The Writing Is On The......Cake!

When I met the lovely couple Martin and Bebhinn, I knew there was something special about their plans for their big day. They had a clear vision on what they wanted, yet leaving artistic creation to myself - best of both worlds!! This was not to be just an ordinary wedding cake, this was to be a statement cake on both the inside and the outside.

Starting on the inside; they wanted the first tier to be a chocolate biscuit cake. I told them they can add whatever confectionery they wanted to it. So like kids in a sweet shop (literally) they started naming their favourite chocolate bars so we ended up adding Moro bar, Daime bar, Maltesers and Marshmallows! Along with copious chocolate, biscuit, butter and sugar, this was a sure bet to send you in to a chocolate-coma!!!

The next tier was to be a Rainbow Cake. This type/style of cake has become increasingly popular in the last while due to the vibrant colour surprise you get when you cut in to the cake. This is especially evident when it is covered in a white or soft pastel colour like Martin and Bebhinn's cake! The thing to remember with rainbow Cakes is it is 6 sponges with cream cheese filling in between so it is easily 4 inches in height when all put together and covered. What I learned in regards stacking for a wedding cake, the other tiers need to be the same height for visual balance. So if you are doing an important cake such as a wedding cake, it's best practice a rainbow cake before hand to get a real idea of size. The recipe I used was as follows:

• 375g butter, softened, plus a little extra for greasing
• 675g plain flour
• 450g golden caster sugar
• 9 medium eggs (very important to use the correct size)
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• edible food colouring - red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple (to get the best concentrated colour you should use the gel colours instead of the supermarket liquid food colouring)

Method:

Heat oven to 180C. Grease 6 x 20cm round sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment. 

Most recipes tell you to put all the ingredients in to one electric mixer bowl and mix together, but I still think it is better to go the traditional route and cream the soft butter and sugar together first until light and fluffy, then add the egg and dry ingredients (flour and baking powder) alternatively until it all comes together. The less lumps you have and the more time you spend on mixing it all on a low speed, the better the sponge in the end. (Trust me, I've done extensive research on this!!)

So here comes the tricky bit; I learned that in order to ensure you have 6 even sponges you need to ensure you put 6 of the same quantity cake mix/batter in to 6 different bowls to then be coloured. I had a cup measuring set (see here) I got for Xmas from my loveliest husband and just scooped out 2 cups of batter in to each bowl. From here you need to take a toothpick and dip it in to the gel colouring pots and then in to the batter; so a different colour in to each bowl and mix vigorously with a spoon in each to bring up the colour like the picture below.

Rainbow coloured cake batter

baked rainbow cakes

Once you have your cake mix all coloured, spoon in to each individual cake tin and level off with a small spatula or knife so the batter is completely flat going in to the oven. Now if you're an avid cake baker like me you'll immediately freak out that there isn't enough cake mix to fill the tin and it seems quite a stiff mix compared to the usual light sponge. Fear not my troubled baker, this is perfectly fine. The mix will only be a tiny bit up the side of the tin and it is a dense mix so it won't rise that much. The reason for this is back to my point earlier; you have 6 cakes in this overall cake - therefore you only need the slightest bit to get the effect, but you don't want a massive mound of cake! I hope you get what I'm trying to say here. Basically don't panic if you think the individual cakes are very small. 

Try bake on the same oven shelf (I had 3 on one shelf and 3 on another shelf) for 12 mins until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean. Gently turn the cakes out onto a wire rack to cool. Leave them all to cool.

When the cakes were completely cool I leveled off the tops of each of them to get them even as the top of every sponge always rises more rounded in the centre. Now it's time to whip up the cream cheese filling!!!
This is a simply 3 tubs of 250g cream cheese, 350g icing sugar and 1tsp vanilla extract. The key to this is to be gentle mixing it as it can go very runny the more you whip it, so just mix together by hand with a spoon. I also discovered that it's best leave it in the fridge for about an hr to slightly harden again before spreading on the cake. Then stack up the cakes on top of each other like the picture below before putting any icing on so you can make sure they are the same width. Take your time to get this right as there's no correcting once the icing is on!!

