Celebrate the infinite beauty of a cake by dressing it in a dozen different ways.
Basic vanilla sponge
Makes 1 cake
- 6 large eggs, separated
- 85g castor sugar
- 60ml (¼ cup) warm water
- 140g (1 cup) self-raising flour
- 60g butter, melted and cooled
- 5ml (1 tsp) vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line the base of 2 x 20cm springform cake tins, grease and dust lightly with flour.
- Beat the egg yolks with half the sugar, add the water and beat until the mixture is pale and creamy.
- Sieve the flour 4 times and gently fold this into the yolk mixture. Stir in the butter and the vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Add the remaining sugar and keep beating until the mixture is smooth. (If you can still feel sugar grains when you rub a little of the mixture between your fingers, you need to keep beating.)
- Fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture and pour equal amounts of the batter into the prepared tins.
- Bake until a skewer comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Turn out onto cooling racks and leave to cool completely before icing.
Decorating
- Any cake can be spruced up with fresh flowers, whether you use the whole flower or just the petals.
- Try filling a mould with chocolate (white or dark) and using this to decorate the cake, as we have done on this page with spoons. You can get moulds for virtually anything.
- Buy ready-made plastic icing flowers and cover your cake with them. You get them in all shapes, colours and sizes.
- Wrap a beautiful ribbon around your cake, fill a fabulous box with pretty tissue paper, nestle the cake in the middle, and you have an exquisite gift that doesn’t need wrapping.
- We used a disposable piping bag to write with chocolate (see page 67). Dark or white chocolate works best. Melt it in a double boiler, pour it into the piping bag and write out whatever words you like on baking paper. Allow to dry, then peel the words carefully
- off the paper and place them on your iced cake. You can also colour white chocolate with a gel food colouring.
Filling
You can fill your cake with any of the following:
- Whipped cream with a drop of rose oil and assorted berries
- Lemon curd and roasted pecan nuts
- Mascarpone and granadilla pulp
- Thinly sliced fresh nectarines, chopped fresh mint and double-thick cream
- Crushed meringues, strawberries and fresh cream
Plastic Icing
Can be bought from a supermarket. Using a rolling pin, roll it out on a flat surface covered in icing sugar and then cover your cake (which has already been iced with butter icing) in an even layer.
Basic butter icing
For 1 cake
300g icing sugar
120g butter
2,5ml (V2 tsp) vanilla extract food colouring (optional)
- Sieve the icing sugar well.
- In a separate bowl, cream the butter until soft. Add the icing sugar a little at a time, beating continuously. Add the vanilla and continue beating until the icing is creamy and fluffy.
- Colour as you wish.
Applying butter icing
The butter icing can be used in the following ways:
Piping Using a piping bag and a decorative nozzle, pipe designs straight onto your cake. It’s a good idea to practice first on a piece of baking paper, until you’re happy with your design. You can do stripes, flowers, circles, stars or whatever else you like, depending on the type of nozzle you are using.
Palette Knife Simply spoon the icing onto the cake and then use the knife to cover the sides and top. This gives you a very casual, fluffy finish. If you want the icing to be smoother, put the palette knife in a jar of boiling water and go over the icing again until it is smooth.
Cook’s Tip
For softer icing, add 125ml (1/2 cup) fresh cream while beating.
The Tart Boutique Catering & Individually Crafted Cakes, 48 Jan Smuts Avenue, Forest Town, Johannesburg. Call 011-646-4781 or email info@thetart.co.za. All the icing accessories and ingredients mentioned can be bought at Linda’s Bake and Pack, call 011 482 2125.
Text and Recipe by Toni Scorgie and Nadine Waner of The Tart. Photographs by Graeme Borchers. Taken from the March 2010 edition of Food and Home.
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