White Chocolate and Lemon Layer Cake - Clandestine Cake Club

Last night (25th June) was my first Clandestine Cake Club meeting. It's been highly publicised in the UK over the last few months. The club was founded by Lynn Hill in 2010 and there are now clubs in several countries.

 Basically, it's a cake club where members meet at a location only disclosed just before the date to share bountiful amounts of cake. Each member takes a cake to share - it can't be cupcakes, or brownies, pies or tarts. It has to be a "proper" cake. What's left, everyone shares to take home.

I made the white chocolate and lemon layer cake pictured above That meant that last night it was cake for dinner. JUST CAKE. I think I managed about 3 pieces !

All in, there were around 18 cakes on the table and about 25 people (members and guests) present. I got quite a number of photos - but unfortunately not photos of everything. Quite and achievement by Beccy the new area organiser.

What cake is left over, gets divided up, shared out and taken home. 

Oliver had cake for breakfast. During the day at work for cake there was lunch too. Oops ! I think my brain is in cake over-ride. There was STILL cake left over and it got passed on to another company near by..

By the time I show you the photos I do have, I think this could be a really long post !

The theme was Jubilee - something traditional, something sparkly or something red, white and blue.

Lucy made this lovely maple and pecan cake. I'd love her recipe. Just the right amount of nuts and the classic maple hit without being too overpowering.

Frances made a Victoria Sponge, topped with a flag of berries. Can you BELIEVE that this is the first cake she's ever baked ? Very well done.

Penmy made this enormous meringue cake. It was massive and very impressive to look at. The outside was meringue, inside was cake. I'm sad to say - I don't think I tried this one.

Beccy's Raspberry Ripple Layer Cake .

I brought a bit of that back. Richard in the office ate it. Looked yummy !

They all looked scrummy- was impossible to get round for a close look at everything ! This photo is the other end of the table. I can see (clockwise) carrot cake top left, followed by raspberry ripple, cherry and coconut, layer cake of some description that was red, white and blue inside, something with raspberries, blueberries and cream cheese frosting and mine...

This was a sponge cake made a bit like a Battenburg, but so that it sliced like a Union Jack flag inside. Looked really tricky to assemble. Sliced it looked really fancy ! Oliver was right to the box in the fridge this am and picked this out for breakfast. I'd brought home a full width slice of this AND the flag.

Ssssh - don't tell. I know cake isn't meant for breakfast - but as a one off occasion, why not.

This is the other end of the table... and there photos were whilst people and cakes were still arriving ! Nothing had been cut at this point.

I can spot lemon drizzle cake at 11 o'clock and I think that's banana cake top right. Somewhere, there was a chocolate cola cake too.

RECIPE FOR MY CAKE

I used the same recipe as I did in October for Oliver's rainbow cake, but instead split it into 3 layers rather than 6 layers.

225g salted butter

400g caster sugar

5 egg whites

2tsp vanilla extract

400g self raising flour (sifted)

30g cornflour

350g luke warm milk

Weigh your mixing bowl.

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg whites followed by some of the flours, then some milk, more flour, more milk and vanilla until all incorporated.

Divide the mix equally into 3 bowls. 

Add a lots of gel paste food colouring to each until a very vibrant colour is achieved. I used yellow for two layers and left one layer white.

When you are finished, allow a little helper to scrape out the bowl !

Butter and flour (or grease and line) an 8" diameter silicone baking mould or standard tin for each bowl of mix. I made two cakes at a time. These cooked at 170deg C fan for about 13 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

For the filling, I made up some buttercream from salted butter, icing sugar and homemade lemon curd, with a couple of tablespoons of boiling water. Sorry - I didn't weigh it out !

This was mine with the layers stacked, filled and in the process of being buttercream coated.. Still had a bit of smoothing out to do.

The band round the cake is made from white chocolate on chocolate transfer sheets - pretty and 100% edible.

The chocolate transfer comes on an acetate sheet - about A4 size. Cut it to the size you require. I needed a really long band to go right round my cake, so had to match up the design and tape the join on the reverse with sticky tape.

You'll see there was a little bit of damage to this chocolate sheet which is why I had never got round to using it previously. It WAS just a tiny bit at the bottom though, and was so minor that it really wasn't noticable at the bottom of the cake. Unfortunately, I did not have enough sheeting to be able to discard that bit entirely...

The good news is that we'll be stocking chocolate transfer sheets in the very near future - in a variety of designs !

Turn your sheet so that the smooth side is down / textured side with the print on is facing up.

Spread over tempered chocolate. When you've smoothed it out and are happy with it, slide a knife blade underneath it and carefully move the transfer to a clear and clean piece of workspace. This gets rid of all the excess chocolate that is over the sides of the sheet. Wait a couple / few minutes until it is just beginning to set / turn matt finish and whilst still soft but not wet, wrap it round your cake.

I'll warn you - the bigger the piece, the more awkward to work with !

Pop the cake into the fridge for about 10 minutes to allow the chocolate to fully harden. When you remove it, peel off the acetate sheet to leave the chocolate with printed design.

I decorated mine on top with white chocolate shavings and handmade white chocolate roses.

Happy Baking !