Golden Sparkle Celebration Cake #GBBOBloggers2016 (week 1)

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A gorgeous Golden Sparkle Celebration Cake which is very simple to make, and would be a wonderful cake to present to anyone celebrating 50 years of marriage, or maybe even just a birthday or some other special occasion.
Golden Sparkle Celebration Cake

The Great British Bake Off is back!!!! Yaaaay *does a happy dance* ! Of course this means that it also sees the return of the Great Bloggers Bake Off (#GBBOBloggers2016) *does another happy dance*. No doubt by now we will all have seen the first episode, and met the new contestants and seen some scrummy cakes in the process (I love cake week – my favourite!). 

Therefore, in honour of tonight’s cake themes I decided to have a go at making something inspired by a Great British classic : the Victoria Sponge. I have to be honest, almost all of my sponge cakes are inspired by this recipe, I might add less flour and add cocoa powder instead to make a chocolate sponge (with a chocolate buttercream of course!), or add some lemon zest to make a lemon sponge and so on. For these reasons, I feel that a Victoria sponge cake really is a great recipe for a cake: a classic in fact. Of course it is also the perfect cake to enjoy with another British classic – a good ole cuppa.  

How To Make A Golden Sparkle Celebration Cake

Recently, I was asked to bake a cake for a 50th Golden anniversary party, and a Victoria sponge cake seemed perfect for this. To make it relevant for a ‘golden’ anniversary theme, I sprayed the outside of the cake with some edible gold glitter spray. All things considered, I think the glitter spray really takes the cake to another level and, therefore, made it look quite striking for an otherwise classic Victoria Sponge cake. Ultimately, it was such a lovely cake to present to a couple celebrating 50 years of marriage, and all things considered it was a good first attempt. 

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Next I added a ’50’ gold coloured cake topper to the top, to mark the significance of the party, the celebration and the cake. If you are looking for present ideas to go along with a celebratory cake like this, take a look at the gift inspiration here for every occasion.

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Furthermore, to complete the cake and add some extra elegance and prettiness, I added some organic roses as decoration. Incidentally, this was the first time I have attempted to use real flowers as part of cake decoration. However, they really help make for a striking celebration cake, and I am so glad I included them. 

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The sponge and buttercream were flavoured with vanilla and in addition I added some strawberry jam inside the sponges too. Overall, I think this was a good first attempt at a 50th golden wedding anniversary celebration cake. As a result it took a little while to complete, and my sponges were not quite as uniformed as I would have liked. However, the recipients were very happy with how it looked, and, most importantly, how it tasted 🙂

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Ingredients and Method

Here is how I made it:

Golden Sparkle Celebration Cake #GBBOBloggers2016
 
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Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 60
Ingredients
  • *FOR THE SPONGES*
  • This recipe makes:
  • *1 x 6 inch round cake
  • 150g self raising flour
  • 150g unsalted butter
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • *1 x 8 inch round cake
  • 200g self raising flour
  • 200g unsalted butter
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • *2 x 9 inch round cakes
  • 500g self raising flour
  • 500g unsalted butter
  • 500g caster sugar
  • 10 eggs
  • 4 tsp vanilla extract
  • *FOR THE FILLINGS & DECORATIONS*
  • 1 jar of strawberry jam
  • edible gold glitter spray (I used Cake Decor Gold Glitter Spray )
  • white roses - organic
  • cocktail sticks (to hold the roses in place)
  • 1 x 9 inch gold cake board
  • cake dowells - I used 4 x 8 inch ones
  • *VANILLA BUTTERCREAM*
  • 425g butter
  • 850g icing sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • milk - you just need a small amount to help make the buttercream smooth
Instructions
  1. Pre heat the oven to 180oC / 160oC (fan)
  2. Grease and line your 3 different tins
  3. For each cake you will need to do the following
  4. Cream together your butter and sugar until pale and creamy
  5. Add your eggs and the vanilla extract and beat well
  6. Add sifted flour and fold until just combined
  7. Pour into your prepared cake tins and bake until cooked
  8. Every oven varies as does each cake tin but I cooked mine as follows
  9. for the 6 inch - approx 30-40 minutes
  10. for the 8 inch - 45-60 minutes
  11. for the 9 inch - 60-75 minutes
  12. I found this website very useful for timings and cake batter quantities
  13. http://www.lindyscakes.co.uk/2009/07/27/how-to-i-change-a-cake-recipe-quanities/
  14. Cook each cake one at a time !
  15. Once each cake is cooked through, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely
  16. Meanwhile make your buttercream:
  17. beat the butter for a few minutes until it is soft
  18. add the icing sugar, slowly and in smaller quantities , and add the vanilla extract and beat until smooth .
  19. add the milk - just a little to start with until your buttercream is soft and smooth and a nice consistency.
  20. Once they are completely cooled , carefully slice each cake in half to make 8 sponges
  21. Sandwich each cake back together with the vanilla buttercream on one side and some strawberry jam on the other
  22. Place each assembled cake onto the cake board- starting with the 9 inch ones first of course, then the 8 inch and then the 6 inch
  23. Place the 4 cake dowells into the cake to steady it
  24. Add more butter cream around the outside of the cake - not to thickly but enough to lightly cover it smoothly.
  25. Just before the cake is served , place a small circle of baking parchment onto the top of the cake and place 3 roses with short stems (tied together) onto the top of the paper
  26. I added 3 more roses around the side of the cake and held the stems in place with cocktail sticks
  27. Spray the cake (and the roses) with the edible gold glitter spray

