Birthday Cake

While it is of course true that you really can't have a birthday party without helium balloons it is equally true that you need a birthday cake. Preferably completely over the top and sporting sparkling candles. Anybody out there having a birthday around about now, this cake is for you.



Turkish Delight Cake
1 quantity of basic cake mix e.g. madeira cake or this batter recipe

2 X 4" cake tins
250g/9OZ butter
1 cup of sugar
4 eggs
2 cups of flour
2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

lemon zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon of yellow food colouring

1 tablespoon of rose water
1/2 a teaspoon of pink food colouring
1/2 a packet of turkish delight (rose and lemon) pieces finely diced & separated (yellow in one pile pink in the other.

Line the cake tins with baking paper, double thickness, base and sides and allow side paper lining to extend above the rims of the tins by 5 cm. This should prevent over browning and uneven cooking.
Preheat the oven to 160C/320F and put the oven tray or rack just below the middle of the oven.
Cream butter and sugar thoroughly, add eggs two at a time and beat well between additions. Add sifted flour & baking powder and mix till combined.
Halve the mixture into two bowls and add colour (yellow), flavour (lemon juice) and turkish delight (lemon) to one bowl and mix with a wooden spoon. Repeat with the other bowl of batter only using the other colour, flavour and turkish delight.
Combine the two portions of batter in a larger bowl and gently but quickly mix to get a swirly marbled effect. Don't over mix, less is more in this case.
Spoon this mixture evenly into the prepared tins and cook for 1 hour. Test with a wooden skewer and continue cooking if batter is present on skewer. Remove cakes when skewer comes out clean.

Icing (Whipped Vanilla Cream, Donna Hay)
1 1/4 cups of sugar
5 egg whites
500g/17 1/2 OZ of cold butter diced
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place the sugar and egg whites into a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (or use a double boiler if you have one). Whisk for 1-2 minutes till sugar is disolved.
Remove bowl from the heat and pour into a mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer until cool (should look like meringue). Continue beating adding butter a few cubes at a time. Mix until light and fluffy. Use a metal spoon to stir in the vanilla extract. Set aside in a cool place (not the fridge) till ready to use.

Remove cooled cakes from tins, make the top the base and slice into 3 even layers. Generously fill each layer with icing and decorate the top with more icing, turkish delight or what you will.





It was so good Julia had it for breakfast the next day!