2 July 2012

A Giant Cupcake for an 11th Birthday...

...I took my inspiration for this cake from Jo Wheatley's great new book "A Passion for Baking"...and a variation can also be found on Jo's Blog, "Jo's Blue Aga"...I got the book a month ago as a belated birthday present to myself!! That same day, both my Smallish Ones poured over the pages, ooohing and aaahing and choosing various bakes for us to try...one of which was this cake...
...and as my Bigger of the Smallish Ones was about to turn 11 it was requested as "The Birthday Cake"...and it had to rival last year's...which was no small task...but I was up for the challenge...the design and colours were discussed and finalised about three weeks before the cake was to be made...and then I was asked to work the whole week that was leading up to the sleepover that required the cake...(this may seem nothing to most of you, but I only work 2 days a week usually...so thought I would have loads of time...) When would I make it?!? I decided to make the sponge on the Wednesday night, partly decorate it on Thursday, and finalise it (tweaks and primping and preening) on Friday after work...

Luckily the sponge is a pretty standard mix, no fancy ingredients, just a simple, home-made (like my Mum used to make) sponge mix...using equal amounts of flour, sugar and fat (in this case Stork)...and eggs...(in this case 375g and 6 eggs)...it's a pretty big tin to fill....But being me, and liking to tweak things a bit...I decided to make a rainbow version of the sponge...which I did in much the same way as my Rainbow Bundt...simply by splitting the sponge batter into 6 bowls and colouring using my Wilton Gel colours...they give such fab colours using a teeny tiny amount!!


...and then again as in the Rainbow Bundt...I put spoonfuls of the coloured mix into the tin...I didn't spread or flatten it until all 6 colours were used up...then it went into the oven for about an hour...


...I left it to cool right down in the tin, as I wanted to be sure none was going to stick to the tin...even though I had used oil spray (liberally used it!!!)


...it turned out beautifully...I was so pleased...half the battle was over...now I just had to ice and decorate it!!! I popped it into an airtight container overnight and through the next day until I had time the next evening to play around with it...


Jo used Candy Melts to make a 'candy case' for the base of the giant cupcake, which looks great in the pictures, so I ordered a couple of packets online (you only need 1, but wanted spares in case!!)...I have never used them before, but had seen them on numerous cake/baking blogs, so was curious to see how they worked out...you have to re-grease the tin, base part only...melt the candy - in the microwave or over boiling water, both do the job...


...then using a pastry brush, you just paint it on!! It's that easy...I painted a coat at a time, popped the tin in the fridge to harden slightly and then added another coat...until I had three nice thick coats...then comes the scary bit...


...getting it out of the tin!! Which turned out to be not scary or hard at all!!


...all it took was a little warm water to dip the tin in (very briefly, you don't want to melt it!!)...and then I used a spot of the melted leftovers to stick it to my cake board...I would definitely use the Melts again, and they come in so many colours!! Fantastic!!


...the cake slotted in perfectly, no trimming needed at all!!! So far so good...I was going to stop there for the night, but decided to go one step further...


...so I whizzed up a batch of frosting, just a vanilla buttercream...using 600g icing sugar, 125g unsalted butter, a tsp of vanilla and enough milk to make the right consistency to pipe...in this case about 2-3 Tbsp...as you can see, I split that too, and coloured half, the rest was left white/cream...


...using a disposable piping bag and my large star nozzle, I dropped alternate spoonfuls of frosting into the bag and piped large swirls all over the top of the cake...the two colours together in the bag made a pretty two-tone effect...

...the top was on some foil for this, as I wasn't going to put the cake together until the next day, just before serving...but I did pop it on top to get a rough idea of how it was going...and I was  pretty pleased so far...


...both bits were then sealed away for another night and day until after work and the sleepover was underway...(and the leftover frosting was popped into tubs in the fridge...


...I finished the cake off by sandwiching the two pieces using a bit more frosting, and pipes some more swirls around the join to hide it...


...some blue and white sugar forget-me-nots, blue and oyster pearls, a big bow and a sprinkle of glitter (edible of course!!) finished the job...


...I was so chuffed with the finished cake...


...and so were the girls at the sleepover...
...but more importantly my Bigger of the Smallish Ones loved it...which is all I was after...


...oh and here's a quick peep at the insides before I sign off...A great party/sleepover, a fun cake to make (not too stressful!) and happy smiles all round when it was brought to the table...I think that's a good result...

4 comments:

  1. Brilliant - that looks terrific!

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    Replies
    1. thanks...it was great to make...and to see the faces of the girls when I brought it out!

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  2. Fantastic! Had a sneaky look at the 10th birthday cake as well, so impressive.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, both cakes were actually easier than I first thought they would be...and both turned out to be more impressive than I thought they would be too...

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