Violet's Epic Cake Recipe – Day 4

by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 10, 2009 | Baking, Cooking-Tutorials, Tutorial

This is my guide to baking an epic cake.

Yes it’s seriously epic! Those of you with dial up might want to not continue because there are around 50 photos! Trust me though, it’s totally worth it because the end result is both pretty and delicious!

So here’s roughly what you need for epic cake:

-3 standard cake mix bags (I know cheating :P) If you are in Australia get the Home Brand butter cake because it is AWESOME and it’s only 60c per bag. -Eggs -Milk -Butter Milk -Fondant icing -Ingredients for royal icing (check this recipe it’s great) -Milo (or just plain old chocolate powder if you’re not in Aus) -Red and green food dye

Gather your ingredients.

Preheat your oven following the instructions on your packet mix.

This cake requires 3 different layers, 2 of plain butter cake and 1 of my version of red velvet cake. We’ll make the red velvet version first.

Add an egg! Eggs look so gross XD

Add in the butter milk, you should use however much milk the packet mix says to, mine said 3/4 of a cup. For the other layers you should use plain milk.

Mix it all together

And then beat it to death! It should be nice and fluffy ^_^

Once it’s fluffy add 3 table spoons of Milo and beat it in.

Now add some red food colouring, this is why it’s called red velvet cake and it makes for a really pretty effect when it’s finished.

Pour it out into your cake tin, I use a silicone one because it’s easy to get the cake out of.

Put it in the oven until it’s cooked all through 😀

Turn it out onto a rack to cool and make the other 2 layers.

The other two layers should not have milo, food colouring or butter milk in them. They should just be plain old butter cake following the directions.

If your cake breaks when you turn it out, just use some icing and glue it back together 🙂

Once your 3 layers have all cooled down it’s time to cut the tops off them. The reason you cut the top off is so you can get a nice flat cake and it doesn’t look like a gigantic lump on top ^_^ It’s much easier to ice a flat cake! So get a knife and poke it in the side towards the middle and start working your way around. Keep going until you’ve done the full circle. Use the knife to lift the top off (and eat it because by now you’ve spent forever staring at cakes bloody baking and you’re probably hungry).

Once you have 3 flat layers get some icing (I’m using Betty Crocker) and cover the top of the red layer/

Once it’s covered use the plate you had it on to flip it onto one of the plain layers.

Cover the top of the red one again and flip the last layer on to it. This is what you should end up with!

Cover the entire thing with icing ^_^

One for the cake, one for the cook!

Now get your fondant icing and roll it on the bench top. If it’s too hard pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds, if it’s too sticky dust it with icing sugar. Once you’ve rolled it out, drape it over the whole cake. It should end up something like this… You can see that I’ve repaired a crack by putting water on my finger and rubbing it. It’s going to be covered in icing so no one will ever notice!

Now it’s time to decorate! Make some royal icing in the colour of your choice, mine is pink! Put it into a piping bag and start decorating! Ok mine isn’t very even but this was my first time using a piping bag so it’s ok!

I tried to make it very decorative, there is a big heart on top, scalloping on the outside and lots of little bumpy bits. Whatever you do as long as you put effort in everyone will enjoy it!

Now put it in the fridge to cool and it’s time to learn how to make icing roses 😀 Grab some fondant icing and colour it pink with food dye. You do this by putting a tiny amount on and kneading it until it’s pink. Make sure to do this on a surface that you can clean easily, food dye will stick to EVERYTHING. Maybe wear gloves, look at my hands, they’re all red XD

So let’s start making a rose! Pinch off a little bit of icing and roll it in a ball.

With your finger squish one side of the ball…

Pick it up and roll the squished end in on itself like the photo below. You should make a bunch more squished balls, these are the petals.

Roll the second petal onto the first but on the opposite side like below:

Keep making petals and placing them around the part you’ve already made. You should over lap the next petal slightly with the one you’ve just done.

As you go you should use your finger to push the petals out a bit.

Once you think you have enough petals roll the bottom of the rose together with your fingers so it’s a bit rounded.

Make a bunch of them 😀 This is what you should end up with!

Now bring out your cake from the fridge. Mix up a bit of royal icing and colour it green.

I put a bunch of green icing in the middle of the heart and placed the flowers on top.

I make a lot of flowers in different sizes so….

…I can shape them into a heart too!

Yay! Finished 😀

NOM NOM NOM!

Delicious cake…

I think the flowers really make the cake… and they are delicious too ^_^

And the best bit… When you cut it open it looks even prettier!

How pretty is it? And the red velvet is delicious!

Now serve with thickened cream…

And enjoy!

So there you have it, it’s delicious! What do you guys think? What’s your favorite type of cake? Let me know if you make your own epic cake!