15 November 2013

How did that happen?

........I turned 45 yesterday!!
(but HRH Prince Charles will always be 20 years older than me hee hee!!)
 
and as always I made a cake.....
 
not the most imaginative of creations I confess but then I am still not fully recovered from the stupid virus I picked up last week & cake baking was the last thing I wanted to do Wednesday afternoon!
 
 
 
I cheated on the roses.....but in my defence I have made sugar paste roses in the past, honest!!
 
The base was American sponge cake, coloured pink and flavoured with strawberry extract.....I'd never tried it before......ooh it's good!
I really wanted to add freeze dried strawberries, you know like you get in Special K Red Berries but I could not find them anywhere - if anyone in bloggyland knows where I can get some please let me know. 
 
The filling was strawberry jam and crème au beurre....which I coloured and flavoured as per the sponge.  If you've not tried this type of butter cream before I would highly recommend it - traditional butter cream is far too sweet for me these days and if you are icing the cake with fondant as well the cake can quickly become sickly sweet!
It is a tad trickier to do than basic butter cream and is made with boiled sugar, egg yolks and butter but you get a much smoother, lighter cream with a delicate flavour and it's not remotely sickly. 
 
In hindsight I should have left off the extra piping around the bottom of the cake - I'd managed to ice the cake really neatly, heck it did not even need ribbon - a blob to secure each rose would have been sufficient - but I just had to fiddle - oh well lesson learnt for next time!
 
 
It's nearly all gone already.....and I even got the thumbs up from my Mum yesterday!!!!
 
Anyway, off to do a bit of colouring
If you are able to, please pop back tomorrow as I have another Guest Designer post to share,
otherwise, have a great weekend and I'll see you guys next week.
 
Be good, or at least pretend to be!

7 comments:

Chris said...

Belated happy birthday Jane and WOW to your gorgeous cake, it looks amazing. Thanks for the tip re the buttercream....we're the same here and finding the usual kind too sweet these days so I'll look for a recipe. I've seen the freeze dried strawberries in Waitrose, hope you find some. Chris xx

Gramma said...

Your cake looks amazing! I am sure it tasted just as good as you never do anything half-way. Enjoy this year between birthdays!!!!!
Hugz,
Gramma
PS: I'm going to look for that recipe as well. TFS

Sue said...

Belated Birthday Wishes for yesterday Jane, I hope you had a wonderful day.
Your cake looks gorgeous, I love the colour and beautiful decoration. It sounds like it tasted good too!
hugs Sue xx

Tracy said...

Happy birthday Jane!

Lorraine said...

I hope you had a fantastic birthday Jane. Your cake looks yummy.
Have a lovely weekend
Lorraine x

Jenny said...

Wow! Gorgeous cake- sounds delish! And HaPpY BiRtHdAy to you!

coops said...

belated Happy Birthday Jane.Your cake looks fabulous ;D

xx coops xx