The 31st of March marks a very special occasion, my big brother is turning 30!Not wanting this occasion to go uncelebrated his girlfriend organised a surprise meal for friends and family. As I am writing this, the surprise meal hasn't happened yet but I know he will be really happy to see some of the family that have travelled up to see him that we don't see very regularly.
I booked a day's annual leave to make a cake fitting for the occasion - the brief was 'dinosaur themed' and this is what I came up with....
I felt very guilty as my brother tried to rope me in to painting fence panels on my day off so I had to tell a little white lie and pretend I had a physiotherapy appointment for my dodgy knee - sorry Daniel! But I couldn't tell you what I was really doing on Friday as it would have given the game away!
My brother and his girlfriend are both vegans so I had to make a cake that would appeal to all. The bottom square layer of the cake is a classic vanilla sponge with swiss meringue buttercream, the upper round layers are a vegan vanilla sponge with vegan buttercream. The little 3D dinosaurs are also vegan friendly. I used dairy free fondant icing to create the leaves and added a little extra decoration with some mini eggs and then some special vegan treats which are the ones in gold wrapping.
It was a mammoth baking session as not only did I make this I also whipped up a batch of chocolate eclairs which I have been promising my cousin I would make him for ages!
I was really proud of the finished cake - it turned out to be a real show stopper!
Right - lets get baking!
For the vanilla sponge you will need:
- 12oz unsalted butter
- 12oz caster sugar
- 6 large eggs
- 12oz self raising flour
- 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
For the vegan sponge you will need:
- 400g self raising flour
- 240g caster sugar
- 2 teaspoons of baking power
- 400ml soya milk
- 160ml of rapeseed oil
- 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract
For the dinosaur biscuits you will need:
- 175g plain flour
- 1/2 a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
- 70g dairy free margarine
- 50g brown sugar
- 1 and a 1/2 tablespoons of golden syrup
- 1/2 tablespoon and vanilla extract
To decorate you will need some icing sugar and food colourings of your choice.
For the swiss meringue buttercream you will need:
- 3 large egg whites
- 250g caster sugar
- 375g unsalted butter
- Green food colouring
- 75g dairy free margarine
- 75g vegetable fat
- 750g icing sugar
- 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
- A dash of soya / dairy free milk
- Green food colouring
For decoration you will need:
- Fondant icing in a variety of green colours
- Chocolate min eggs
- Vegan chocolate eggs
Equipment:
- A cake board
- A variety of baking tins - I used a large square tin and then two smaller round tins. Use what you have already - don't buy anything especially for it. You can cut your cakes once baked to get the shape you want.
- Dinosaur biscuit cutters - I found mine in the lakeland sale. They do all the hard work for you as they cut the slots that you need to make your dinosaurs stand up.
- Leaf shaped cutters in a variety of sizes
- Wooden skewers - I have put 4 kebab skewers in my cake to make sure the upper layers don't go anywhere! It isn't completely necessary but I wasn't taking any chances with this bake.
To start, line your cake tins and heat your oven to 180c fan.
To make the vanilla sponge, simply cream the butter and sugar before combining the eggs and vanilla and gradually beating into the butter and sugar. Sift the flour and gently fold it into the rest of the mixture. That's it - put it into your chosen tin and bake for around 35 minutes - longer depending on how deep your tin is. You will know when its ready as it will spring back to you touch and a skewer inserted will come out clean.
Allow it to cool completely.
 |
| The oil and milk mixture will bubble |
To make the vegan sponge, combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl.
In a separate bowl combine the milk, oil and vanilla before adding the the dry mix and combining with a metal spoon. The mixture will quite quickly start to develop gas bubbles - when you transfer it to your tin knock the bubbles out by tapping it on your work surface. This will stop the cake from rising too quickly - if the rising process is too quick there is a risk that it will rise and then collapse.
Cook your vegan sponge for about 20 minutes and allow it to cool completely.
To make the dinosaur biscuits combine the margarine, sugar, vanilla, golden syrup and bicarbonate of sofa then gradually add in the flour. As the flour is added it will start to come together as a very soft biscuit dough. Tip it out onto a lightly floured surface and work the dough for a minute just to bring it all together. This dough is very soft as dairy free margarine doesn't set as hard as butter. You need to chill your dough for as least half an hour as this will make the rolling and cutting process much easier.
When your dough is chilled, roll it out to about 0.5cm thickness and cut out your dinosaurs. This makes enough dough for 4 dinosaurs to decorate your cake. Transfer the dinosaurs to a baking tray and bake them for about 10 minutes.
Let your dinosaurs cool completely before taking them off the tray - when they come out of the oven they are still quite delicate however when cooled they are strong enough to be handled and stand up.
When they are cool you can decorate with a simple mix of icing sugar and water. You want the icing to be fairly thick so that it holds its shape but it needs to be loose enough to pipe. Adding more water will make the mixture looser, if its not thick enough just add more icing sugar until its at the thickness you would like. I used blue and red colouring for my dinosaurs.
Whilst your cakes and biscuits are cooking and cooling this is the ideal time to start preparing your decorations. Dust your work surface with icing sugar and roll out your fondant icing. Using leaf shaped cutters cut of as many leaves as you have the patience for, in a variety of sizes. Store them on sheets of greaseproof paper ready for later.
I combined a few different green fondants to give some of my leaves a mottled look.
You now need to make your icings.
For the vegan butter cream combine the margarine, vegetable fat, vanilla, food colouring and icing sugar using an electric whisk. Adding soya milk will loosen the mixture so add a little bit at a time until you have reached the desired consistency. It wants to be thick enough that it holds its shape but loose enough that it will spread nicely.
For the swiss meringue buttercream put the egg whites and the sugar in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk gently as the sugar dissolves and the mixture reaches a temperature of 60c. If you don't have a thermometer dip your finger into the mixture and rub it against your thumb - if you can't feel any sugar granules its ready.
Transfer this mixture into a bowl / freestanding electric mixer and whisk for about 8 minutes until it had cooled. You're now ready to gradually add the butter and food colouring - that's it!
Now you have made all the component parts it's time to assemble! I planned where I wanted by cakes to go before icing them as once the icing is on it's trickier to make changes without making a mess!
If you are happy with your positioning, start by putting a bit of the meringue buttercream on the cake board as this will act as a glue and stop your cake from sliding. Cover the entire bottom layer with icing and also cover the board.
Add your next layers, at this point I put 4 skewers through my circular cake and slid my upper layers onto them - as I said above, this isn't entirely necessary but its does give an extra bit of stability and piece of mind when transporting the cake.
Cover the top layer with the vegan buttercream.
Now its time to add you decoration. I wanted it to look like ivy / plants gradually going up the jurassic hillside so started with lots of leaves at the bottom and gradually thinned them out. Position chocolate eggs on your cake and add the dinosaurs where you would like them.
And that's all there is too it! If you haven't got any special dietary requirements you wouldn't need to make the different types of sponges and icing, just increase the recipes for the standard mixture. You can experiment with different sponge, icing and biscuit flavours too if you wanted.
Happy baking - let me know how you get on with your own show stoppers.
Rach x
No comments:
Post a Comment