When making such large cakes it is important to double line the inside of the tin and also to wrap the outside with newspaper.  Take two double pages and fold in three lengthways.  Repeat this until you have enough strips to go round the cake tin.  Hold in place with string.

It is also important to check that these large tins will actually fit in your oven and have space all round once the door is closed.  Some of the slim-line ovens will not take this size.

Finally increase the cooking time.  Cook for about two hours at 160°C then lower the temperature to 150°C until the cake is cooked.  The cooking time may be around 4 hours or more depending on your oven.

For the method for mixing these cakes please follow the instructions on the Rich Fruit Cake Recipes for Various Sized Tins.

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Shaped novelty cakes are very easy to make using specially shaped cake tins/moulds.  This Mickey Mouse cake was created using a Silicone Cake Mould my daughter purchased at Disneyland Paris.  Other shapes, such as trains, boats and Disney characters such as Buzz Light-year are easily obtainable to purchase.  However most cake decorating shops hire these tins for 3 to 4 days at very reasonable rates.

Silicone Moulds have the advantage in that the cooked sponge can easily be removed.  Cake release sprays are available, but I found that painting the inside with melted lard and then dusting with flour is very effective (see preparing a cake tin for a sponge cake).

The decoration is simply coloured butter icing piped using a rose nozzle.  The black icing is created by using chocolate butter icing.  Large amounts of black food colouring make the icing taste strange and I do not feel happy feeding children so much colouring.  The chocolate butter icing reduces the amount of black colouring required and gives a nice flavour.

Ingredients for the Mickey Mouse sponge cake are:

8 oz (225g) butter/margarine
8 oz (225g) caster sugar
8 oz (225) self raising flour (sifted)
4 eggs (beaten)
Half teaspoon of vanilla extract
Large baking tray to place filled mould on to cook as it is too floppy without
12” (30 cm) cake board

Set oven to 180 C, 356 F or Gas Mark 4

Beat the butter/margarine and caster sugar together until light in colour and creamy, using a wooden spoon or food mixer
Add the eggs and beat well
Add the vanilla extract
Carefully fold in the self-raising flour using a metal spoon
Spoon the mixture into the prepared mould and spread out evenly, especially in the ears
Bake for about 25 minutes until golden brown.  The cake should be firm to the touch and starting to shrink from the edges of the mould
Remove from the oven and leave for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely

Butter Icing

6 oz (175) butter (softened)
12 oz (245) icing sugar
Half teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
4 oz (100g) fondant icing powder
Food colouring in red, black and pink
Piping bags and 2 rose nozzles, one small and one large

Beat the butter and icing sugar together until soft and creamy.  Put half into a bowl and set aside.  Sift the cocoa powder into the remaining butter icing and mix well.  This will now form the basis of the black icing.  Add just enough black food colouring to create a grey mixture.  Leave this for an hour to develop and become black.

Take the remaining butter icing and colour pink.  Take a tablespoon of this pink mixture and add red food colour until it is light red.  Again leave for an hour to develop.

Place the sponge cake onto the board and using the large rose nozzle, fill the piping bag with black butter icing.  Starting just above the one cheek, cover the top of mickey’s face with rosettes of black icing.  On the top of the ears, pipe a ring around the outer edge and then work inwards in circles.

Next cover lower half of eyes to make pupils, nose and outline of mouth

Next mix the powdered fondant icing with just enough water to make a very firm paste (which will hold it shape when pulled up into peaks) and pipe the whites of the eyes.

Using black and the small rose nozzle, pipe a black outline round the eyes and also a wavy line across the face under the eyes (see picture below).

Using the pink icing and the large rose nozzle, cover the rest of the face with stars

Finally using the red icing and small nozzle, fill in the mouth

If you want to personalise the cake with a name/age you could either pipe this onto the board or, as I have done, used some red fondant icing and cut the letters out using icing cutters.

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If you like to take cakes into work to share at Christmas, why not try taking a Christmas Cake.  Not only will you be very popular, but it can be a chance to be creative with the decorations.  If your workplace has a logo or even sells a specific product, you could use this as a basis for the decoration. (Please remember company logos are the the property of that company and cannot be used on cakes that are for resale). 

 Below is a cake I made for a member of my family to take into the camera shop where they work.

