My first cake was baked in a whirl-wind of a weekend, spent looking after my little cousin, Mish-Mash. Remembering my own fascination with this great book a a child, I thought I would give her the book to pick which cake she would like to bake - just cos. (Man, if only I got that option as a kid...I was stuck dreaming!) Remembering my own favourites, I should have predicted that the winner would be the one with the most lollies to decorate and of course the chosen cake was the castle. (A surprising close second was the stove - I think for the jaffas - Mish's favourite!)
Heading up the 'For Girls' section, the castle represents every little girl's dream of being a princess in a fantasy land where the walls are edible and decorated with colourful candy.
A trip to Coles was in order to stock up on all the right lollies, as well as baking ingredients and toothpicks (for the flags). A few improvisations were made for the sweets we couldn't find - Tim Tams seemed a much tastier alternative for the wafer doors, and somehow Jaffas worked their way into the trolley, in addition to the rest.
For this cake, I decided to try out the butter cake recipe provided in the book. Part of my reasoning behind this was that I wanted Mish to experience baking beyond the packet mix.
Mish had a great time measuring out double quantities in the retro bowls and cups, while I discovered that my $9.99 hand electric beaters from Coles are not really big or strong enough for a double mix - the result was mix spinning its way up and almost into the mechanics...
Utilising the tins I already had available, we baked a square cake, plus muffin sized cupcakes to create the bases for the turrets. This turned out to be a great concept - except that the square cake didn't really rise very high, meaning that our Tim Tam doors turned into half Tim Tam doors!
With the cake assembled, it was time for my first attempt at fluffy frosting. Surprised to discover that no icing sugar was actually involved, I started the daunting task of making toffee to add to whipped egg whites to form a sickeningly surgary foam. Surprisingly ... success! A team effort with my little helper whipping the egg whites into shape while I concentrated on not burning the toffee on the stove produced a pretty good first attempt - spoon licking good!
And thus it was time to let the decorating begin! Mish went to town placing the Tim Tams, smarties and jubes, while I struggled to cut up liquorice allsorts to make the flags. An hour or so later the lolly packets were empty and our stomachs were too full of raw cake mix, icing and smarties, but most importantly, the cake was done!
Ta-da!!
All that was left now was to deliver the cake to its prospective consumers - namely Auntie K and Uncle D - who were suitable amazed!
To the adults, it seemed almost a shame to cut it up for no particular purpose, but Mish had no qualms about sticking the knife in and dishing out some generous servings!
The verdict - perhaps a little dry, but overall a creative and tasty masterpiece.
Betty x
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