The "CAKE" Cake

From time to time, I get people emailing me who would like a step by step guide on making a CAKE cake. Well, here it is !

Really - it's very simple. Below volumes and times are for a fan oven and the CAKE cake mould

RECIPE

6oz butter or margarine (I prefer using butter)
6oz caster sugar
6oz self raising flour
3 eggs

20 to 25mins at 180deg C

First of all, lightly grease all of the inside of your mould. I much prefer to use cold spreadable butter for this - and apply using a piece of kitchen roll. Pay particular attention to all the corners and tricky bits.



These moulds are very flexible and you DO need to put them on a baking sheet in the oven. Around 8 single letter moulds will generally fit on a standard baking sheet.
To ensure perfect release every time with letters and numbers (any tricky shapes) DO very lightly grease and flour (tapping out any excess before filling) every time you use them

Weigh out butter and sugar. Place these in your mixing bowl. Make sure that the fats are either cold or room temperature. DON'T melt the fat first or it will separate.

Cream them together until pale and moussey either with a hand mixer or a wooden spoon and some elbow grease.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating them in. You want to keep as much air in your mix as possible. After combining the eggs, carefully mix in the sifted flour. It'll then look something like the photo below

Bake in the oven at 18deg C fan oven for approx 20 > 25 mins. It's ready when a skewer comes out clean. This one was on a timer for exactly 25 mins. It wouldn't have wanted any more - would likely have been spot on at about 22mins




Leave for a while in the mould to cool. Cakes are very fragile to handle when hot.

You should really always leave cakes in silicone moulds until totally cool - especially where the mould has a patterened bottom or the definition may be lost. However, to make a point, you can see where I've pulled the side away from the mould with a spoon handle below to show how easy to release it is. This cake was straight out of the oven and piping hot.


I did actually then turn it straight out - which is something I never do - just to prove it was possible. Doesn't half burn your fingers though ! I did put it back in the mould to cool as otherwise it would dry out too much.




Once cool, turn your mould out onto a wire rack. Invert the letters so that the raised surface sticks up. This needs sliced off using a knife with a serated edge. Bread knife is best. Take care when slicing the crusty top off. It doesn't ALL need to come off - but it wants to be leveled as this is going to become the base.




Normally, I'd now split each letter through the middle to fill with jam and cream. This one is going to be transported by pram though - so I'm keeping it simple !

You may prefer to make two and stack one lot of letters on top of the other.


Next, it's time to decorate. Probably the easiest way is also the most effective....

Using a tea strainer, dust the tops with icing sugar.




Here it is, finished and ready to go. This one is just basic and has not been filled as I normally would. However, it was really just done for photographic purposes. It's now going in Oliver's pram basket and will be a nice little suprise for Gilly and her daughter Florrie to enjoy for tea.





Hope you liked it Gilly & Florrie xx

Spoon the mix into your CAKE cake tin. Have a cup of cold water to hand and smooth the mix over with a wet finger to level, making sure the mix is even throughout the letters. The cells will be a little over 1/2 full. There will be NO leftover mix. I've given you a mix recipe to create just enough.