Baking ingredients
- 180 g self-raising flour
- 4 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 pinch salt
- 220 ml buttermilk
- 2 tsp vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp red food colouring
- 120 g butter - room temperature
- 340 g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
Decorating ingredients
- 120 g unsalted butter - softened
- 400 g icing sugar
- 3 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 500 g Deep Purple Ready to Roll Icing
- 250 g Black Ready to Roll Icing
- 250 g White Ready to Roll Icing
- 250 g Lincoln Green Ready to Roll Icing
- 250 g Atlantic Blue Ready to Roll Icing
- Black food colouring
- Icing Sugar
- White piping icing
Instructions
Baking Instructions:
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/gas mark 3.
Step 2
Sift together the self-raising flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of salt.
Step 3
In a small bowl, mix the buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla extract and red food colouring.
Step 4
In a mixing bowl beat (by hand whisk or electric hand whisk) the butter and caster sugar together until light and fluffy.
Step 5
Into the creamed butter and caster sugar, beat in the egg a little at a time.
Step 6
Mix in a third of the flour mixture, followed by half the buttermilk mixture, then another third of the flour, the rest of the buttermilk and finally the last of the flour mixture.
Step 7
Divide the mixture between two 18cm cake tins.
Step 8
Bake for approximately 20 minutes, until risen and springy.
Step 9
Leave cakes in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
Step 10
Turn out on the wire rack and leave to cool completely.
Decorating Instructions:
Step 11
To make 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 3-4 tablespoons of milk and one teaspoon of vanilla extract and beat until smooth.
Step 12
Sandwich the red velvet cake with half of the buttercream.
Step 13
Cover the red velvet cake with a thin layer of the remaining buttercream.
Step 14
Knead the Renshaw Deep Purple Ready to Roll Icing until soft and pliable. Roll out on a work surface lightly dust with icing sugar. Roll out icing to desired thickness.
Step 15
Lift the icing over the cake smoothing down the sides with the palm of your hand.
Step 16
Trim excess icing. To give a sheen to the surface, smooth with the palm of your hand.
Step 17
Cut a long cake dowel two 7cm pieces. Cover the centre of the dowel length with any remaining Deep Purple icing and leave to set.
Step 18
Knead the Renshaw Atlantic Blue Ready to Roll Icing until soft and pliable. Roll out on a work surface lightly dust with icing sugar. Roll out icing to desired thickness.
Step 19
Cut out small circles of the atlantic blue icing using a circle cutter and stick randomly over the surface of the cake using cooled boiled water.
Step 20
Knead and roll out a small amount of Renshaw White, Black and Lincoln Green Ready to Roll Icing. To create the monsters eyes, cut out two large circles of the white icing, two smaller circles of the Lincoln Green icing and even smaller circles of the black icing and stick together in sequence using cooled boiled water.
Step 21
Roll two large golf ball sized pieces of Jet Black icing for the eyeballs. Stick the eyes to the eyeballs using cooled boiled water.
Step 22
Once the Deep Purple icing covered dowels are dry, push one uncovered end into the top of the cake and stick one of the black eye balls onto the other end. Repeat with the second dowel and eyeball to create a face.
Step 23
Pipe a smile on the side of the cake using white piping icing
Step 24
Roll out a small amount of white icing, and cut out two triangles. Stick onto the monsters face to create the teeth.