The Christmas Trees were made from cones of green coloured fondant icing with the branches being created by snipping into the fondant icingwith a pair of pointed scissors.  I then mixed a little green petal dust in with a few drops of Rejuvenator Spirit and used this to paint over the trees.  Finally using a fine artists brush I dotted different colours over the trees to resemble lights.

The snowman is made from two balls of white fondant icing with flattened coloured balls of fondant as buttons and eyes with a cone of orange fondant icing for the nose.  The hat is simply a flattened ball of black fondant placed on the snowman’s head and a second piece of black fondant icing rolled and flattened at each end to give the top of the hat. All pieces will stick together with a little cooled boiled water. The camera stand and camera were made from shaped pieces of fondant icing, which were allowed to dry before assembling with a little royal icing as ‘glue’.  The silver paint was created by using silver petal dust and Rejuvenator Spirit.  A little white royal icing was roughly spread on the top of the cake to resemble snow.  This also gives you something to stick your models to the top of the cake.

The letters were made using cutters and the coloured ‘underline’ was created from small strips of white fondant, painted with food colouring once dry. 

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As These little cakes are such fun to give as presents, I have included some more.  If you are making a larger cake, you can increase the ingredients and bake one of these small ones at the same time.  For example if you want to make an 8″ round cake, make a 10″ mixture and put the extra in the 4″ tin.

 You may click on any picture in this guide to enlarge it

This was decorated with a Father Christmas which was made using a ‘Father Christmas Plunger Cutter” and white fondant icing.

The cut out figure was left to dry for two days and then painted using edible colours.

The balloons around the side were made from red fondant ising and cut out with different sized piping tubes.  A large cream tube for the big balloons and a standard icing tube for the small ones.

A small amount of royal icing, coloured green and a fine writing tube was used to create the little ‘strings’ around the balloons and trailing up the sides of the cake.

Once again the balloons have been used to create a simple but effective decoration on the side of the cake, while letter cutters have been used to create the ‘NOEL’ on the top.  The letters are cut out of red fondant and placed on the cake straight away and left to dry in position.  I use a small dedicated artists brush to moisten the backs of the letters with a little boiled water.  This helps the letters to stick to the top of the cake.

Once dry a little white royal icing can be piped on the top of the letters to create the effect of snow having fallen on them.  It is important to ensure that the red letters are completely dry as the icing will turn pink.

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Easy Make

These delicious little treats are not really pies at all but more of a sponge biscuit.  They originate from America and were allegedly baked by Amish women.  When their husbands and children found these little cakes in their lunch boxes it is said they shouted ’Whoopie’.

Whatever their origins they are very easy to make and although they are best eaten on the day they are made, they will keep for two or three days without the filling.

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

Ingredients (Cakes)

(Makes 10)

100 grams (4oz) Butter (melted)
100 grams (4oz) Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
225 grams (8oz) Self Raising Flour (sieved)
150 ml (Quarter Pint) Natural Yoghurt
5 ml (1 teaspoon) Vanilla Extract

2 Baking trays lined with baking parchment

Set oven to 180 deg C (Gas Mark 4)

Put the Eggs and Caster Sugar into a large bowl and whisk until light and airy.

Whisk in the melted butter, yoghurt and vanilla extract.
Gently fold in the sifted flour.

Spoon 20 mounds of mixture onto the lined baking trays.

Bake for approx 15 minutes until golden brown.

Leave on trays for 5 minutes before lifting onto wire racks to cool.

Filling

125 grams (4oz) Butter (softened)
100 grams (4oz) Marshmallows
45 mls (3 tablespoons) Milk
A few drops of pink food colouring
5 mls (1 teaspoon) Rose water  (optional)

Put the marshmallows and milk into a small saucepan and melt over a gentle heat until smooth.
Leave to cool.
Beat butter until light and creamy and add food colouring and rose water.
Gradually add cooled marshmallow mixture to butter, beating well.

Icing

150 grams (5oz) Icing Sugar (Sieved)
Water
Decorations – I used Asda Micro Marshmallows and Asda Little Princess Treasures

Put the sieved icing sugar into a bowl and stir in just enough water to give a stiff icing.
Spread icing onto the top of each pie.

To Assesmble

Sandwich cakes together with the pink marshmallow cream to create 5 ‘pies’.

Sprinkle with decorations.

