Baking ingredients
- 350 g unsalted butter – softened for the 8in cake
- 250 g unsalted butter – softened for the 6in cake
- 350 g unsalted butter – softened for the 4in cake
- 350 g caster sugar for the 8in cake
- 250 g caster sugar for the 6in cake
- 350 g caster sugar for the 4in cake
- 6 g large eggs for the 8in cake
- 5 g large eggs for the 6in cake
- 6 g large eggs for the 4in cake
- 450 g self-raising flour for the 8in cake
- 350 g self-raising flour for the 6in cake
- 450 g self-raising flour for the 4in cake
- Splash of Milk for each of the cakes
Decorating ingredients
- 12 tbsp raspberry jam
- 375 g unsalted butter - softened
- 800 g icing sugar
- 5 tbsp milk
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 750 g Renshaw White Ready to Roll Icing
- 1.25 kg Renshaw Pastel Green Ready to Roll Icing
- 2 large eggs - whites only
Renshaw products used
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Instructions
Baking Instructions:
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
Step 2
Grease and line 2 x 4in cake tins, 1 x 4in cake dome, 1 x 6in deep round cake tin and 1 x 8in deep round cake tins.
Step 3
Starting with the 8in cake ingredients, in a large bowl cream the unsalted butter and caster sugar.
Step 4
Add the eggs, one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour between each.
Step 5
Fold in the rest of the self-raising flour and when mixed in, add a splash of milk if required.
Step 6
Place the mixture in the 8in lined cake tin and bake for 1hr 20 minutes until a cake skewer comes out of each cake clean.
Step 7
Repeat the mixture process for the 6in cake ingredients and 4in cake ingredients.
Step 8
Bake the 6in for roughly 1hr 10 minutes until a cake skewer comes out clean. Bake the 4in cakes for roughly 45min to 1hr and bake the 4in dome cake for 35 to 45mins or until a cake skewer comes out clean.
Step 9
Once the cakes are out of the oven, leave cakes in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes, and then turn out on the wire rack and leave to cool completely.
Decorating Instructions:
Step 10
To make the buttercream, put the butter into a mixing bowl and beat until creamy in colour and light in texture. Sift the icing sugar into the bowl and combine, then add the milk and vanilla extract and beat until smooth.
Step 11
Using a cake leveler, cut the top of the cake off to give it a flat top and then cut in half. Repeat this for all the cakes.
Step 12
Take the prepared buttercream and the strawberry jam and sandwich the layers of the 4in cake plus the dome, then the 6in cake and finally the 8in cakes together.
Step 13
Cover the cakes with a thin layer of the remaining buttercream.
Step 14
Knead 1.25kg Renshaw Pastel Green Ready to Roll Icing and 750g Renshaw White Ready to Roll Icing until pliable before rolling out.
Step 15
Lightly dust your work surface with icing sugar and roll out the pastel green icing to the desired thickness.
Step 16
Place the 8in cake on a 10in iced cake drum, then lift the pastel green icing over the cake, smoothing down the sides with the palm of your hand. Using the smoothers push down the icing to create a line to trim excess icing from the edge of the cake. To give sheen to the surface, smooth with the palm of your hand.
Step 17
Apply three pillars in position using dowels as supports inside the 8in cake. Set to one side
Step 18
Cover the 6in cake in celebration icing, placing it on the pre-iced 8in cake board. Cover the 4in cake with done in the pastel green icing.
Step 19
Evenly space and insert four long pieces of plastic cake dowelling into the center of the 6in cake, ensuring that the 4incake will cover the dowels when placed on top. Trim the dowels to the same height as the 6in cake using wire cutters or strong scissors. Place a 3in thin cake board on top of the dowels, making sure its rests on the dowels.
Step 20
Gently stack the 4in pastel green icing covered cake on top of the 6in celebration covered cake.
Step 21
Once you have stacked your cake, apply white 15mm ribbon to the base of the 8in cake and 6in cake.
Step 22
Set the two halves of the cake to one side and make the royal icing. Do this by slowly beating the egg whites into the icing sugar until light and fluffy with a soft peak consistency.
Step 23
Add a No'2 piping tube to a small piping bag and fill the bag half full with royal icing. (Do not over fill or add too much royal icing to your bag or you will find it difficult to add pressure and pipe).
Step 24
Take the piping bag and pipe little tiny dots along the top of the ribbons on the 8in cake, roughly 1cm apart and then pipe five dots up, then three up and then two up, repeating the pattern all the way around. You can use a damp paint brush to push down the little point on the dots from when you pull away.
Step 25
For the piped scallop design, you can either do it free hand or if you're a little unsure use white baking parchment to draw a design on and then gently lean the design against the cake, using a scribing tool carefully mark out the design. Pipe the design on to the 6in cake.
Step 26
Take the piping bag and pipe little tiny dots along the scribed line. Using a damp paint brush to push down any points. Do this all around the cake in two rows.
Step 27
Roll out the celebration icing into a strip long enough to go around the 4in cake. Cut the strip to a width of 1cm and attach at the base of the 4in cake, using a little cooled boiled water to stick in place.
Step 28
Re-roll the celebration icing and using a circle cutter cut out a circle no bigger than 3 inches and stick on the top of the dome. Roll a piece of celebration into a ball slightly bigger than a grape and stick on top of the circle and then repeat with a smaller ball on top of the previous ball. Now roll a sausage shape and make a hoop shape and attach to the top of the done, sticking in place using cooled boiled water, to create the handle of the birdcage.
Step 29
Now take your piping bag and pipe vertical straight lines evenly spaced all around pastel green covered 4in cake and dome. Once you have the desired affect you can add a little detail with little horizontal scallops.
Step 30
To make the decorative rose, knead the celebration icing again until soft and pliable.
Step 31
Roll a piece of icing into a ball about approximately 2cm in diameter, then roll the ball of icing between the palms of your hands on one side on one side of the ball to make a cone shape which will form the centre of your rose.
Step 32
To make the petals, roll a ball of icing approximately 1cm in diameter, then flatten the ball, thinning one side and leaving the other side thicker. You will need to make sixteen petals in total.
Step 33
Wrap the first petal around the cone to cover the top of the cone and to form the start of the bud, sticking to the cone shape with cooled boiled water.
Step 34
Press three more petals around the base of the bud. Gently curl edges of the petals, and position each one overlapping the other round the first petal, sticking to the other petals with cooled boiled water.
Step 35
Take five more petals. Using a little water stick petals under first row of petals, again curling the edges and positioning lower than the previous row of petals.
Step 36
Continue the process with a further seven petals for a large open rose.
Step 37
Trim off excess cone at the bottom of the rose, place on the cake in desired position, sticking down with a little cooled boiled water.
Step 38
Repeat the process for all 8 roses, leaving some smaller than others.
Step 39
Using a small leaf cutter cut out a few leaves out of the pastel green icing and stick with cooled boiled water where required.
Step 40
Place the 6in cake with 4in birdcage cake on top of the 8in cake with pillars.