Make a Fairy Cake

HOT MILK SPONGE CAKE

4 extra-large eggs

1¼ cup (310ml) castor sugar

2 cups (500ml) cake flour

1 tbsp (15ml) baking powder

1 cup (250ml) milk

100g baking margarine

1 tsp (5ml) vanilla essence

Preheat oven at 180°C. Cream eggs and sugar together until thick and light.

Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold in the egg and sugar mixture.

In a saucepan, heat the milk and margarine. Do not boil. Stir milk mixture and vanilla essence into batter. Spoon into a greased 20cm x 20cm square baking tin. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

hint! For chocolate cake, add 50ml cocoa to the dry ingredients. For other flavours, add 1 tsp (5ml) essence.

ICING INSTRUCTIONS

To cover the sponge, I used readymade plastic icing from a baking supply shop, and simply coloured it

with a couple of drops of gel colouring. Gel blends best with this type of icing.

hints!

Once the cake has been covered with the coloured plastic icing it’s time to add a few more decorative touches.

I used store-bought sugar flowers from a baking store to give the cake a more girly, fairy feel. Using contrasting colours and shapes adds to the finished cake. You would need approximately 35-40 sugar flowers to complete the entire cake.

To pipe the name, simply use a standard royal icing, fill a piping bag and pipe onto the lower section of the cake.

For a finishing touch, dust some shimmery edible dust over the entire surface of the cake. These edible shimmer powders are available from baking stores and come in a variety of colours.

HOW I MADE THE FAIRY

You will need

flesh coloured modelling paste * toothpicks * egg white * scissors * paintbrush thin * white, blue, black, red gel colour * quick dry essence * leaf cutter and leaf finer * rolling pin * edible glitter * sheet of rice paper (all available at speciality baking shops)

To make

HEAD: roll 10g modelling paste into a ball. Stick it onto a toothpick. Now take a little piece of paste roll it into a ball, and shape into a teardrop for the nose.

BODY: take 15g paste and roll into a ball and then a short sausage. Flatten the bottom and then shape the shoulders.

ARMS: Use 5g paste and roll into a sausage, flatten both ends. Using the small scissors, cut a thumb and fingers. Bend and squeeze the arm to form the elbow. Cut in half to form two arms.

LEGS: using 10g paste roll into a long sausage. Leave about 1cm space at tip of each end and then rolling it between your fingers to form the ankle. Bend foot over and push back to form the heel. Fold it in the middle and shape depending on how you’d like the fairy to sit.

Dress: Use pink paste. You can use any leaf cutters. Roll the paste thinly and then cut out 6 medium and 4 small leaves. Place 4 leaves clockwise over the legs; glue in place with the egg white and brush. Now put the remaining 2 medium leaves on the body, one in the front and one on the back of the body. With the 2 small leaves at the bottom of the body to cover the parts that are open.

To assemble: fix the arms to the shoulder using egg white as glue. The remaining small leaf can be used to cover the join of the arms, and will form the sleeves of the dress. Glue the body to the legs, then add the head (the toothpick will go right though the body and legs). Glue into place.

For the face, put a drop of each colour on a paint pallet. Add a drop of quick dry essence. Using the thin brush, paint on the face.

For the hair, thinly roll out some yellow paste. Cut into thin strips, then wind around a toothpick to form the curls. Paint the top of the head with egg white and glue the hair in place.

For the wings, cut out rice paper, then glue to the back of the body with a little royal icing.

All the little flowers can be bought at baking supply shops

#cake #koek