Girly Carousel Cake – a definite
Show Stopper!
My oldest friend made a Carousel
cake for her little girl (my gorgeous goddaughter) for her birthday last year,
and I was jealous. Why had I not thought of that?! It looked brilliant. Now, my
boyfriend and my other best friend were in the musical Carousel, so how could I
not?! The finished result has to be my proudest bake to date. It took ALL day,
but seeing my Sister’s face when I bought it in was priceless!
I asked Sophie in advance what her
favourite type of cake was, and she said Banana… I have only ever made banana
loaf before, so decided to adapt my favourite recipe, to make a cake, and also
chuck in a layer of chocolate cake too, to add to the height and taste.
Chocolate Chunk Banana Cake:
540g soft brown sugar
4 eggs
4 mashed bananas
560g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
2tsp bicarb of soda
280g melted unsalted butter
2 packets Chocolate chunks (or as
many as you like!)
Oven: 170 / 325 / 3
Mix sugar, eggs and then add and mix
bananas (scrape scrape scrape as you go). Add the flour, baking powder and
bicarb, and beat well. Pour in the
melted butter and beat again. Finally add the chocolate, and beat a few times
until they are mixed in. Pour into two prepared cake tins. Bake for an hour.
Don’t keep opening the oven, but keep an eye on the cakes. They should be firm
to touch, not wobbly, and a fork should come out clean. Remove and cool. Also make
one cake as per “Go To Chocolate Cake” instructions.
Using my trusty Cake Leveler I chop off the
tops, so that all three are perfectly flat, and the same height. This gives you some bits to eat with a nice cup of tea!
Cover one banana cake with icing, and place
the chocolate cake carefully on top, cover that with icing, and lay the other
banana cake on top, carefully aligning the sides.
Now we are ready to crumb coat
and then cover in white cream cheese icing. Now come the fun bits! I was making
this up as I went along, so first I arranged mini marshmallows around the
bottom of the cake (luckily they fit perfectly!) I had bought chocolate
fingers. I decided they looked too boring and plain, so I dipped each one in a
bit of icing, and then in sprinkles, and then arranged those above every other
marshmallow (as I knew there was an even number)… I did run out 6 before the
end, and it was a Sunday, but luckily the local petrol station had them…..
lesson learnt, prepare properly beforehand!!).
I then put more mini
marshmallows around the top of the fingers, for symmetry.
Now onto the Ice
Cream Cones… given the sheer size of the triple layer cake, one cone was not
enough, and I had stupidly bought the fancy waffle ones, which are not flat on
the bottom! I tried to cut the top off and it snapped, so my clever boyfriend
suggested dampening the very ends a bit… it worked like a charm! So with my
flat bottomed cone, I dunked the point in icing, and stacked another one on
top… I used 5, by which time I was happy with the height. Then I covered in
icing, and rolled in sprinkles, adding more sprinkle covered chocolate fingers
to the bottom (well, as I’d bought a whole new box…..!). That went in the
middle of the cake.
Now for the paper plate… I had some pretty pink ones from
my birthday last year, so I cut and folded it into a slight cone, and bakanced
it on top… it didn’t stay, and it didn’t look pretty enough, so covered the
underside with tin foil, and then dabbed lines of icing all around the bottom,
and running from the point to the edges, then sprinkled sprinkles on so they
stuck. Much better. What can I hold it on with? Ooooooh I have little flags on
cocktail sticks… perfect! Finally I taped coloured paper straws onto the
underside of the plate. I made a tiny hole in the plate, and chopped the very
point off the icecream cone, and added a bit of icing to hold it, then stuck
them on, pushing the point of the stick in the point of the cone, through the
plate… after chopping the straws to the right length (slightly longer than you
think, so you can push them slightly into the icing and cake, to hold them in
place.
FINALLY (yes, really this time!) I added the Carousel Horse candles (by Rice).
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