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Easy Make

Cupcakes are a larger version of the English favourite ‘Fairy Cakes’.  They are very easy to make, being a basic Victoria Sponge recipe.  The baked cupcakes can then be decorated in any way you wish.  However having been inspired by a feature in a magazine, I decided to try out these ‘99’ Ice Cream Cupcakes.

The recipe will make 12 Cupcakes

Ingredients (For the Cakes)

150 grams (5oz) butter or margarine
150 grams (5oz) caster sugar
150 grams (5oz) self-raising flour (sieved)
3 eggs (beaten)
30 mls milk
Half teaspoon of vanilla extract
Paper Cupcake cases
12 hole muffin tin

Turn the oven on to 190? (Gas mark 5)
Put paper cupcake cases into the muffin tin

Put butter and caster sugar into a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until creamy and very light in colour.  Alternatively mix with an electric mixer.
Slowly add the beaten eggs, beating well after each addition.
Using a metal spoon add the sifted flour and gently fold into the mixture.  Do not beat as the air will be removed and the cakes will have a solid texture.
Add the milk and vanilla extract and gently fold in.
Spoon the mixture into the paper cases.
Bake in the centre of the oven for 15 – 20 minutes.
To tell if the cakes are cooked, press gently in the centre.  The cake should feel firm.
When cooked, remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Ingredients (Butter Cream Decoration)

150 grams (5oz) butter – softened
300 grms (10oz) Icing Sugar – sieved
Half teaspoon of vanilla extract
Icing Bag and large ‘cream’ nozzle
6 Chocolate flakes (Cadbury’s are best) – cut in half
Coloured Sugar Strands or Hundreds and Thousands

Beat the softened butter in a large bowl until very light and creamy.
Slowly beat in the icing sugar.
Mix in the vanilla extract.
Put the butter cream into the icing bag with the large nozzle.
Starting from the outside to the middle of each cake, create a swirl and finish with a little peak.

Push in half a chocolate flake.

Sprinkle with the sugar strands.

These cakes will keep fresh for 3 – 4 days – although they will probably vanish long before then.

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Click on any picture to enlarge

If you love peanuts then I am sure you will love this very simple no bake squares.

Ingredients
56 grams (2oz) Butter
28 grams (1oz) Caster Sugar
1-2 tablespoons Golden Syrup
85 grams (3oz) Crunchy Peanut Butter
170 grams (6oz) Digestive Biscuits
100 grams (3.5 oz) chocolate suitable for cooking
18 cm (7”) Square cake tin – greased

Crush the biscuits with a rolling pin and set aside.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat or in the microwave.
Add the caster sugar and golden syrup.
Stir over a low heat until the sugar is dissolved then bring to the boil.
Remove from the heat and stir in the peanut butter.
Add the biscuits mixing well.
Spoon into prepared cake tin and press down.
Leave until cold and set (in the fridge in hot weather).
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water or in the microwave and spread over the cold biscuit mixture.
Leave to set before cutting into squares.

Makes approx 16

These squares are very rich but moorish, so you may want to hide them if you do not want them eaten all in one go.

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Choose the table you are most happy with – metric or imperial.

If you are looking for a recipe for a larger cake  please see  14″ Fruit Cake Recipes.

Fruit Cake Recipes

(Metric)

Fruit Cake Recipes

(Imperial)

Method

Grease and line the cake tin

Set oven to 160 deg C,325 deg F, Gas Mark 3

Cream butter, sugar, treacle and ground almonds together until light and creamy.

Add the egs one at a time, beating well.

Stir in the grated lemon rind.

Weigh the flour and stir in the mixed spice.

Weigh the fruit and nuts and mix into the spiced flour.

Add the flour and fruit mix to the mixture, folding in carefuly until well mixed.  If mixutre is very stiff, add a little milk.  The mixture should be of a dropping consistency (not sloppy).

Put mixture into cake tin and level top.

Cook for about one hour (for small cakes up to 8 inches (20 cm) and one and a half hours for the larger cakes at 160 deg C, 325 deg F, Gas Mark 3 then reduce to 150 deg C, 300 deg F, Gas Mark 2 until a skewar comes out clean.

Reduce the cooking temperature if the cake starts to rise.

I bake my cakes in an electric fan oven and therefore have converted my temperatures to the equivalent Gas Mark.  One of the visitors to my site (Bernadette) has baked the 12″ and 10″ square cakes in a gas oven and contacted me to let me know her experience of cooking times.  She advises that the 12″ would take approximately 5 hours in total and the 10″, 4 hours.  She also lowered the temperature to Gas Mark 1.  Many thanks Bernadette for your advice.

