Now spring is here, and we’re starting to get glimpses of the finer weather, why not let the change in season inspire your next baking project. Try your hand at this simple but elegant daisy cake which uses ready to roll icing to bring the colours of spring to your baking.
Ingredients For Your Daisy Cake
To make your daisy cake you’re going to need all the ingredients for a standard fruitcake, plus plenty of ready to roll icing and marzipan for decoration. Here are the quantities:
For The Cake:
175 grams plain flour
175 grams soft brown sugar
175 grams butter
350g mixed raisins
50g chopped mixed peel
3 medium eggs
½ teaspoon of mixed spice
Grated zest of ½ lemon
Pinch of salt
For The Decorations:
1kg of marzipan
750g light green ready to roll icing
500g white ready to roll icing
250g yellow ready to roll icing
Daisy cutter
Sieve – for making the pattern on the daisy centres
Cooled, boiled water for fixing the ready to roll icing in place
Baking The Cake
Before you begin gather all your ingredients and preheat your oven to 140oC/275oF. Then grease and line an 18cm round cake tin with baking parchment.
1. Take your butter and sugar and place together in a large mixing bowl. Mix them together until you get a light, creamy mixture.
2. Beat your eggs together in a separate bowl and then add the eggs a bit at a time to your sugar and butter mix. Make sure it is well combined before adding more.
3. Sift your flour, salt and mixed spice together and then combine into the cake mix a small amount at a time.
4. You should now have a nice thick cake mix. Add in the dried fruit and chopped peel and stir through until it is evenly distributed.
5. Spoon the mixture into your cake tin, smoothing the top with the back of a spoon.
6. Pop it into the oven and leave to bake for 1¾ hours. You’ll know it’s definitely ready when a skewer put through the middle of the cake comes out clean.
7. When ready remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.
Decorating With Ready To Roll Icing
Once the cake is cooled to room temperature you can begin decorating. If the fruitcake has domed during baking, take a sharp bread knife and cut the dome away to give you a flat top.
Dust your work surface with icing sugar, roll up your sleeves and get ready to roll (icing):
1. Boil some apricot jam in a pan with a little water to thin the mixture. Once the jam has come to the boil and combined with the water pour it out into a bowl and let it cool a little. Then coat the cake in a thin layer of jam.
2. Knead and roll out your marzipan to a depth of about 3-5mm. Ensure it is large enough to cover the cake entirely. Use your rolling pin as a measure to gauge the correct size.
3. Lift your marzipan up, using your rolling pin to support the centre, and roll the icing out onto the cake.
4. Smooth the sides down with your palms and trim away excess.
5. Now it’s time to apply the base layer of ready to roll icing. Again, dust your work surface with icing sugar, then knead and roll out the icing to a depth of about 3mm.
6. Coat the marzipan with cooled boiled water. This acts as a glue to bind the marzipan and ready to roll icing together.
7. Lift the icing up and place it over the cake. Smooth down the sides with your palms and cut away excess icing.
8. If you have any bubbles appear you can remove them by pricking them with a clean pin. Insert the pin at an angle to release the air, then smooth the icing back with your finger.
9. To give your icing a polished appearance, take a small ball of ready to roll icing, buff the bottom in some icing sugar and then use it to smooth over the whole surface of the cake.
10. Then roll out your white ready to roll icing. Press out the required number of daisies with your daisy cutter. Set them aside for about an hour to firm up.
11. Roll out a small ball of yellow ready to roll icing for the centre of each daisy. Gently press them onto the sieve to give them a textured appearance.
12. Stick the centres to the daisies using cooled, boiled water, then fix the daisies onto the cake in the same fashion.
This daisy cake made with ready to roll icing is sure to go down a treat with a cup of tea on a fine spring day.
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