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You are here: Recipes > Calendar Girl Knitting Cake

Calendar Girl Knitting Cake

Victoria sponge , easy and delicious.

Recipe by Andrea Staniforth

Uploaded by

Time to make

Skill Level

Intermediate

Serves

56 people

Baking ingredients

  • 1 kg Self raising flour
  • 1 kg Butter
  • 1 kg caster sugar
  • 20 eggs
  • 3.5 tsp vanilla extract

Decorating ingredients

  • 100 g caster sugar
  • 100 ml water
  • 3 tsp vanilla extract
  • 6 tbsp raspberry jam
  • 1 kg icing sugar
  • 500 g unsalted butter
  • 2 kg white fondant
  • 100 g black fondant
  • 100 g pink fondant
  • 100 g modelling paste
  • 1 pinch chestnut paste colouring
  • 1 black icing pen
  • 1 sugar glue
  • 30 royal icing
  • 14 dried spaghetti

Instructions

Step 1

Oven 160c. Grease and line two, 10 inch round tins. Beat the butter and caster sugar together. Add an egg with a tablespoon of flour with each egg to prevent curdling. Add vanilla extract and mix thoroughly. Fold in the rest of the flour and divide between the tins. Bake for 1 hour and 15mins. Leave to cool in the tins for 10 mins before placing on a wire rack to cool.

Step 2

Put the water and sugar on a low heat, stir until it starts to bubble. Simmer for a minute or two. Leave to cool for 5 minutes before adding used vanilla pod or vanilla extract

Step 3

Beat the butter and icing sugar together and add the vanilla extract, continue beating until light and fluffy. Level the sponges and brush the cut ends with the sugar syrup and wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for an hour or so.

Step 4

Place the largest sponge on the cake board secured with any left over jam. Put a layer of jam on and then a layer of buttercream, place the top of the same size sponge on top. Put a layer of buttercream all over and smooth. Place in the fridge. Repeat with the small sponge but place this on an 8 inch card. Put another layer of buttercream on both sponges and return to the fridge to harden.

Step 5

Roll out enough white fondant to cover the 10 inch sponge. Cover, trim and smooth and crimp. Place dowels in this tier to support the 8 inch cake which is going to sit on top. Place in its box while preparing the 8 inch sponge. Roll out enough white fondant to cover this sponge. Cover, trim, smooth and crimp . Place this in a box overnight.

Step 6

To make the model take some modelling paste and dip a cocktail stick into the chestnut colour paste to make a flesh colour. Create a cone shape and push a piece of dried spaghetti into the narrow end. Place this on the little chair. Make a ball for the head and place on top of the spaghetti after brushing some sugar glue onto the spaghetti. Make sausages for the arms and cut on the diagonal, using some sugar glue, place the arms on the model. Create wrists and hands. Use the same method for the legs. With a piece of spaghetti dipped in black paste colour or using an icing pen, create the eyes. Roll a small ball of paste for the nose and secure with the glue. Make a mouth. Take a piece of pink sugarpaste and cut out a circle and glue to the head. Make a bow and place this on the headscarf on the head . Make some hair out of some orangey brown fondant. Place some sponges under the arms to keep them slightly raised to hold the knitting needles and over the knitted cover.

Step 7

To make the balls of wool mix some black and white fondant together to make the grey colour. Make wool shape balls and put the rest into a sugar shaper and create lengths of grey paste to cover the ball shapes. Use sugar glue to stick the strands to the ball. Repeat this for all the balls of wool using the pink and grey fondant in the sugar shaper. Make knitting needles using sausages of grey paste with some white paste on the top. Make labels for the balls of wool and wrap around the wool.

Step 8

Place the 8 inch cake on top of the 10 inch cake using some royal icing on the area where the dowels are. This should hold it securely. For the measuring tape measure the diameter of the 8 inch sponge and roll out white fondant to this size and the width you would like. Taking a black icing pen an mark the mm’s and cm’s on the strip of paste. Wait for the icing pen to dry before rolling up like a bandage. Using some boiled water or sugar glue around the base of the cake, unroll the fondant around the cake leaving some still rolled at the end. Ice the bottom board and use a silking tool make a nice pattern around the board.

Step 9

Put the chair with the model on the top cake in the centre, secure with royal icing. Make the knitting by rolling out the pink fondant and cutting out a 60. Put to one side. Roll out the grey fondant. (I did this in two pieces to prevent ripping). Roll again using the knitting rolling pin. Cover the model with the knitting, tucking it under the arms and fold under the bottom edge.

Step 10

Roll another piece in grey and cut out a 60. Place the pink 60 into the space where you cut out the grey 60 and use the knitting rolling pin to make the knitted piece.

Step 11

Put the knitted piece into place, tucking the first edge under the folded edge of the last piece to make it look like one long piece of knitting. Put the other balls of wool around the cakes. Tidy up any icing sugar with a clean brush.