How To Make Your Own Showstopper Layer Cake

My love for baking started as most of them do – standing on a stool next to my mother in the kitchen. It has to be said probably often more interfering with sticky little fingers rather than helping at all. However, it was during this fortnightly ritual that somewhere along the lines I fell in love – lock, stock and barrel – with that emotive combination of butter, sugar, eggs and flour!

Since these early days, this love of cake – the eating or baking off (I’m not fussy) – has only grown and over the past couple of years I really have honed my skills. It was this honing that actually inspired the creation of this blog and my Instagram account (@alittletasty). I wanted space where I could document my creations and experimenting.

Since starting both of these, I am lucky enough to be in the position that I have started selling my cakes and bakes. Consequently, it only seems right that I should do a how-to blog post on how you too can create your own show stopping cake – I promise they are easier than they look! You just need a few tips and tricks to make a cake look impressive.

And so, in what follows is a complete – all secrets exposed – step by step guide to recreating one of my signature bakes: A vanilla sponge cake with a chocolate and raspberry buttercream and a raspberry sauce centre, finished with a chocolate ganache flowers a fruit. Perfect for all occasions!

Please note the following recipe is divided into the cake recipe, the icing recipe, the raspberry sauce recipe, the ganache and finally instructions to assemble!

If you want to have a browse of my other cakes, head on over to ‘My Cakes’ page, or follow me on the Insta 😉

For The Cake

Makes enough to serve 15 happily.
Warning: This is a time-consuming recipe and I normally complete it over two evenings.

INGREDIENTS

325g Self-Raising Flour
325g Butter (plus extra for greasing)
325g Light Brown Sugar
6 Eggs
2 tbsp of Vanilla Bean Paste
1 tsp of Coffee Dissolved in 75ml of Warm Water
1 tbsp of Plain Yogurt
1 Pinch of Salt.

METHOD

Begin by greasing three 20cm cake tins and pre heating your oven to 180°C. If you don’t have 3 cake tins, grease two and you can always reuse one!

Firstly beat the butter and sugar together until light, fluffy and smooth in appearance using an electric whisk. For this recipe, I use light brown sugar as I think it gives the cake a richer and more caramelly flavour.

Once combined, add the eggs one at a time and whisking on a high speed after each addition. After you’ve added the last egg, add in one tbsp of flour – this will stop the batter from curdling.

Next, sieve in the flour and salt and beat well. Once fully mixed together, add the yoghurt and vanilla bean paste. I know this paste is considerably more expensive than the extract, I promise you it will be worth it.

After all the ingredients have been combined and you are left with a smooth batter, spoon into the three greased cake tins. Each tin should have around 500g of batter.

Bake for about 25 minutes at 180°C – or until a knife comes out clean!

Remove from tins and let cool using a wire rack.

For The Icing*

*Please note that this recipe is taken from The Hummingbird Bakery‘s ‘The Hummingbird’ Cookbook. I have slightly adapted it to suit this recipe by swapping out their addition of milk for 200g of raspberries. This gives the icing enough moisture to loosen it, whilst giving it a slightly sharp and refreshing zing!

INGREDIENTS

450g Icing Sugar
150g Butter – at room temperature
60g Cocoa powder
200g Raspberries

METHOD

Begin by beating your butter in a freestanding electric mixer on a fast speed for about five minutes – or until pale in colour. This is a very important step to making any buttercream frosting and will ensure the end result is both smooth and light in texture.

Next, combine your icing sugar and cocoa powder together loosely. Whilst the whisking all the time, add your one tablespoon of this mixture at a time. You may indeed have to use a spatula and scrape down the sides occasionally to ensure that all the butter is combined. Once it has all been added you should be left with a mixture whose texture resembles dry soil! Don’t panic – this is exactly what you are looking for!

Once this has been achieved, again on a high speed, gradually add in the raspberries. The balloon whisk fitting will break these down to ensure that they combine well.  Once all added, leave your mixer whisking for a further minute.

For the Raspberry Sauce

INGREDIENTS

200g Raspberries
200ml Water
4 tbsp Caster Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

METHOD

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, combine all the ingredients and bring to the boil. once boiling, let the mixture simmer and reduce for a further 10 minutes or until it has thickened and easily coats the back of a spoon.

Remove this from the heat and pass through a sieve using a spatula to separate the jam and the pips. Let cool and voila!

For the Chocolate Ganache

INGREDIENTS

200g Good Quality Dark Chocolate
150ml Double Cream – chilled
1 tbsp Butter

METHOD

Melt your chocolate either using a bain-marie or in the microwave via 30-second intervals. Once melted add your cream and give the ganache a stir.

Next, add the butter to give it a lovely sheen. It should be thick and spreadable in texture.

Assembling Your Cake

Once the sponges have cooled, it is important to level your cakes. This ensures that your final cake will be straight. To do this, simply take a bread knife and carefully slice off the tops of your sponges where they dome.

Next, using a palette knife and spatula, sandwich the cakes together with a dollop of icing and drizzle of raspberry sauce.

Once sandwiched, ice the sides; take a spatula and again dollop all around the sides – especially in the joints of the layers. Then, using a palette knife vertically, go around the edges of the cake until smooth. You may need to add more icing in patches. Also, ice the top in a thin layer. As this is just the crumb coat it doesn’t have to be perfect! (For a tutorial on how to do this, watch this video from HowCast.)

After you are happy you have iced your cake and it’s a smooth and level as possible, place the cake in the fridge for a couple of hours – or overnight. This will allow your icing to firm up so that when you apply the ganache it won’t melt and enable you to get the best finish possible!

Add the ganache by pouring on the top and allowing to slide down the sides. When sliding, using your knife in the same way you did the icing, smooth the sides and top.

Before placing back in the fridge add your decorations. I think seasonal berries, some coloured gold using powdered gold food colouring, and flowers are the most effective. But get creative and use what you like.

It is at this stage that you are able to truly create your own distinctive style, which in the very competitive world of cakes is crucial! It’s like art, you want people to spot one of your cakes a mile off!

So there you have it, your very own step-by-step guide on how to make your own showstopper layer cake. I’d love to see your interpretations of this recipe, tweet me your cakes at @alittletasty123 or tag me in them on Instagram @alittletasty
All there’s left to say is happy baking!