Recipe: Messy cake showstopper
If you’ve been inspired by The Great British Bake Off, but have yet to master a piping bag, then messy cake decorating could be for you.
This is a style of cake decorating that creates maximum impact without the need for perfectly smooth frosting.
Teacher and messy cake maker Carys Burton, who is an expert at the art, explains how to make a strawberries and chocolate confection that looks every bit as good as it tastes.
Ingredients:
- Two round vanilla sponge cakes.
- White chocolate-coated, finger wafer biscuits.
- White cooking chocolate.
- Milk cooking chocolate.
- Punnet of strawberries.
- Punnet of raspberries.
- Lindt milk chocolate truffles.
- Ferrero Rocher.
- Strawberry jam.
- Chocolate sprinkles.
- Chocolate stars.
- Vanilla buttercream frosting.
- A ribbon.
Method:
- Sandwich the two sponge cakes together with strawberry jam and place on a cake base.
- Coat the outside of the cake with buttercream frosting.
- Place the white chocolate wafer fingers upright around the outside of the cake, using the frosting to keep them in place. Take your time with this part to make sure they are straight. Once you’ve covered the sides, secure the wafers in place with a pretty ribbon.
- To make the chocolate strawberries, first melt some white chocolate in a bowl. Hold a strawberry by its stalk, dip it into the melted chocolate and then place it on a plate. Add sprinkles or stars if wanted before the chocolate sets. Once you have coated around 6 strawberries, put the plate into the fridge to allow the chocolate to set.
- Repeat step 4 using milk chocolate this time if you want two different colours of chocolate strawberries.
- On the top of the cake, create a circle of raspberries around the perimeter.
- Now start to add the chocolate-coated strawberries, Ferrero Rocher and Lindt truffles using buttercream to keep them in place. This is the really creative, eye-catching part of the cake.
- For the finishing touch, decorate the base of the cake using Ferrero Rocher, Lindt truffles and chocolate strawberries.
For more messy cake inspiration or to contact Carys Burton direct, go to www.facebook.com/loveandcakecarys.