Read the full article here 

Great Bloggers Bake Along

Why not bake along with me for the new series of the Great British Bake Off?

You can find the rules here and you can grab my badge on my homepage and on the rules page. I look forward to seeing what you come up with and remember that at the end of the bake off, I will be holding my prize draw which has been kindly sponsored by Tesco (thank you!), where an independent judge will choose his or hers 3 favourite bakes from the final bake along (week 10).

Meanwhile, this weeks bake themes were:

Drizzle Cake (you can see my Lemon and Blueberry drizzle cake here)
Jaffa Cakes (I made my own version a while ago)
Chocolate Mirror Glaze Cake

Please ensure you choose one of these cakes or a British classic of your own choice (as I did!)

This Monday is a bank holiday, therefore, the linky will be open a little longer and so you have until the end of that day – i.e.. 11.59pm.

Therefore, on your marks get set……BAAAAAAKE!!!!!

Mummy Mishaps



 
Link up your recipe of the week

53 Comments

  2. Oh my goodness – what an amazing looking cake! Just perfect. Loved Bake Off tonight, looking forward to joining in with the challenge. And thanks for linking up with #CookBlogShare x

    Reply

  7. What an utterly beautiful cake this is Jenny. I would love to receive something like that, would even make a wonderful wedding cake. Look forward to linking up again! xx

    Reply

  11. Definitely going to be joining in with this! Think I might be attempting a mirror cake as I haven’t made one in a while and want to check if I can still do them..!! Xx

    Reply

  14. Truly fabulous cake Jenny, now you should be on the Bake Off for sure. I’ll try to join in the linky if I can, although the last few days of the holidays are whizzing by so fast. Absolutely loving the Bake Off being back on the tele. 🙂 x

    Reply

    • awwwww i really am not that good! i would be having mishaps left right and centre lol! But thank you for being so lovely, be great to see you link up maybe xx

      Reply

  16. wow wow wow – what a stunning cake – looks so stylish and elegant!!! I’m so pleased GBBO is back (we just got back from wales where even on holiday my priority was to be back at the cottage with the kids in bed on weds eve so i could watch bake off! Kids caught up with it on digibox today and my little girl said ‘mummy i watched ‘britain baking’ which i thought was adorable! I’m going to struggle to join in this week and next because of hols (but i think my son has a lemon drizzle on his blog so might get him to link up for this week and catch up on commenting once we’re back home in a week or two!) I’ve also just started a new part-time job and that has left me with far less time for baking and blogging but really really do want to get back in the kitchen as i miss it sooo much! x

    Reply

  17. shelllouise

    It looks lovely, Jenny 🙂
    We’re very excited to be joining in with your blogger’s off this year. Kaycee’s already looking for recipes for next week’s bake! xx

    Reply

  25. That is a beautiful cake Jenny. I love the idea of the golden spray – it is spot on its theme without being gaudy and over-the-top. A 50th anniversary is so special that the cake should complement, not compete, and yours is wonderfully understated whilst still being perfect for flavours that a particular age group will love. Nicely done!

    Reply

    • Thank you for your kind comment. It is the first time i have attempted something like this, and i wanted it understated due to the age group but still pretty enough to have some wow factor. i appreciate your lovely words, thank you x

      Reply

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