A Castle - Fit for the Queen, our Jubilee Bake

Well, I've done it, I have succumbed to  Jubilee Baking Fever!

I am making 100 cupcakes for my daughter's school Jubilee Picnic next Friday, and I had  thought to myself, 'That will be enough.'  But of course, looking at other blogs as I do, I have seem so much wonderful baking,  I just felt I had to join in.

Recently I  saw a wonderful Vanilla Bundt Cake here, at Fuss Free Flavours, and felt inspired to  start using my Bundt tins a little more often.  I went to the garage, (where the tins are stored) and saw the castle tin.  Perfect for a Jubilee bake!

I usually use Nigella's recipes for my Bundt cakes, but decided this time to use a classic Victoria Sponge, which I think is the same as a Pound Cake in America.

Classic Victoria Sponge

10 oz butter
10 oz sugar
10 oz self raising flour
  5 eggs (beaten)
Flavouring (I used 1 tsp Vanilla and 1 tsp Rose Water)

The five cake mixture is perfect for this size Bundt tin, (I had had to trim cake away from the base last time I used this tin as I had made a 6 egg mixture and it was too much!)

I creamed the butter and sugar, then gradually added the beaten egg and the flavours, lastly I sieved and folded the flour into the batter.

I greased the tin and made sure all the nooks and crannies had some Cake Release on them (in them?), as the impact of the castle would have been ruined had I left half  the cake behind in the tin!

I put the batter in the tin and baked in the oven for about 30/40 minutes at 180.

[When the cake is removed from the oven give the tin a good bang on the work surface, this releases it from the side, do not turn it up straight away but let it rest in the tin for about 10 - 15 minutes.

Then, keeping your fingers crossed, turn the tin up on a cooling rack, and all being well the cake will appear in one piece. Phew!]

Bundt cakes do not really require much in the way of icing, but my little girl wanted to use some red, white and blue.   We made some buttercream, added some red and blue food colouring  and used it to add  accents to the cake.  We  gave it a royal touch with gold leaf on the top of the gate and for a handle!

We decorated the turrets with fluttering flags  and positioned two guards at the gate, to keep out the Riff-Raff!

Some friends came round for Sunday lunch and the cake made a  delicious pudding  with some Summer Fruits and a scoop of homemade Vanilla Ice-cream.

I am going to link this to  Homemade by Fleur's, Blogging Jubilee Baking Competition,  you can find the details here.  The competition  is being sponsored by Appliances Online (here) with a super prize, so why not enter yourself, I'm sure you'll be doing some Jubilee Baking too!

Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace!

Planning stages, I wasn't too sure what we might use

Eggs with crowns, Of Course!

I use this on Bundt tins, as it does what it says on the bottle

A pastry brush helps to reach all the nooks and crannies

Add the mixture to the tin

Check it is baked through
don't forget to bang it on the counter top

Once it had cooled in the pan
turn it up onto a cooling rack

Keep your fingers crossed

Perfect

(I use the pastry brush to help clean the pan too)

I keep my colours, glitters and gold leaf in an old work box

My daughter selected red, blue, some silver glitter and gold!

Mixing the colours

Perfect

We just used a little icing, some gold leaf on the roof of the
gate and sprinkled the castle with edible silver glitter

The guards came from the cupcake set

I think he looks rather splendid

We couldn't resist the red, white and blue m&ms
So popped them along the front

I hope it's not too garish, for such a regal occasion!

And it made a perfect pudding

Lovely with fruit and ice-cream