Kokova Magazine

With Easter just a few weeks away we wanted to include a recipe for a beautiful Easter Cake so that Source readers could entertain family and friends in style. With so many beautiful cake recipes and designers available we were not sure where to start, so we called in the professional……Jane Asher.

Created especially for The Source this cake recipe gives you the chance to impress your friends and family this Easter.

The cake is based on a lemon Madeira cake - delicious with a cup of tea (or glass of wine!).

Worthy of winning a prize yet still simple enough for everyone to try and make.

If you want to give it a hint of the traditional Simnel cake, you could always put a thin layer of marzipan on the top before icing it, and, for those who really adore it, even the eggs themselves could be moulded in coloured marzipan rather than sugar paste.

Ingredients and Equipment

For the cake:

• 150g (5oz) butter
• 150g (5oz) castor sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 200g (7oz) self-raising flour
• Rind and juice of an un-waxed lemon
• 225g (8oz) icing sugar
• 1 x 8” round cake tin

For the decoration:

• 12” round cake drum
• 800g baby blue sugarpaste
• 25g Lincoln green sugarpaste
• 450g white sugarpaste
• 100g pale green petal paste
• 100g white petal paste
• Blossom flower cutter
• 18” food grade wires x 8
• Green floristry tape
• Easter Egg mould
• 150g royal icing
• Midget flowers in assorted colours
• Grape violet, Christmas Green, tangerine, pink & melon food colour paste
• Small amounts of icing sugar and white fat for rolling out
• Small ready-made icing flowers
• Icing bag and no. 2 nozzle

Procedure

To make the cake:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C (350F, gas mark 4). Grease and line the cake tin.
• Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and very pale in colour.
• Break the eggs into a bowl or large cup and beat lightly, before adding little by little to the butter/sugar mix, beating well after each addition (if you use a food mixer or processor keep it on a high speed and add the eggs gradually while it's running).
• Sift the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt together in a separate bowl, then stir it gently into the cake mix.
• Add the grated rind of the lemon and mix well.
• Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake for 50 - 60 minutes until firm to the touch or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.
• Let it cool for a couple of minutes, then turn out on to the rack and leave until completely cold.

To decorate:

STEP 1 - Covering the cake and board

• Knead the 800g baby blue icing until soft, and roll out on a work surface lightly dusted with icing sugar to a size large enough to cover the cake.
• Roll the icing onto the pin and then unroll it over the cake, smoothing with your hands or a cake smoother and trimming away the excess with a knife.
• Place the cake onto the centre of the board.
• Knead 100g of the white sugarpaste together with the Lincoln green sugarpaste until you achieve an even pale green.
• Lightly moisten the edge of the cake board with water, then roll out the green paste to a long strip and lay it onto the board around the cake, trimming any excess away with a knife.

STEP 2 - Making the grass

• Using some white fat/petalbase on the work surface, roll out the pale green petal paste fairly thinly and cut out lots of spiky grass shapes, enough to go round the cake and on top.
• Stick some around the side of the cake with a little water. Set the remainder aside for at least 12 hours to dry.

STEP 3 - Making the flowers

• Divide the white petal paste into four and knead in the food colour pastes to make lilac, lemon, pink and peach colours.
• Roll out one piece on a surface covered with white fat/petal base and cut out 4 flowers with the blossom cutter.
• Repeat this step with the other three colours.
• Stick 8 flowers around the side of the cake between the clumps of grass.
• Cover 8 wires with florist’s tape and lay the ends onto the centre of the remaining flowers.
• Dampen with water and press different centres onto the flowers, sandwiching the wires in place.
• Set these aside for 12 hours to dry.

STEP 4 - Making the eggs

• Split 350g white sugarpaste into 4 pieces and colour them as before.
• Dust the egg moulds with a little cornflour and fill with paste, making 8 half eggs.
• Set them aside for 12 hours to dry, then stick together with royal icing and again, leave to dry.

STEP 5 - Putting it all together

• When all the pieces are dry, colour the remaining royal icing green with Christmas Green paste.
• Pipe some decoration around the base of the cake and pipe stems for the flowers.
• Stick the eggs to the top of the cake with plenty of royal icing.
• Add the grass and, finally, push the wired flowers into place.
• To finish, decorate the board with assorted ready-made flowers, secured with a little royal icing.

The results

We want to know if you make this cake for Easter. Post your comments on how simple or difficult you found the recipe to follow, or if you made your own unique cake.