Red Nose Day Fun...

So yesterday was Red Nose Day (15 March) which on the night raised a massive £75million!! This cause is one that I absolutely love, mainly because it brings a huge sense of community!

A part of this years campaign was the Great Comic Relief Bake Off TV show which combined comedy personalities and one of my favorite topics, baking! One recipe in particular, I just had to try, was a red velvet 'showstopper' cake. I took the recipe and added my own decorations and design to it to make a true 'Red Nose Cake'....

I highly recommend this cake (even without all of the decorations!) It would make amazing cupcakes! For this size cake I doubled the recipe below and split it between 3 cake tines for each layer.

 

Red Velvet Ingredients:

• 200g/7oz self-raising flour,
• 50g/2oz cocoa powder,
• 200g/7oz unsalted butter, softened,
• 200g/7oz caster sugar,
• 3 free-range eggs, lightly beaten,
• 1 tsp red food colouring gel,
• 2 tsp vanilla extract,
• 175ml/6oz buttermilk,
• 1 tsp cider vinegar.

Buttercream Ingredients:

• 200g unsalted butter,
• 400g icing sugar,
• 1 tsp vanilla extract.
• 500g red fondant icing.
• 250g white fondant icing.
• Red and Black gel food colouring.

What you'll need:

• 2 7inch cake tins,
• 1 8inch cake tin.

 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170/325F/Gas 3. Grease and line three 18cm/7in cake tins (or use cake liners).
2. In a bowl, sift together the flour and the cocoa powder. Set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugar in a free-standing mixer until the mixture is very pale, light and fluffy.
4. Add one-third of the beaten egg, still beating, and then add one tablespoon of the flour mixture. Repeat with another third of the egg and a little more of the flour mixture. Add the remaining egg, then beat in the remaining flour mixture, with the food colouring and vanilla.
5. Finally stir in the buttermilk and couple of drops of the vinegar.
6. Spoon immediately into the prepared tins and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until springy to the touch.
7. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool in the tins for five minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
8. Meanwhile to make the buttercream, use an electric mixer to cream the butter until pale in colour, slowly add the icing sugar until well combined and the mixture is no longer stiff in consistency, finally add the vanilla extract for flavour.
9. Stack the now cooled cake layers, with the largest in the middle, using the buttercream to sandwich them. Once stacked leave for a few minutes for the buttercream to set slightly.
10. Carve the edges of the cake to create a rounded shape (use a bread knife to avoid breaking the sponge) and cover with 3/4 of the remaining buttercream mixture. The offcuts of this cake are strong enough to mould back onto the cake for the desired shape if required.
11. Roll out 260g of the red fondant to approx 1mm thick (using cornflour to stop it sticking to the surface used for rolling) and cover the entire cake. Make sure hands are clean and dry for perfectly smooth results.
12. Using greaseproof paper, make a template for the 'face' design, rolling out the remaining red fondant and cutting to the desired shape. I added the remaining 1/4 buttercream to mould the snout of this design then covered with the fondant. Use room temperature water to glue the fondant onto the cake. With the left overs, roll out 6 balls of fondant for the toes.
13. Roll out the white fondant cutting one large circle (for the plaque at the back), 2 smaller circles for the eyes, 3 triangles for the nose and ears. Again using water to glue these on.
14. Add a small amount of black food colouring (gloves may be required as this stuff gets everywhere!)  and cut out 3 thin rectangles that can be moulded into eyebrows and a mouth. Roll 2 small balls and squash them to create pupils for the eyes.
15. Finally use a small clean brush (I used a make-up brush for this) paint the writing on the plaque using the gel food colouring (avoid using water as the colours tend to run), and any other details you may want to add.

This cake is best when left out of the fridge and simply covered for protection to avoid it drying out. Admitedly, it took a while to make but if you're in need of a 'showstopper' this is for you! The design can be manipulated and changed however you want and is definitely worth it, the results are brilliant!

Enjoy!

x K x