Great British Bake Off: The Beginning | Episode 1 | Show Stopper: Hidden Design Cake
I looked at quite a few recipes for help on this one but loosely worked off of Sally's Baking Addiction's recipe here.
A fun fact: the vast majority of my baking is for the middle schoolers and high schoolers that I work with! I learned that walking into a school with a bright pink cake makes you immediately popular.
I must admit, I committed what in my mind is a baking sin-- I used boxed cake mix to make this cake. In my defense, I was short on time and this recipe requires four separate layers of cake. I wasn't sure how it would turn out when I first set out to do it and wasn't confident enough to waste ingredients and time on something that may not work.
I chose traditional white cake mix and strawberry cake mix to make the pattern really obvious. Plus it's a delicious flavor combo! My secret to making boxed cake mix taste delicious is replacing the water with milk.
Making this pattern is surprisingly easy! I made the cake mix, according to the instructions on box, replacing the water with milk. I leveled the cakes once they had cooled and stuck them in the freezer for roughly 24 hours. While still frozen, I used circular cutters that I got off of Amazon to cut out pieces of the cake and reassembled them to make them look like targets. Then I simply stacked them with the outermost color alternating, (pink, white, pink white) I put vanilla frosting in-between layers and as a crumb coat and then covered the top and outsides with strawberry frosting. You will need A LOT of frosting for this cake as it is very large. I coated the outside with the left over cake from leveling the layers.
Ingredients
For the cake
You can used any flavor/ color of boxed cake mix or make homemade cake of your choosing. Make sure that the colors of the two (or three!) varieties of cake are different enough that the pattern will really pop! You can reference Sally's Baking Addiction recipe above for a homemade cake.
For the frosting
You can use any store bought or homemade buttercream for this. Just remember that you will need A LOT of it. I used two containers of Betty Crocker frosting for this cake and the outside still didn't have enough!
Instruction
Make the cake from scratch or following the boxed instructions. (Replacing water with milk, of course :D)
Let the cake cool then freeze for at least 2 hours.
After the cake has frozen, make homemade butter cream (or use store bought.)
Remove the layers from the freezer. Using a 6-inch round cookie cutter, cut a circle into each cooled cake. Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut a circle out of the 6-inch circle. You will have 4 3-inch circles, 4 6-inch circles (the outlines), and 4 9-inch circles (which are just a thin outline of cake since the centers are missing).
Assemble the cake: Place one 9-inch outline of cake onto a serving plate or cake stand. Fill with a 6-inch circle of the other kind of cake, then a 3-inch of the same kind of cake as the outer circle. Spread frosting evenly on top. Repeat with next layer: 9-inch filled with 6-inch then 3-inch (photo above, it should look like a target.) Spread frosting evenly on top. Repeat next 2 layers. Spread the remaining frosting all over the top and sides. Decorate top and sides with anything you desire or the left over cake from leveling.
Refrigerate the cake for at least an hour before slicing and serving. The time in the refrigerator ensures a neater cut!
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