See the way there's more icing filling to the edge of each cake? Well that's because I didn't level it off enough. The layers should also be much thinner to get them completely even. I was afraid in my first attempt to take too much off each cake, but when they are all put together it really is a lot of cake so don't be afraid to shave off a good bit of cake. Think of it this way; the purpose of this style cake is that you see 6 different sponges of same size all stack in vibrant colours of the rainbow, so get your levels right and make sure you've used the gel colours to get the best result.

Now the outer layer doesn't need as much icing as the pic above as we're going put fondant icing on it all. So apply the same principal as "crumb coating" any cake before putting fondant icing on, which means a light layer of icing all leveled off so the fondant icing will stick to the cake. Do the same for the biscuit cake; coat the outside of the cake with chocolate fudge or chocolate ganache icing to give that even finish before applying the fondant icing. Some cake decorators go with a heavy layer all over the outside of the cake so it's perfectly smooth and level and then thick fondant over it to make sure it's extra even. I personally don't like cutting in to a cake with oodles of icing on it, so I try get the bake as level as possible to save on this. A tip for covering biscuit cake is when you are spooning the biscuit cake mix in to a lined tin, really push down on the biscuits to the point of crushing them so there's a complete layer of fine cake mix at the bottom - which will when turned out will become the top!

So now for the main event - hand painting on the cake! So when you have the cakes covered with the fondant icing you need to leave it dry for as long as you can. With all my cakes I like to bake them day 1 and cover & decorate them day 2, but in this case the writing is done on day 3. The thing to remember is once the cake is covered in fondant icing (and I mean well covered to the bottom) then the freshness of the cake is sealed in. Now, obviously it's not sealed in forever, but any good sponge or biscuit cake will stay as it's fresh state for 2-3 days, provided there's no fresh cream in there! This is why most cake decorators like to work and cover cakes with fondant than butter cream.

When writing on a cake there are several steps in the process:

Step 1: 

Write out your writing, passage, sketch, doodle, etc, on a piece of parchment paper in pencil. So in my example below I had them printed from a word doc and then traced over the words on to parchment paper. Then, most importantly, turn over the parchment paper and write out the words again in pencil to the exact style/font/outline as it is to the front. Remember to go very heavy on the pencil on this reverse side as this will be the side we will be placing on the cake to get the words on to the cake. This is also the reason you trace on the reverse side! Go back over the words as many times as you want on the reverse side so you're sure all the words are traced out. If there is any shading, for example in a picture or block writing, I would just draw the outline and we will fill in the space with the edible paint.

Step 2:

Place the parchment paper on where you want it to be on the cake, like the picture below, and end of a brush handle or a pencil over the whole piece of paper so the writing on the reverse side imprints on to the cake fondant

Careful not to lean too hard on the paper on to the cake as you just want the writing to appear and not your finger prints!! This is another reason why you need the fondant nice and dry before sketching anything on to it.




Step 3:
Continue on with whatever way you want to arrange your writing and pictures. For this cake I wanted it haphazard around the cake like so:

Step 4:

Next is the painting!! Dom dom dommmmm!

Well actually it's not that daunting now you have you're outlines done to be honest. I use this handy paint palette I got in an arts and crafts shop so I can mix the colour and thin it out to how I want it. You use Vodka mixed with the gel colour as the liquid to paint with as it dries in quickly. Do not use water as this will make it runny and seep in to your icing. As you can see from the pic I have the Vodka in one part of the tray and the concentrated gel colour in another part, and then take a small bit of each in to a third section in order to get the consistency I want. My advise is to start light in colour on to the cake and build up from there.

Make sure you have a good brush with flat head and short bristles so your writing is neater. This is a time consuming and patience game but with the help of the outlines already done and the Vodka to dry quickly, it actually goes quicker that you think.

So after all the words were painted on this was the result:

I hope this was OK to follow, and you liked the finished product!!