scaling up cake recipe - 9" square cake - UPDATE with pictures

Peem

Fantastic Jill

Afraid I gave in recently and bought the "keenie" (DD's verson of McQueen) cake from M&S. Yours is soo much better.

(mind you it made MIL feel she had one up on me cos DS went on and on and on about how he had a shop cake. She doesn't believe in home baking!!! - oh well, I'll never give in!)

Loobysaver

Wow that is fantastic. :j

I would love some tips on how to make a cake like that.

Do you buy ready to roll icing and add food dye or is there more to in then that? Also how did you make it stick to the sponge?

As you can tell, making sponge's is my limit and I have no idea how to do the creative bit!!!!:eek:

Fruball

Had a peek at your cake ! WOW that is fantastic !

Well done you

Kelinik

Fab cake, well done!

Sorry to be totally off topic here but ShirleyPark who is the stunner in your avatar? :smileyhea

sproggi

Well done Jill, cake looks fantastic.
DS2 & DD2 both think it looks brilliant, must be good 'cause they never agree on anything!!!

JillD wrote: »

If there is a way of not dying your fingers when dying ready to roll white icing then please tellme, I am sporting the blood red edged fingernails look

I used to wear a pair of fine rubber gloves (like the ones for hair dye), saved my hands from turning navy blue when I made my brother a football rosette cake.

Sproggi

Addiscomber

Well done. So glad that you achieved what you were aiming for.

buxtonrabbitgreen

very good cake. They do usually want cakes of thier favourite things, cartoons etc for the cachet rather than for the taste, don't they.

JillD_2

I love doing novelty cakes like this, it was great fun, and my most ambitious yet. Thank you for all your compliments

I would love some tips on how to make a cake like that.

Do you buy ready to roll icing and add food dye or is there more to in then that? Also how did you make it stick to the sponge?

As you can tell, making sponge's is my limit and I have no idea how to do the creative bit!!!!

Believe it or not I am not that creative either. The first "shaped" cake I did was a butterfly for my daughter, and I found loads of tips on the internet for it. I couldn't believe how easy it was. Last year I copied a fire engine one for my son out of a book and the Cars one this year was basically the same basic shape with a bit of sculpting (I use sculpting in the loosest sense of the word).

I just made two round chocolate sponges and froze them in freezer bags a few days ahead of time. Two nights before I lifted them out and did the sculpting that follows whikst they were mostly frozen - its much easier to shave off little bits ata time when frozen.

I placed the two rounds on top of each other and sandwiched together with chocolate buttercream icing that I bought.
I then chopped a bit off each side so it made a vague rectangle.
Then I sliced off the front at an angle to make a rough windscreen and bonnet, and cut in a little bit to make it more of an angle. It was falling apart slightly and I had to sort of stick bits on to make it the right shape LOL
Then I carved a groove along each side - bear in mind I did all this with my son's little Lightning McQueen matchbox car in front of me to vaguely copy LOL Oh and I shaped the back a little bit as well.

I then used a big block of ready to roll icing and TONS of red food colouring and kneaded it all in ( at one point it wasa bit of a blood bath .....). It was looking a bit pink so I used some yellow too to make it a more orangey red.
You have to use a lot of icing sugar as well otherwise the icing goes very very sticky.

I think for sponge you are supposed to use some fancy cake glaze to make the icing stick, but I just use Asda smart price strawberry jam spread thinly all over it. I think apricot jam is a less strong flavour and is better, but there isn't a smart price one!

Transferring it onto the cake is the hardest part, I sort of slid it onto a round chopping board that I have and slid it off over the cake. Then I used a little sharp knife to cut away the excess.

Then it was just cutting out bits of white and yellow icing to do the eyes etc. The wheels were liquorice wheels - actually they were leftover from the ones I bought for the fire engine wheels and hose last year!!!!
Oh and the spoiler at the back was just a massive wedge of leftover red icing.

HTH Give it a go!
Jill

JillD_2

Ok gere's a cost analysis. I didn't cost a few things that I already had in the cupboard.

bag asda smart price flour (used 350g) 31p
bag caster sugar (used 350g) 84p
tub stork marg (used 350g) 47p
6 eggs 99p
chocolate buttercream 1.98
ready to roll icing 2.18
yellow icing pen 1.84
asda smart price jam (used 1/3 jar or so) 33p

Total: £8.94

Half of this weas the writing icing and the buttercream. The chocolate buttercream was a bit of a waste of money, I just was too lazy to make my own. Normally I just use jam in the middle but my son doesn't like it. But since he wouldn't eat the cake anyway it didn't matter !
Also I used hardly any of the writing icing and now have a selection of colours for future cakes


Things I had that I didn;t need much of
red food colouring 25p
yellow food colouring 25p
cocoa powder 1.57
baking powder 37p
So another £2.44

Loobysaver

Thanks Jill - you make it sound so easy.

I might give it a go - any idea's for a simple cake for a girls 6th birhday!!!!:D