Moving on

My sister finished primary school last week and it was quite emotional if I am honest with you. Her and all her friends started to cry because they were going to miss each other and it was very sweet and cute. But it made me think about just how old I am and how time goes by so quickly. Yes, my sister may still have a while to go but for me, I only have two years of school left. It scares me just to type that! In two years time I am going to be an adult! Arggh!! Although most of the time I like to pretend that I am mature enough the truth is that I am far from grown up enough. And I don't mind, I like being young and carefree, for however long that may last. But, I think that's enough of my ranting for one post don't you?

Anyways, back to my original point, my sister had a sort of 'party' and I made a cake for the occasion. The icing said 'Class of 13' but if you made this cake then it is completely up to you what you write. I really like this recipe and I got good feedback from others. In the middle I added strawberries for a fruity and summery touch, this is optional and the fruit can be changed to suit your needs.

This recipe may seem quite big but it did cut up into 30 slices on the day.

Celebration cake

Ingredients:

For the cake: (ingredients for 1 layer)
> 225g butter/stork softened
> 225g caster sugar
> 1/2tsp vanilla essence
> 4 large eggs
> 225g self-raising flour
> 2tsp baking powder

For the filling and icing:
> 250g strawberries
> 350g butter, softened
> 200g icing sugar
> 1tsp vanilla essence
> 60ml double cream
> 100g small sweets
> 1 tube of Sliver Spoon Designer Icing

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a traybake tin.

2. In a bowl whisk the butter, vanilla essence and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3. Add an egg to the mixture one at a time, beating after each addition. Before the first addition add a tablespoon of flour to the mixture from the 250g to stop the eggs from curdling. If the mixture looks like it is about to curdle then you can add another tablespoon  of flour.

4. Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and beat the mixture for another 3-4minutes until the mixture is light and airy. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake is golden brown.

5. Now that you have the first layer of your cake you need to make the second one so repeat steps 1-4.

6. To make the butter icing beat the butter, icing sugar, and vanilla essence together until light and fluffy. Add the double cream and continue to beat for another 5 minutes.

7. On the top of one of the cakes, ice the top only. Slice the strawberries and place them side by side on top of the butter icing. Add the second layer on top and ice the top and sides of the cake.

8. Place the small sweets around the edges of the cake and cool the cake in the fridge overnight. This way the butter icing will harden and it will be easier to pipe on it the next day.

9. Pipe what you wish to say on the cake and then chill the cake for another couple of hours so that this icing hardens.

10. Slice and serve!

P.S. What do you think of my new header?