Daisy Cake

Why not have a go at this beautiful sponge cake covered in daisies, give the occasional daisy a dusting of pink for a realistic look.

Why not have a go at this beautiful sponge cake covered in daisies... Preparation time: 30 mins for sponge 1 hour 30 mins to decorate Baking time: 25-30 mins Ingredients | Serves 25 token portions, 10-15 large For the cake:

525g unsalted butter
525g golden caster sugar
9 medium eggs, lightly beaten
525g self raising flour, sifted
1 tbsp baking powder
225ml milk
3-4 drops of lemon oil

For the buttercream filling:

250g butter, softened
500g icing sugar, sifted
200g lemon curd

For the decoration:

1kg white sugarpaste
Yellow food colouring
Pink and green edible dusting powders
Icing sugar for dusting

Tools:

PME plunger Marguerite medium daisy cutter
JEM daisy centre moulds
Edible glue
Ball tool

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180˚C/160˚C fan/gas mark 4 then grease and line the base and sides of 2x 20cm square cake tins. For the cake, mix the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, flour, baking powder, milk and lemon oil and mix gently until thoroughly combined.
Divide the mixture equally between the two prepared baking tins and bake for approx 45 mins or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove from the tins and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
For the filling, mix the butter and icing sugar together until smooth. Level the cooled cakes by cutting off any domes in the centre with a large knife. Place one cake on a cake board with the bottom of the cake face down. Spread some of buttercream filling on top of the cake keeping enough back to cover the top and sides. Spread lemon curd over the buttercream layer then place the other cake on top with the bottom face up so the top is smooth and even. Cover the sides of the cake and then the top with a thin layer of the remaining buttercream. Smooth the top and sides with a palette knife.
For the decoration, knead the sugarpaste until soft and pliable. Lightly dust your work surface with icing sugar then roll out the sugarpaste to the thickness of approx 5mm, into a large 16 inch square big enough to cover the top and sides of your cake as well as the cake board. Cover the cake with the sugarpaste, smoothing the top and sides with your hands taking extra care at the corners. Smooth the sugarpaste around the bottom edge of the cake and onto the cake board then trim away the excess around the edges of the board with a sharp knife.
Knead the excess sugarpaste and roll out again. Cut out lots of daisies using the plunger daisy cutter, you will need two daisy shapes for each flower. Add a few drops of yellow food colouring to a small piece of white sugarpaste and knead until the colour is even throughout. Break off a very small piece of the coloured sugarpaste, roll into a ball then press into one of the daisy centre moulds. Gently remove from the mould then continue in this way making enough centres for your daises using a variety of the different size moulds for a more realistic look – remember you will only need one centre for every two daisies.
Use edible glue to glue the daisy shapes together in pairs, one on top of the other with the petals slightly off set. Then run a ball tool in a circular motion in the centre of the daisy on the top of each pair which will lift up the top layer of petals slightly/thin them out. Glue the flower centres in place and leave to set for a couple of mins.
Use a brush to very lightly edge some of the flower petals with green edible dusting powder. Edge some other petals pink and leave some white for a realistic look. Arrange some of the daisies on the top of the cake and secure in place with a little edible glue. Glue the remainder of the daises around the sides of the cake to complete.