[GeminiSix]

DD's birthday/baptism is in 2 weeks and I have been trying to find a white cake to use. I am doing a large (around 22-25cm round) cake topped with a smaller cake (around 15cm). White chocolate mudcake is out as I never have much success when I make a large one - it is always hard on the outside and just cooked in the middle. I can do butter cake at a pinch but thought it was a bit boring.

I love sponge cake, and have just come by a recipe for a Victoria Sponge. I have never made one but I am thinking with 200g of butter if would be quite a bit more dense than a normal sponge (but not as dense as a butter cake)?

What I would like to do is make the cake this week, freeze and then take out and decorate on the day of the party. I have read about the techinique of using the skewers in the bottom cake to hold up the top cake, so plan on doing this.

I would like to have maybe 3 layers filled with jam and vanilla buttercream, and then coat the outside with a thick, smooth layer of whipped white chocolate ganache. I will then be moulding a "1" for the top, and making plastic icing glitter butterflies to scatter.

Will a Victoria Sponge withstand all of this?

Also, I have read conflicting advice about whether to defrost then ice, or ice while defrosted. Does anybody know with the icing I am planning on using which is best? I did read that with some icings you can't ice frozen as the cake with thaw and put too much moisture into the icing and ruin it, or something like that!

Any advice welcome.

[Jenflea]

I have a friend in the US who's favourite cake is a 'yellow cake',.
It seems to be a butter cake basically, but I've seen recipes where they keep it moist by spraying with sugar syrup(sounds too sweet for me though) so possibly it would also thaw quite well.

This one seem to be good from Martha Stewart.
http://www.marthastewart.com/261618/moist-yellow-cake

I would think a sponge is too light and soft for what you would like to do.
I love a sponge cake though!

[BeYOUtiful]

I think a sponge wouldn't be dense enough for a two tier.
I sponged together two rainbow buttercakes, decorated with buttercream and some fondant on the top. It held up with. 2.5hr car trip.

I also froze those cakes. Baked, cooled on a rack, double wrapped in glad wrap, then in foil. I took them out of freezer the night before day of decorating and left them on the bench in the glad and foil.

They were beautifully moist, even better than if not frozen.

[Beltie]

I've never seen an iced Victoria sponge. They are usually served with icing sugar over the top and jam +/- cream in the middle. They are so light that your plan might be a little unpredictable.

For a tiered, iced cake I use Nigella Lawson's cupcake recipe (baked as a large cake) because it is easy, quick and strong. It is yellowy instead of white though.

To ice I use a whipped royal icing (egg white, icing sugar, squeeze of lemon juice) for the crumb coat and top coat. It sets so can be done the day before and the cake stays moist.

I'm not pretending to be a fine cake baker. I just have working mother's guilt so try to go all Woman's Weekly for birthday parties.

[jtsmith83]

I've never seen an iced Victoria sponge. They are usually served with icing sugar over the top and jam +/- cream in the middle. They are so light that your plan might be a little unpredictable.

For a tiered, iced cake I use Nigella Lawson's cupcake recipe (baked as a large cake) because it is easy, quick and strong. It is yellowy instead of white though.

To ice I use a whipped royal icing (egg white, icing sugar, squeeze of lemon juice) for the crumb coat and top coat. It sets so can be done the day before and the cake stays moist.

I'm not pretending to be a fine cake baker. I just have working mother's guilt so try to go all Woman's Weekly for birthday parties.

Hehe, love this - we've all been there!

Edited to add - I've used the Nigella recipe and it's magic

This post has been edited by jtsmith83: 13/01/2013, 01:49 PM

[kandj]

I quite often make a victoria sponge with a lemon curd filling.

I actually think it will withstand what you are wanting to do if its a similar recipe to the one I use. Its turns out quite dense - nothing like a normal sponge really.

They are extremely simple to make though - could you just make it the night before?

My recipe is pretty simple and you just bung it all in the food processor. I can find it and share if you like - its from an Annie Bell cookbook.

I think Jamie Oliver has a recipe for one in his 'cook' book but I haven't tried it....

I will say though, I find it hard to cut to make the three layers as it generally isn't high enough.

Good luck, it sounds yummy

[GeminiSix]

Thanks everyone for the input. The sponge seems a bit too risky so I think I'll either go with the buttercake or the yellow cake - both seem pretty similar. Maybe add in a little coconut for a slightly different flavour and texture. Although I love kandj's suggestion of Victoria Sponge and lemon curd!

I've got a heap of other things to prepare the day before, so am trying to get whatever can be done earlier, done. A lot of professional cake decorators apparently cook cakes a week before and freeze, as they seem to stay more moist that way.

I'm looking forward to the day, we've just found out SIL and BIL and kids from Perth are flying over for the weekend (we are just outside Melb) so that is very exciting for us! So that makes it around 30 adults and 30 kids.

[Megs25]

I wouldn't tier a sponge if you've never done it before. I'd also be very careful filling the bottom tier of a cake with whipped cream. It's going to make it very unstable, especially if it's a warm day. You'll find the layers will start to slide and it will collapse.


The problem you're having with the white mud cake is because you're oven is turned up to high. You need to bring the temp down and cook it for longer.

Whether or not you freeze a cake is purely dependent on what you ice it with. Generally cakes being iced with buttercream, royal icing or ganache are best iced frozen. It makes them easier to handle and less crumby.

The exception to this is fondant. You would never fondant a frozen cake, or put a fondant cake in the fridge. Recipe for disaster.

Not sure what you read exactly about using the skewers, but that not normally what is done. You need dowel. Skewers have no strength in them at all. You also need a cardboard round to support the tier above.

[kandj]

I thought I would quickly google the Annie Bell recipe to save typing it out, and funnily enough I found a blog of someone using it to make a three tiered wedding cake!!!

Here it is....the recipe is towards the end.

http://tinykitchentales.blogspot.com.au/20...dding-cake.html

Seems I'm not the only fan of the recipe as there were countless blogs that had done it and loved it

I have been making it for close to 10 years now and I still count it as my fav

[GeminiSix]

Thanks Megs25 for your post - it has clarified a few things I have been reading about that didn't quite make sense to me.

kandj - mmmmm! I really would love to do a lemon curd filled one, but I am just not game lol! I will do that recipe though soon as I love love love lemon curd!!

So have decided on buttercake, 1 tier 20cm, 1 tier 15cm (although I may change the flavour of the second tier). Layers filled with whitened vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam (not sure whether I'll use regular jam or bakers jam) and the outside with whipped white chocolate ganache. Then decorated with pastel pink and green butterflies, my daughter's name cut out in pastel green letters, and a moulded pink number 1. Maybe a pastel green icing rope at the bottom of each layer.

I'll post a pic when done (2 weeks away).

Thanks everyone.