International Women’s Day - A kaleidoscope of Yellow Celebration cake

Remember three previous posts ago, I mentioned about International Women's Day and Zorra @ Kotchtop two day is hosting this event? On this day 8th March Zorra is hoping for the biosphere to be filled with yellow food. Lets start the celebrations for all great women everywhere!

Last weekend I spent baking my “kaleidoscope of Yellow Celebration cake” knowing I had a full weekend to make this cake. I first started off by making the little butterflies and the flowers that are sat in the centre of the cake. The next day I baked my Madeira sponge and then set to adding colours to fondant and royal icing. I ‘glued’ the fondant down with a thin layer of lemon curd in keeping with this theme of yellow. The darker yellow fondant circle on the top of the cake was thinly rolled out and cut out in the centre and placed over the lighter fondant coloured icing. I wasn’t quite sure what design of royal icing I was going to pipe until I had filled up my piping bag. I love to create on the spur of the moment in my kitchen and this is what seems to work for me, rightly or wrongly as the case maybe.

Kaleidoscope of Yellow Celebration cake

Ingredients
For the Madeira cake

350g (12 oz) plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

250g (9 oz) soft butter

250g (9 oz) caster sugar

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1½ tbsp lemon juice

3 tbsp milk
For sticking down the fondant icing
Lemon curd
For the icing
500g (1lb 2 oz) fondant icing
Edible yellow food colouring
Icing sugar for sprinkling
200g (8 oz) sifted icing sugar
1 egg white
Few drops of lemon juice
Edible yellow food colouring
Sugarpaste flowers & butterflies
A cake board 23cm (10 in) optional

Method

Grease and line a 20cm (8 in) round springform cake tin.

Preheat the oven to 160°C/Fan 140°C /325°F/Gas mark 3.

In a mixing bowl add the butter and caster sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the beaten egg a little at a time until fully combined. Sieve the flour and baking powder together then fold in gently with a large spoon. Add the lemon juice and the milk and fold in carefully.Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and level the top with a spatula. Place into the preheated oven and bake for 1½ - 1¾ hours or until golden brown and firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out to fully cool on a wire rack.

When completely cooled, place the sponge onto the cake board if using, and spread a thin layer of lemon curd over the top and sides of the sponge cake.

Taking the fondant icing cut three-quarters off and colour a pale yellow with the edible yellow colouring. Colour the quarter left a deeper yellow. Sprinkle a little icing sugar over a work surface and roll the pale yellow fondant icing large enough to cover the whole cake. Place over the cake and smooth down cutting off any overhang. Roll out the darker yellow fondant large enough to fit the top of the cake. Cut out a shape in the middle large enough to place sugarpaste flowers in the middle. Slightly dampen with a little water on the top of the cake but not in the centre where the lighter fondant will show. Place the darker fondant over the top and smooth down.

Make the royal icing by adding the icing sugar into a mixing bowl with the egg white and a few drops of lemon juice. Mix until you have a stiff icing (if to stiff and a few drops of water). Take a few spoonfuls of royal icing out of the bowl and add to another bowl, colouring yellow with the edible yellow food colour.

Fill a piping bag with a writing nozzle and pipe around the insert on the top of the cake with white royal icing and finishing off with a few dots of yellow icing as in the picture. Pipe around the top edge and base of the cake with white royal icing and then add a few dots of yellow royal icing again as in the picture with a rose nozzle.

Place the sugarpaste flowers in the centre and add the butterflies around the top edge of the cake by sticking down with a little left over royal icing.

Edit : The International Women's Day roundup is online, we split it as follow:

One part can be found on fiordisale's blog:

The other on Zorra's