Vanilla celebration cake

Recipe by: Michelle Darmody

Build your own impressive celebration vanilla cake with apricot jam, buttercream and a zesty twist

Vanilla celebration cake

SERVES

14

PEOPLE

PREP TIME

30

MINUTES

COOKING TIME

60

MINUTES

Ingredients

  • 350g butter, softened

  • 330g caster sugar

  • 6 eggs, lightly beaten

  • 400g self-raising flour

  • 100g ground almonds

  • 2 tsp vanilla essence

  • zest of 2 oranges

  • 2 tbsp milk

  • To decorate:

  • 4 tbsp apricot jam

  • 4 cake stabilizers

  • 2 thin 6in cake boards

  • organic flowers

  • For the icing:

  • 300g butter

  • 500g icing sugar

  • 4 tsp vanilla essence

  • zest of 2 lemons

  • 1 tbsp milk

Method

  1. Line two 7in, spring-form or loose based, round cake tins with parchment. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.

  2. Beat the butter and sugar until they turn pale and fluffy. Slowly add in the eggs until combined. If the mixture begins to separate add a little of the flour. Add in the flour in two halves and combine slowly. Add the ground almonds until combined. Mix the vanilla and zest into the milk and add it to the batter.

  3. Separate the batter between the two cake tins, smooth the surface and make a slight well in the centre. We want the cakes to come out as flat as possible. Do not worry if you see them rise, the excess can be trimmed off.

  4. Bake for an hour, test the cake and put it back in for five-minute intervals until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for ten minutes then turn out onto a wire rack.

  5. Heat the four tablespoons of apricot jam with one tablespoon of water. Use a pastry brush to brush the glaze on the bottom and sides of the cakes.

  6. Allow the cakes to cool completely.

  7. For the icing whisk the butter, icing sugar, vanilla and lemon zest until completely pale and smooth. Add the milk and a little more if you find that the icing is too thick.

  8. Trim the cold cakes so they are as flat as possible. Slice them in two so you have four discs. Fill each of the two cakes with buttercream and turn them upside down so that the flattest part is showing on the top. Press the pillars through the cake, that will be the base. Cut them to size if you need too. The pillars should be the same depth as the cake. It is no problem to take them in and out of the cake a few times to get it right. You will not see them once it is all stacked. Sit the cake board on top of the pillars and then the other filled cake on top of this.

  9. Fill a pallet knife with icing and run it around the cake. The image here shows a quite nude cake, you can add more icing if you wish. Sit the second cake board on the top to sit the flowers on. Decorate as you wish and perhaps put some sparklers into your cake to ring in the New Year.

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