Cooking With Dia

I have been hearing a lot lately from some people who didn’t get a cake on their birthday, and it got me thinking…I haven’t had a proper birthday cake since 1998…seriously! So, as my birthday is just around the corner I thought, “why the hell not?” And I made my own birthday cake! So…so…sad…:(…But it’s really freakin’ good. If you feel lonley on your birthday too and don’t know what to do, bake this cake and you will be on such a sugar high you will be feeling a lot happier.

The reason why I decided to do a 4 layer sponge cake is because on a recent Masterchef episode, Gordon Ramsay made the contestants make a 6 layer sponge cake, and I just wanted to prove to myself I could do it and do it gluten free and vegan, minus two of the layers.

For the Sponge Cake
1/2 cup vegan spread
1/2 cup gluten free flour (I used a blend of rice and tapioca flour)
1 tsp of gluten free baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Ener-G egg replacers (read back of box for instructions)
1/2 cup unrefined caster sugar

Cream the vegan spread, extract and caster sugar together.
Slowly add in the egg replacers and mix in with the vegan spread and sugar.
Meanwhile sift the flour twice and slowly fold into the mixture.
Stir together until nice and creamy.
Split the batter evenly between two 5″ sandwich tins.
Bake at 180°C (356°F) for 20 minutes.

Turn out on cooling rack.
Once the cakes are cooled, slice each one in half.

Place the most sturdy slice on the cake stand first and start adding your fillings of choice. I alternated between brandy cream icing and chocolate icing. But you can use whatever you wish, even strawberry jam would make a great filling.

For the Brandy Cream Icing
2 tablespoons soy cream
splash of brandy
1 cup icing sugar

Take out a bowl, put all ingredients in and mix. It’s magic, now you have icing!

For Pink Icing
1 cup icing sugar
splash of water
A few drops of pink food coloring

Take out another bowl, put all ingredients in and mix. It’s magic, now you have icing to pipe!

For the Black Fondant Icing
I played around with a recipe from a youtube video someone else made and added black food coloring.

After I sandwiched the layers of the sponge cake together I rolled out enough of the black fondant icing for the top half of the cake.

To make sure the fondant icing sticks to the sponge cake, place a little cooled boiled water underneath the fondant. Then it should stick just fine and not peel off.

Then for the bottom half, I spread the pink icing around. I also used the pink icing to pipe the shapes on top of the cake.

So…now you know what to do if no one brings you a birthday cake, right???
Bake your own!

© Cooking With Dia