Party Cake

One of the most important parts of any party is the party cake. If it is a birthday, anniversary or wedding then blowing out the candles or cutting the cake is a major part of the celebrations and all your guests will want to cheer and clap and wish you well. If the celebration is for a Christening, Easter, Christmas or Valentine’s Day the party cake is still of great importance and should be organised well in advance of the party to ensure that it will be ready in time and meets all the criteria for a perfect party cake.

Establishing your criteria

What kind of cake do you want? The type of party generally dictates the type of cake you need,

Rich fruit, fatless sponge, Madeira, chocolate, gluten free, mini cakes?

Are you making a home-made cake, or getting it made professionally?

How far ahead of time do you need to order the cake?

Have you got a recipe? Can you get all the ingredients or will you have to order some?

Once you have established what you want, the next step is to assemble the ingredients and the baking tins and if you have the time then try out your recipe in a smaller scale.

This is not necessary if you are confidant of your skills in the kitchen.

Cake Decorations

The cake you make at home can look as professional as the cake you order from the bakery or cake maker, it is down to how it is presented. Decorations on a cake can make it or break it so choose your decorations wisely and don’t overdo it.

Edible fresh garden or wild flowers and leaves that have been coated in egg white (using a small artists brush) and then covered in castor sugar and dried very slowly and stored carefully, look absolutely fabulous on a simple white tiered wedding cake, running from the top to the bottom of the cake diagonally around it linked together with stems iced onto the cake. On a single cake a small posy of fresh flowers in a tiny vase or a single rose in a stem vase can look stunning.

Party cakes can be decorated with chocolate of different types, white chocolate curls (use a sharp vegetable peeler along the side of a long piece of room temperature good quality chocolate, cleaning the peeler often to avoid clogging the blade) and flakes, sheets of chocolate can be cut into stars, moons and circles, Leaves can be made by painting melted chocolate onto one side of a freshly picked leaf, peel off the leaf and store at room temperature. Two tone white and dark chocolate melted together side by side can produce striped curls which look very sophisticated. Pipe melted chocolate into shapes on non stick paper using a non stick silicone paper as an icing bag. Gold and silver dragees look rich and expensive on a dark chocolate frosting. Edible gold powder may be dusted over a chocolate hazelnut torte. Simplest of all is a dusting of cocoa powder over a rich cake served with whipped heavy cream for a luxurious touch.

A Christening or Christmas cake is usually covered in almond paste and then a generous layer of royal icing which can be left textured or smooth as desired. Textured icing may be put on the cake roughly and drawn up into peaks resembling snow which will harden in place as the icing dries. If you are not too confident of your icing abilities, pre-made models of snowmen or Santa Claus may be placed on the cake to complete. Royal icing both coloured and white can be iced using an icing bag with a fine nozzle into swoops or swags around the outside of a cake, resembling ribbons. It may also be drawn into fine lines and dots across the surface and sides of the cake. Draw your design out on paper before starting to ice the cake.

No fat sponge cake

A fatless sponge cake should be made on the morning of the party and consumed the same day. As the cake is fat free it will not keep, but is a delicious cake and simple to make and just as simple to consume. Decorations should also be simple in form, a covering of whipped cream and grated chocolate. Fresh fruit slices can look very decorative or a dusting of confectioners’ sugar just before serving can be sufficient.

Easter cake

The traditional cake for Easter is a Simnel cake which has a layer of almond paste in the middle of a rich fruit cake and is then covered with a layer of almond paste and eleven almond paste balls around the edge of the cake. The cake is brushed lightly with beaten egg and placed under a hot grill or in a hot oven for a few minutes to gently brown. To finish it off pour some glace icing onto the centre of the cake and put a few sugar coated chocolate eggs in the middle. Whatever type of party you are having, a party cake is a must, so get cooking.