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These little cakes are baked in a 4″ tin and make lovely gifts for family and friends.

 You may click on any picture in this guide to enlarge it

An 8″ round cake recipe will make 3 of these cakes or alternatively if you are making a large cake for example an 8″, use a 10″ recipe instead and make one small cake at the same time.

Feed and wrap for a couple of weeks before decorating.

To Decorate

You will need a 6″ board and box.  These are available by mail order from a Piece of Cake Thame.
500 grams marzipan
500 grams fondant
Coloured fondant to decorate

Cover the cake in Marzipan and Fondant

To mark round the side of the cake where the frills are to go, take a piece of greaseproof paper long enough to go around the cake and then fold it in half.  Using a cup or other round object draw a semi-circle and cut this out.  Place against the cake and using a pointed modelling tool or the point of a knife, mark along the top of the paper template to create an indentation in the fondant.

Using a small writing tube, pipe small dots or shells around the base of the cake.  Leave to dry.

Make holly leaves and berries

Using red fondant, roll out thinly.

Using a frill cutter or a biscuit cutter and an egg cup to make the centre hole cut out a circle.

Make a cut through the fondant frill and open up.

Using a small dowel and some cornflower, carefully work round the circle by rolling the dowel from side to side to ‘frill’ the fluted edge of the fondant.

Cut the ends to make them straight and tidy.

Using a small clean artists brush and some cool boiled water, brush a little water over the indents you made on the side of the cake.

Gently lift the frill and place the one end on to the dampend indent on the cake and working along this mark, gently press the frill onto the cake.

Using a modelling tool or a cocktail stick, gently lift the bottom edge of the frill from the cake to arrange into folds.  Continue round the cake and leave to dry overnight.

When dry take a small artists brush and gently brush off any cornflour.  Repeat with a white fill directly above the red one.  When the second frill is in place, using a small pointed knife, trim the top edge of the frill where it is joined to the cake to make a neat edge.  If the frill starts to fall from the cake just brush a little water onto the cake and re-attach it.

Using white royal icing and a writing tube, pipe a line of dots along the trimmed edge of the frill.  At the top point of each curve, pipe a line of dots up to the top edge of the cake.

The top of the cake can then be decorated.  If you have made large cakes, any left over holly leaves and berries can be used on the little cake.  Holly leaves around a Christmas Roses are also effective and a Pointsettia is a simple but effective decoration.

 
Starting with the large cutter and progressing down to the smallest, cut out 10, 9, 8 and 7 petals.
Dampen the top of the cake with a little boiled water and start to arrange the large petals in a flower shape leaving a small space in the centre.  As you lay the petals, bend some of them so they do not lay completely flat.  Continue with the smallet petals placing the next size in between the last size.

Taking the yellow fondant make 5 small balls.  Roll the ball to make a small cone shape and use a Ball Tool to hollow out the cone.  Paint the centre of the cone with a little green food colouring and place in the centre of the flower with a little royal icing. 

Display in box.

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This whisked sponge is much lighter than a traditional Victoria Sandwich.  It benefits from being kept in a sealed tin for 24 hours before decorating/eating to become lovely and moist.

To make the sponge

3 eggs
3 oz (85 g) Margarine (melted)
5oz (142 g) caster sugar
4 oz (114 g) flour (sifted)
Half teaspoon vanilla extract

2 x 7″ round sandwich tins, greased and floured

Set oven to 180 deg C, 350 F or Gas Mark 4.

Using an electric mixer, whisk together the eggs and caster sugar until mixture is light and creamy and leaves a trail when you take the whisk out of the mixture.  Gently Fold in the melted margarine and then the sifted flour and vanilla extract.  Stir just enough to mix in the flour as mixing too much will ‘knock’ the air out and the sponge will not be light.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for approx 15 minutes until the cake is firm to the touch and appears to be shrinking from the edges.  Remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 5 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

This cake can be flavoured as follows:

• Grated rind of a lemon or orange stirred into the mixture with the flour.
• One Teaspoon of coffee granules disolved with one teaspoon of boiling water.  Leave to cool before adding with the melted margarine.
• Cocoa can be used to replace 1 oz of the flour and sifted in with the rest of the flour.  It helps to add half a teaspoon of baking powder to the chocolate recipe.

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