DUNIA’S 4 TIER BIRTHDAY CAKE
Top and bottom cake is Madeira cake as follows :
250 g soft butter or stork bake
410 g sugar
5 xlarge eggs
360 g cake flour
10 ml baking powder
5 ml salt, 10 ml vanilla
250 ml milk
Turn on oven to 190ºC and grease and line pans, beat eggs and sugar till light and creamy, add eggs one at a time and beat in well. Sift flour, salt and baking powder and add alternately with milk and always ending with flour, add vanilla and beat into cake batter.
Makes 3 x 8 inch tins. I baked it in my oven dish and the top one I used the cupcake tin.
Bake for between 25-45 minutes depending on tins used. Test to see if cooked then turn out and let cool.
Layer on top of rectangle cake is a Pecan Nut cake as follows:
220 g soft butter or stork bake
230 g castor sugar
4 xlarge eggs
230 g selfraising flour
125 ml milk
50 g chopped pecan nuts
Turn oven onto 180ºC and grease and line 2 x 8″ tins.
Beat sugar and butter till light and fluffy, add eggs one at a time and beat in well. Add flour and milk alternately ending with flour. Flod in pecan nuts and pour into greased and lined tins. Bake for about 25-30 minutes till cooked, turn out and cool.
Coke chocolate cake:
220 g soft butter
395 g sugar
2 xlarge eggs
125 ml buttermilk
250 ml coke
10 ml vanilla
500 ml flour
60 ml cocoa
5 ml bicarnonate of soda
5 ml salt
Turn oven onto 175ºC and grease and line an oven dish. I used 3 x 7 ” cake tin and the rest in another tin for the layer under the cupcake.
Beat sugar and butter till just mixed, add eggs and just mix into sugar, sift flour, salt and bi-carb together and add alternately with vanilla, coke and buttermilk (all mixed together). I just use a spautla till it all mixed together. Turn the mixer on high and beat it all about 2 minutes till all nice and smooth, pour into tin and bake for about 35 minutes, turning half way. Use tester to see if cake is done. Leave in pan to cool.
Notes:
I used ganache round the cakes and the normal filling between the layers.
The coke cake stays fresh for a long time so do that first.
Pecan nut cake the longer it stands the nicer it gets.
The madeira cake also lasts very well, but this I just used ganache on.
Make ganache and let it cool down and firm up a bit.
250 ml sour cream ( doesn’t make the white chocolate sweet)
1 kg chopped white chocolate
Place in the microwave, let the sour cream get hot then add chopped chocolate and let it melt. Stir untill all mixed together and put aside to cool and firm up.
Now do these:
For the coke cake the topping:
11 g butter
75 ml coke
45 ml cocoa
4 cups sifted icing sugar
10 ml vanilla essence
Put the first 3 in a pot and melt it, take off plate, and add sifted icing sugar and once that all beaten in, add the vanilla essence and beat well.
Let it cool a bit. Get layers ready and pour ontop then add another layer then top with the icing and smooth over and let it get cold. Set aside.
If doing the oven tin ….let cake cool a bit then pour over icing and let it set.
Pecan nut with fudge topping.
150 g butter or stork
120 g soft brown sugar
25 ml syrup
1 tin condensed milk
Heat all ingredients together and stirring all the time till nice and smooth Let it boil till it reaches soft ball stage. Drop a little in cold water it should form a ball and get firm (about 20 minutes).
Take off heat and beat well then pour over the one layer then over the top. (If not making this cake let it run down the sides and top with about 30 ml chopped pecan nuts) Leave to cool.
Make some buttercream with 50 g butter or stork mix 3-4 cups sifted icing sugar. Add some lemon to it for flavour. If too stiff, add few drops water and beat very well. Makes it nice and fluffy. This is for the top of the cupcake.
Crumb coat the big madeira cake with some ganache, top and sides and set aside.
2 packets of marshmallow ice cream cones and insert tooth picks half way and set aside.
Pecan nut cake
Crumb coat a thin layer and then later a slightly thicker layer. If ganache is too thick and set just soften in the micro wave for a little bit.
Coke cake
Crumb coat the sides and when set add another layer.
The cupcake can be cut into 3 layers and either ganache or butter icing between layers and the top piece as well. The sides is first ganached, then very top point is added and crumb coated with icing. Smooth the sides down.
I used 1½ pink and 1½ white fondant just 3 kgs.
The big bottom layer.
Roll out 1.2 kgs icing and put onto cake smoothing over and getting the corners nice and squared and even. Smooth it all down. Put 5 dowel sticks into the cake where the next layer going to sit. Now decorate the sides with sweets…..M&M’s, bows and smarties.
Next layer is the pecan nut cake.
Roll out either 850 g or a 1 kg of pink fondant to the thickness you want and put onto the ganache and smooth over the icing.
For these layers I used black ribbon and with egg white stuck it round the bottom of the layers of all three cakes
Next layer is coke cake.
Roll out white the rest of the fondant to the thickness you want and put over the cake smoothing over and cutting off surplus fondant. Then rolling out a piece of pink fondant and making the edges scalloped then putting on top of the white fondant and smoothing over.
Cupcake layer.
Roll out pink fondant and cut a hole in the middle then slide over the point of cake and smooth down, taking care not to stretch too much. Put butter icing into piping bag and pipe with a big nuzzle around the top to look like a cupcake.
Put a few smarties around the icing and sprinkle with glitter.
All layers must have dowel sticks in them to keep the cake from collapsing onto itself.
Put the cakes together and then insert the ice cream cones around the big cake
I bought little Mini Mouse faces and put them around the cake. Then I add them around 2 layers and I had Mini Mouse made for me. U can add a one or what ever number you want.
The cakes as I got them done and ready for the fondant.
NOTE:
All layes has to have a bit of water on the ganache to get the fondant to stick. And then egg white around the ribbon so it will stick.
RECIPE AND PHOTO: Dunia Van Rensburg McMaster
