Autumnal Tree House Cake
This is a very colourful autumn cake with a hint of Halloween. The tree house style cake is a popular design and great for birthdays or themed parties like Halloween.
Recipe by Bev Pettiford
Uploaded by Bev Pettiford
Time to make
Skill Level
Intermediate
Serves
15 people
Baking ingredients
- 9 eggs
- 18 oz butter
- 17 oz self raising flour
- 18 oz caster sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 oz cocoa powder
Decorating ingredients
- 500 g butter
- 1 kg icing sugar
- 25 g cocoa powder
- 4 tbsp milk
- 250 g Renshaw Lincoln Green Ready to Roll Icing
- 250 g Renshaw Teddy Bear Brown Ready to Roll Icing
- 250 g Renshaw Yellow Ready to Roll Icing
Instructions
Step 1
Mix together your baking ingredients and use half to bake 3 x 6" chocolate sponges at approximately 160°C / 140°C for fan oven / gas mark 3, for 35 minutes
Step 2
Mix together your decorating ingredients (butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder, milk) to fill and cover the cakes.
Step 3
Once your sponges have bakes and cooled, stack together with a little chocolate buttercream then shape to make a tree trunk. Cover the trunk with two thirds of the chocolate buttercream using a small pallet knife to create a bark effect.
Step 4
Cover a 6" or 8" cake drum in green icing by kneading the icing well until pliable and no cracks appear in the surface, rolling into a circle bigger than the board, and sticking it down with a little cooled boiled water.
Step 5
Use the remaining half of the cake batter to bake a 6" cake in a half ball pan, same temperature for 40 minutes. Once cooled, slice across to form two layers and fill and cover with the remaining buttercream. Place this on a 6" cake card to support this tier then place on top of the trunk using the buttercream as the glue (no need to use support dowels as this is a fairly small cake).
Step 6
Knead Renshaw Yellow Ready to Roll Icing until pliable and roll out on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar. Using a large maple leaf cutter, cut 20 leaves from the icing. Colour all leaves in red, green, brown and orange edible tint dusts using a dry brush. Place leaves on roof starting around the bottom edge, overlapping in layers until you get to the top.
Step 7
Use Renshaw Teddy Bear Brown Ready to Roll Icing to make a door, stepping stones and chimney. Use red, orange, white and green icing for any remaining decorations such as flowers, vines, pumpkins or anything else you'd like to add.
