Pi is Good But Pie is Better: TUTORIAL TUESDAYS: Two Tier Birthday Cakes

Hi guys!

It has been a few days since I blogged, I aren't as busy with work this week but am ill :( so still a stressy week! I am going home to visit the family on Friday though, which I am very much looking forward to as it feels like forever since I have seen my sister. But anyways no uni for me today as I feel pants eughh!

Sooo some blogging is in order instead. I am going to try something new out with my blog and this is going to be TUTORIAL TUESDAYS <3. Where every Tuesday I write a post on something I have made and add a recipe to go alongside it. That leaves me free to blog about other things in the world of baking during the week. Simples :).

This weeks Tutorial Tuesday:

I haven't made anything since the St Patrick's day cupcakes on Friday but I am planning my first attempt at cakepops Thursday evening so wish me luck and I will update you later in the week :). So today I am going to blog about something I have/can already made ..... Two Tier birthday cakes.

I had a crack at these at the end of January as it was one of the girls birthdays (Aasha) and one of Luke's flat mates birthday also (Jamie). I didn't really follow any recipes for these I just used my own imagination and the normal vanilla sponge mix. It was easier than I thought just very time consuming, especially as I was doing cupcakes at the same time on both occasions (why is everyone born in January/February? And what was special about about April 1989? haha).

So here's the tutorial, I will talk through the basics and put the main recipe up as usual on the task bar at the top of the page :) :

1) I needed a lot of cake mix for these, I used 2 x the normal 6oz, 6oz, 6oz, 3 eggs mix, (which I use in most of my recipes) to fill two 21 inch cake tins. I then put them in the oven on 170 for 40-50mins. These make the bottom tier when sandwiched together.

2) I then used 8oz self raising flour, 8oz caster sugar, 8oz margerine, 4 eggs and some vanilla essence to fill a 19 inch cake tin and put it in the oven for the same amount of time.

3) Once they were cooled I leveled off each cake with a sharp knife.

4) I then took the 19inch cake and placed a cereal/soup bowl upside down on top of it and cut around it. There was quite a bit of spare cake but this can be used for cake pops :) (see my next blog later this week). This then made my top tier.

Now onto decorating, the more interesting part :)!

5) I made 3 times the normal butter cream mix (again used in most of my recipes, starting to see the pattern? It's all about making it simple. Simples? :) ).

6) I then sandwiched together the 21 inch cakes with jam and butter cream to make the bottom tier and place it on a cake board.

7) I then covered the top and the sides of complete first tier and the smaller tier in buttercream using a pallet knife (these are really the best thing for the job) and smoothed it out nicely.

8) Now for the regal icing (ready to roll) I buy this off Ebay as its cheaper (around £1.80 for a 250g) but you can buy bigger blocks 1kg of plain white icing from Tesco for around £2.oo and colour it yourself with food colouring. I used 1 & 1/2 250g blocks for the bottom tier and about 3/4s of a 250g block for the upper tier.

Tip: I think it works better to use two different colours for the tiers :)

To apply the regal icing, I first sprinkle the worksurface with icing sugar and also cover a rolling pin. Then use the rolling pin to roll out the icing. Once I think it's big enough to cover my cake I gently and very loosely wrap the icing around the rolling pin, this makes it easier to apply to the cake.

9) Hovering the rolling pin above one side of the cake. I unravel the icing a little so it touches the work surface and slowly unroll the icing over the cake. Once its in place I cut off any excess with a sharp knife and smooth the icing using my hands or an icing smoothing tool (smoothing may take a while to get it perfect, don't be too rough).

10) I applied regal icing to both tiers and then placed the smaller tier on top of the bigger tier. I always thinks its a nice touch to add ribbon around the bottom of each tier at this point. I normally buy 5cm ribbon from Ebay and secure the ends to each other using a pin or sellotape.

11) It is then up to you how you decorate them. I tend to cut letters out of the leftover regal icing, use sweets and also use curling ribbon (the stuff used on presents at Christmas, available from Ebay and Paperchase) and skewers to make fancy decorations.

Heres photos of the two I have done recently: