My big sister has been in Guyana (South America) for the past 4 weeks arrived home today! While in Guyana she helped to develop Girl Guiding, and I'm very proud of her for travelling away and doing something for such a good cause! So far, she's introduced me to some Guayanese music (not to my taste!) and some Guyanese rum (much more to my taste!)
As a surprise welcome home present, I decided to try my hand at fondant icing and make her a celebration cake. In true Hardacre style, I went all out with a two tier, iced cake, complete with fondant figurines.
It may not be the prettiest cake ever, but with it being my first fondant iced cake I was pretty happy with the result!
The cake itself was a simple victoria sponge cake with jam in between the layers.
You will need (for 2x 8" cakes and 2x 6" cakes):
8 medium eggs
1lb (453.6g) flour
1lb (453.6g) caster sugar
1lb (453.6g) margerine or soft butter
Raspberry (or whatever you like) jam
Fondant icing
Method:
Mix all the ingredients in a (very!) large bowl.
Pour the mixture into the greased cake tins, I did one of each size, cooked it and then did the next two.
Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden and springy.
Leave each layer to cool.
Put one of the 8" cakes onto a cake tray and cover in jam. Place the second 8" cake on top, and again, cover (lightly) in jam.
Repeat with the 6" cakes.
For the icing, roll out your desired colour of icing, on a table/surface dusted liberally with icing sugar, until it is quite thin.
Using the rolling pin, carefully lay it over the cake and smooth down.
Repeat this with the smaller cakes, then place them on top of the bigger cakes.
Now its totally up to you on how you decorate! I found a good website on how to make fondant figurines that takes you step by step: http://caketrails-nz.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/simple-fondant-figure-tutorial.html
Its actually a very easy cake to make as a celebration cake as you can personalise and decorate it however you like!
Happy baking,
