I'm cheating here as I made this a few weeks ago. However I'm writing this before I go holiday, for me to publish on holiday, so that I have a nice steady stream of posts. Dedication!
I always get excited when making a cake for someone's birthday. I think it's because I associate it with the amazing cakes my parents made for me and I really got into the swing while I was at university. When I started university my mum gave me a '1000 Recipes' book that covered everything - I still have it and do refer to it when I get faced with something random - and it had a whole 'Celebration Cake' section.
I gave this book to my friend Neil and said he could pick any cake he wanted for his birthday. Now they were pretty much all round or square and I figured I could get through any icing requirements with minimal fuss. However Neil chose the 'Hedgehog' cake which not only required the cake being cooked in two different sized pudding bowls but the cutting and constructing of the hedgehog shape from these. I think marzipan was also involved which just goes to show how random this cake was. Anyway, it all worked out and a successful birthday party was rounded off by a hedgehog aflame with candles.
Since then I do love a random cake mould but there is so little call for them in everyday life. I can never really justify it for a one off cake but a couple of years ago I invested in a giant cupcake mould. Since then it has brought nothing but joy into my life and so when Lucy on my team had her birthday coming up I decided that nothing but a giant cupcake would do for her.
It's really all in the preparation of the mould and the bravery of extraction. Everything else is just literally frosting and baubles!
This is basically Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Fudge Cake recipe but in a different shape.
Ingredients
Cake
Fudge icing
Cake
1. Preheat the oven to GM4 or 180°.
2. Put the flour, both sugars, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a large bowl and mix together.
3. Add the oil to the butter in the large saucepan – this then becomes the main mixing bowl and minimises washing up. Whisk together – an electric whisk is going to be your friend here. Add the water and whisk again.
4. Add the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. In another bowl, or the measuring jug you had the oil in (washing up again), put the eggs, sour cream and vanilla extract. Add this to the other ingredients and mix well.
6. Make sure your mould is well greased with loads of butter and put a small round of baking paper at the bottom of the mould. Fill it with cake mixture - go easy on the deeper side as it does rise -and bake for about an hour but you’re going to need to test it by shoving a skewer in and checking it comes out clean.
Fudge icing
1. Melt the chocolate and leave to cool slightly.
2. Sieve the icing into the butter (if you can do this outside all the better as icing sugar gets everywhere)
3. Add the melted chocolate and vanilla and mix well.
4. (Or buy a tub of Betty Crocker Fudge Frosting. Don't be proud as it's actually doesn't taste that different!)
Construction
1. Cut off any cake that is excess and over the top of the mould. Eat this.
2. Get the cake out of the mould! Leave it to cool and then just be very careful. I can't give much more instruction but just wish you luck. If the top sticks you don't need to worry as you're going to be covering it in fudge icing. If part of the bottom sticks then just make sure that's not facing front and on show!
3. Use about a 1/3 of the icing to sandwich the two parts together and cover the top with the rest.
4. Cover with as much decoration as you can get on there. I used silver balls, sugar butterflies and edible gold spray (possibly my favourite decoration ever). You're going to have to throw the decorations at it as it's not a flat surface but this is lots of fun. If there are children around get them to help.
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