Birthday Cake

There's nothing better on your birthday than having all the friends and family round for a piece of cake and a drink, and that's exactly what we did for Dad's birthday yesterday!

As per usual, I was in charge of the cake (what happened to my healthy eating!?), and it went a little something like this!

Mrs Beeton's Victoria Sandwich Cake

Ingredients:

150g Self-raising flour

150g Caster sugar

150g butter/margarine

3 eggs

Pinch of salt

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, and get out two 18-inch sandwich tins and grease them thoroughly!!!

Alternatively you could use grease proof paper to line the tins, but this can be a bit of faff at the end (I much prefer greased loose based tins!)

Next cream together the butter and the sugar. Make sure you do this thoroughly and wait for the mixture to turn a much paler, creamier yellow. It will then be really soft to the touch.

Whisk the eggs up and slowly add them to the butter and sugar mix, only a little bit at a time. Whisking the mixture together thoroughly in between each addition.

If you add too much too quickly the mixture may curdle but don't panic! Keep whisking, if that doesn't help a pinch of flour should do the trick!

Next sift the flour and the salt into your bowl! All at once! And gently combine the mixture folding lots of big air bubbles in. Make sure there are no hidden clumps of flour and that the mix is thoroughly combined.

It is now ready to put into the tins!

Divide between the two, and gently push the mixture to the edges to get a nice flat surface, perfect for decorating!

Pop in the oven for 30mins. Once they are a nice golden brown colour you know they are done! But just to be safe poke with a knife or metal skewer - if it comes away dry you know they are ready!

Pop on a cooling rack to cool.

Now, a Victoria sponge sandwich cake is not much good without a filling! A thin layer of jam in the middle is perfect! (If you want to be extra decadent you can put in whipped, or butter cream with the jam!!!)

Pricing (based on Asda's own brand unless specified!)

Flour 9.75p, Silver Spoon caster Sugar 16.5p, Stork butter/margarine 28.5p, 2 Happy Eggs, 78p

Total: £1.33p

I'd told my Dad I was making his birthday cake so it wasn't a surprise, but as a result I got given a spec!!!! He requested a butter cream Tottenham Hotspur cake!!! Now I'm relatively new to cake decorating but I thought I would give it a go!

I used the same butter cream recipe from my previous post but decided to make the icing a little thinner. I didn't need it to hold it's shape so much, and wanted it easily spreadable to get a smooth surface finish!

Again I had a good play around with my food colourings! (I will have to invest in the natural food dyes from Waitrose!)

The cake went down a treat! It's my Nan's birthday next, I expect she will want me to bake her a cake too!

Happy baking!

Emma