with cream and jam in the middle.
To have the effect you see in the picture, we need 4 layers. Bake your 2 layers of Victoria Sponge twice, using the 2 8" sandwich tins you have at home. Don't worry, the process is very fast and easy. Normally, 2 layers of Victoria Sponge of these dimensions take only 20 minutes to bake at 160C fan-assisted oven. Repeat the process in order to obtain 4 layers.
Now that you have baked your 4 layers and left them to cool completely you can start decorating the cake.
Prepare your buttercream. Use the recipe you prefer. For this 8" cake, I usually use 250gr butter (softened), 500gr icing sugar and few teaspoons of vanilla extract, according to taste. – Tip: Remember that you can also colour your buttercream if you wish to match your cake with table decorations or anything else. Simply add few drops of edible coloured paste/liquid to your buttercream until you reach the desired color.
1. Take your 4 layers and level them with your cake leveller. Try to get rid of the small bump on top of each layer and make the layers as flat as possible.
2. Once you have made you buttercream, stick the first layer of your cake onto your cake board with a bubble of buttercream.
3. Using your spatula, spread now some buttercream on top of your first layer. You can now put some jam on if you like. I didn’t put any in my cake because my friends preferred it this way, but you are free to spread it on top of the buttercream. Strawberry or Raspberry jams are fantastic with this cake ;) – Tip: Be careful no to put too much jam (just a tiny bit) as we don’t want the cake to slide once it is all set.
4. Now put the second layer on top of the first one and repeat the same process as described in point 2 until you get to the last layer.
5. Once you get to the fourth and last layer, put only a very small amount of buttercream on top of it (no jam needed here).
6. With your spatula spread the buttercream all over the side of your cake until you reach the result in the picture. Eliminate the buttercream in excess on the side of the cake and smooth it with your spatula.
7. Place your cake in the fridge for a bit, while you prepare the decorations.
8. Wash your organic orange and cut 2 slices of approx 1/2" thick. Now, cut each round into 4 triangles. You will have 8 triangles in total (you only need 7 for this cake). Set aside. Take your rosemary and extract 7 twigs. Set aside. Now cut your pomegranate and take out some seeds. Set aside.
9. Take 7 chocolate balls and place them in a transparent freezer bag. Put a small amount of edible bronze dust in the bag together with the chocolate balls and close it. Now shake it vigorously. You will see the chocolate balls becoming all bronze and shiny. – Tip: You can colour your chocolate balls with any shiny edible dust. I believe the bronze one looks lovely with the orange triangles and pomegranate seeds and give a nice Christmassy effect.
10. Now that all your decorations are ready, take out your cake from the fridge and place the decorations on top of it as shown in the picture alternating the orange triangles and the rosemary twigs. Add the pomegranate seeds. Sparkle some gold edible stars all over the top of the cake adding some gold sugar pearls. – Tip: If you wish to give your cake an extra WOW effect, spray some edible gold glitter on the rosemary twigs and orange triangles.
Merry Christmas
