Traditional Victoria Sponge

This has to be one of the prettiest cakes I have made to date, and it is traditionally British which makes it better!

Victoria Sponge Sandwich Cake with Fruits

Ingredients:
200g Butter
200g Caster Sugar
200g Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tbsp Vanilla Extract (optional)
4 Eggs
2tbsp Milk
Filling;
140g Icing Sugar
100g Butter
1 tsp Vanilla Extract (optional)
Raspberry Jam

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line two 20cm cake tins with butter.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together, then add the flour and eggs and beat until fully mixed. Add the milk if necessary and vanilla extract if desired.
3. Spread evenly between the tins and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Leave to cool upside down before decorating.
4. For the filling; mix the sugar and butter together. Spread over the bottom of one of the sponges. Spread the jam on the bottom of the second sponge.
5. Place the sponge with the jam on top of the butter icing sponge.
6. Decorate with berry fruits (in this example, raspberries, strawberries and blueberries were used) if desired and finish with icing sugar over the top.

Candy Crush Saga Cake

I produced this cake for my mother's birthday. I took a simple Victoria Sponge cake recipe and decorated it with fondant icing for the decoration. I even personalised the 'level' and 'score' to fit my mother's age and birthday!

For this cake, I used a deep rectangle cake tray, but any cake tin can in theory be used.

Ingredients:
150g Butter
150g Caster Sugar
150g Self Raising Flower
3 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
Fondant Icing
Food Colouring
Icing Tube

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/ gas 4.
2. Using an electric hand whisk, mix the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until pale and fluffy.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the vanilla extract, then gradually beat in to the butter mixture, adding a little of the flour.
4. Sift over the remaining flour and gently fold in until just combined.
5. Pour the cake mix into the cake tin.
6. Bake for about 20 minutes or until risen and golden. Cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and set aside to cool.

7. Meanwhile, roll out white fondant icing and apply to the cake when cool.

8. This cake was decorated with pink fondant icing (dyed with food colouring) and the shapes were made from other coloured fondant icing. The writing was done with the icing tube.

Cheeky Rabbit Carrot Cake

I baked this cake for my sister's birthday, the best part is that the cake itself is carrot cake so the theme worked really well!

Ingredients:
200g Self Raising flour
200g Caster sugar
200g Butter
4 Eggs
170g Carrots, finely grated
100g Chopped Walnuts
1 tbsp Ground Cinnamon
1tbsp Ground Nutmeg
Butter Icing
Fondant Icing
Cocoa powder (optional)

Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees, and line two 20cm diameter cake tins with greaseproof paper and grease.
2. Make the cake batter recipe with the flour, sugar, butter and eggs.
3. Peel, head/tail the carrots and grate them. Add to the cake mix along with the walnuts that are finely chopped. Add in the cinnamon and nutmeg.
4. Split the mixture in half and add to each of the round cake tins, and bake for 20 to 30 minutes (insert a knife into the middle and it should come out clean).
5. Take out and leave to cool once cooked.
6. Make the butter icing (1:1 ratio of icing sugar and butter) more may need to be added as necessary.
7. Take the cakes out of the tins and turn one upside down. Put butter icing on top of the upside-down layer and add the other on top the right way up to make a sponge sandwich.
8. With the rest of the butter icing, spread it all over the cake.
9. Roll out icing fondant and put on the cake (the butter icing helps it to stick).
10. Decorate with fondant icing, creating the rabbit and carrots etc. The cocoa powder was used for the soil effect, but other substitutes can also be used. The coloured fondant in this cake was used but food colouring can also be added to white fondant for the same effect.

Enjoy!