Renshaw ‘Royal Baby Cake Competition’

I confess, cake decorating is not one of my better skills, but when Renshaw invited me to enter their ‘Royal Baby Cake Competition’ I decided to take up the challenge. Or at least give it a try.

A couple of days later a very nice box of goodies containing Natural Marzipan, 5 colour Multipack Ready to Roll Icing and a box of White Ready to roll icing, arrived from Renshaw.com to help me with my challenge.

I decided to use all the products so needed a cake that would take the weight of the marzipan and icing. Stepping up to the plate was my Almond cake. Now I doubt very much that I have filled the Royal Baby theme with the decorations nore will I win the competition. Had my figurine skills been good enough I would have added a baby in cradle, with proud HRH mum and dad standing by. But after searching the internet for creative ideas, I thought some bunting, a blue blanket with pink hearts would help with the baby theme. There is one thing for sure, I did enjoy myself.

The two men in my life were waiting eagerly to have a slice of the finished cake, and so was I, but it was getting late in the evening and I knew if I stopped without taking pictures, slice after slice would have gone and all would be lost.

After a couple of slices each, the cake turned out to be a success on the taste side and I have to say that the fondant icing was a joy to use. Soft and easy to roll and work with. But I definitely need some cake decorating classes to improve my skills.

Ingredients

• 250g Butter
• 250g soft light brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 250g Self Raising Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 100g Ground Almonds
• 1/2 Teaspoon Almond Extract

Filling and cake covering

• !/2 jar Apricot preserve
• Pack Renshaw white ready to roll icing
• Pack of Renshaw Natural Marzipan
• Multi pack Renshaw Ready to roll primary coloured icing

Grease and line ( the base with parchment) 2 x 20cm sandwich tins Preheat the oven to 180 deg fan assisted.

Method

1. Beating the butter and sugar together until light a fluffy
2. Continue beating, add the eggs one at a time, adding a little flour between each one to help prevent curdling.
3. Add the remaining flour, Ground Almonds, Almond Extract and baking powder. Mix until well combined.
4. Divide the mixture and add to the tins.
5. Bake for 20-25 mins or until cooked, testing the centre of the cake with a skewer until it comes out clean.
6. Leave in the tins for 10 mins to cool down before turning out onto a baking rack to cool completely.
7. When the cake is completely cooled. Sandwich the two cakes together with some of the Apricot preserve, then coat the top and sides with a thin layer from the remainder. This will help the marzipan to adhere to the cake.
8. Roll out the marzipan large enough to cover the whole cake, pressing firmly on the top and sides to form a smooth firm base for the white fondant icing.
9. Roll out the white fondant icing large enough to cover the cake. Place this in top of the marzipan pressing firmly on the top and sides to form a smooth finish ready for your decorations.
10. Have fun decorating using the Multi coloured Fondant Icing. Try mixing some of the colours together to create different shades or add some gel colours to the left over white fondant to create pastel shades such as pink.