1920's Glamour Cake!

Hello! I've finally managed to find some time to blog about my hardest baking attempt yet, my 1920's themed cake for my lovely friend Kat's birthday last Saturday! I say it was my hardest for several reasons; firstly I had no idea how I was going to make the icing gold, then I had to find out where to buy the stuff, I was making a tiered cake which I had never done before, and last but not least, the cake was Red Velvet Cake!

As you can tell by SOME of the ingredients that this was quiet a challenge! I could not believe how much bloomin' butter this cake was going to need! I should point out at this point that I didn't use two blocks if that makes anyone who ate the cake feel any better! I got the recipe from Lorraine Pascale's book, Baking Made Easy. I found it really difficult to find a Red Velvet recipe that wasn't for cupcakes or included substitute ingredients to make the recipe either healthier or gluten free. Which, although I am all up from trying, considering this cake was going to be for a birthday I thought I shouldn't risk it!

 



All that butter was pretty much needed for the butter cream icing that was placed in the middle of each cake and around the cake to stick the royal icing to. Personally there was too much butter cream. The recipe was for a three tier cake, but after doing both my cakes I still had 3/4 of a huge bowl left of the stuff, which was a waste, tasty, but a waste.

My favourite part of the bake was making the cake red! For all those who don't know, a Red Velvet cake is a normal sponge with cocoa power and a shed load of red food colouring! Try 50ml per cake!! Although this might seem a lot, it was exactly what the cake needed to become the sumptuous looking colour you can see above! I also think it helped to make the cake light and moist!

My biggest challenge was decorating it. I had been planning this cake for a good couple of months, so I had already had it in my head what the overall design would look like. I really wanted to have the black and gold motifs that are synonymous with 1920's cinema on each corner, as well as writing 'Happy Birthday Kat' on the top. In the end I managed to complete the motifs, but the writing was just too difficult, and I think that the cake looked better without the writing as it kept the cake looking clean and symmetrical.

As you can see from above, I had to hand paint each motifs with edible paint and attach them using edible glue. I'm not sure it was because I am a complete beginner at this type of baking or that I wasn't using the product correctly but the black paint didn't end up drying, even though it was left for 24 hours. It meant that people had messy black hands and the appearance looked a little cracked. If anyone out there knows why this happened I would love to know! Tips please!

After 9 1/2 hours hard work I can proudly say that the cake was a success! Kat loved it, (I hope) and people were happily munching through the cake for the whole evening, which was if you hadn't already guessed was a 1920's fancy dress party! What I loved about the final product was that when you sliced through the very monochrome icing you were surprised by the vibrant red of the cake! It might be awhile before I attempt such a cake again, but I am so happy at how it ended up! The cake was light, moist and was so tasty! I had never tasted let all tried a red velvet cake or cupcake for that matter before and I now know what all the fuss is about! They are delicious!