Nothing says ‘Happy Birthday’ like a number cake, especially for a big birthday. And who’s got a big birthday this year? Why, the Queen herself of course! This fantastic letter cake tin from Wilton allows you to make any letter or number from just one tin, so you can spell out a name or number for the best cake of the day!
How to Make a Numbers Cake
You Will Need (makes 1 letter/number)
- 8 eggs
- 16oz margarine
- 16oz caster sugar
- 16oz self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract »
- 1.5kg Renshaw blue icing »
- 1 tub Betty Crocker vanilla buttercream »
- Royal icing mixed to a stiff consistency for piping stars or Wilton Decorator Icing »
- Wilton red food colour »
- Star nozzle »
- Piping bags »
- Wilton letter tin – coming soon
How to Make
1. First of all, determine which inserts are needed to create your chosen number or letter. For the number 9 I used the medium long rectangular insert and a square insert. Create a mirror image of the number by positioning the inserts in the tin, ensuring that they are sitting in the grid pattern in the bottom of the tin. The inserts block the areas where no cake needs to be baked.
2. Grease the bottom and sides of the tin well, this is really important to ensure your cake turns out of the tin easily – don’t forget to grease the outside of the inserts too.
Top Tip! . . .
Use non-stick baking spray or if you don’t have this use a solid fat such as lard/Trex/clarified butter to get into all the nooks and crannies before coating the inside of the tin with a dusting of flour.
3. Make up your cake mix and fill the cake tin 2/3 full with cake batter but leave the inserts empty.
4. Bake at 170?C for approximately 40-50 minutes turning the tin around halfway through the cooking time. When the cake is well risen and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, then it’s time to remove the cake from the oven. Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes.
Top Tip! . . .
If the cake has a domed top then use a long bread knife and rest it level with the top rim of the tin and slice away the dome.
5. Remove the inserts and invert the cake tin onto a cooling rack. Lift off the tin and leave the cake to cool completely. Wash the tin in hot soapy water before repeating the process to make the number 0 using the same 2 inserts positioned in the middle of the tin.
6. When the cake is completely cold place it right way up on the cake board. Use the triangular insert to cut the corners away from the cake to make a more rounded number shape.
Top Tip! . . .
Use a little buttercream to stick it to the board to stop it sliding around.
7. Give the whole cake a coat of buttercream (called the crumb coat) and smooth it on all sides with a cake scraper or palette knife.
Top Tip! . . .
Use a pastry brush to brush away any loose crumbs before you start this part.
8. Leave the buttercream to crust for an hour or two or put in the fridge for 30 minutes before covering with fondant icing. Knead the icing until warm and roll out on a surface lightly dusted with cornflour or icing sugar. Roll out a rectangle measuring at least 35cm x 50cm and to a thickness of 5mm. Use the rolling pin to drape the icing over the cake and work quickly to smooth it over and around the top and sides of the cake.
Top Tip! . . .
Make sure you turn the icing every few rolls so it doesn’t stick to the surface.
9. Trim the excess icing away around the base of the cake with a sharp knife and use an icing smoother to ensure a neat finish.
10. For the hole in the 9 and the 0, use a sharp knife to cut an X and use your fingers to gently stretch and smooth the icing down into the hole. Use excess icing to patch up any gaps and use a rounded tool to smooth the joins.
11. Colour some royal icing with red food colour and fill a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle (I used Wilton 4B also known as a French tip). Pipe stars all around the base of the cake leaving equal sized spaces in between.
12. Repeat with white icing in between the red stars.
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from Hobbycraft Blog http://blog.hobbycraft.co.uk/how-to-make-a-numbers-cake/
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