Juliet Sear's coronation cake
Ready, set, patriotically bake! Juliet Sear is here to sweeten up your right Royal street party. She’s making sure you’ve got a show-stopping centre piece fit for a King, as she bakes her decadent coronation cake.
Show-stopping crown cake
Equipment:
2 x 6” round cake drums stuck together or a microwave plate turned upside down
1 x 10” or 12” round cake drum
A cake stand or plate for display
3x8 round cake tins
Ribbon cutter or pizza cutter or ruler
Square cookie cutter
Sharp knife
Paint brush
Pastry brush
Piping bag with number 3 nozzle
Piping bag with medium star nozzle
Cocktail sticks
Large non stick rolling pin
Turntable
Ingredients
For the sponge:
350g unsalted butter, softened
350g white caster sugar
7 medium free range eggs
350g self raising flour, mixed through with 1 tsp of baking powder
½ tsp sea salt
2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
Strong gel food colouring
For the buttercream:
300g unsalted butter, soft
600g icing sugar, sifted
2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
Boiled water
For icing and decoration:
300g brown and black royal icing
Honey OR golden syrup OR apricot jam
1.25kg purple sugarpaste/fondant icing
500g brown/caramel coloured sugarpaste or modelling paste
1.5 packs of Rice Krispies Marshmallow treats
Icing sugar
Edible glue
Gold edible paint
Sweets or chocolates for jewels
Method
To make the sponge:
1. Preheat oven to 190 or 170℃ Fan
2. Stick the two 6” cake drums together
3. Grease, base and sideline the cake tins
4. Place the butter, sugar and vanilla into your mixing bowl and combine until mixed. Turn the speed to high and beat until the mixture is pale, soft and fluffy
5. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing each time until all combined
6. Gradually add the flour, mixing gently to combine
7. Divide the sponge mix into 3 bowls. Tint one bowl red and one bowl blue. Pour the batters into the tins. Bake for approx. 25-30 minutes, testing the cook of the cakes after 20 minutes .
8. Once golden brown and springy to the touch, turn out of the tins onto a cooling rack and allow to cool. When cool, trim the tops of the blue and white layers to level.
To make the buttercream:
1. Beat the butter and vanilla until soft and creamy.
2. Gradually beat in the icing sugar until combined and the buttercream is pale and fluffy.
To assemble the cake:
1. Place the 2 cake drums (or upside down microwave plate) onto a larger board, attaching with a dab of buttercream.
2. Spread a little buttercream onto the board and place the blue sponge onto it. Spread over the sponge with a layer of buttercream. Place the white sponge on top, repeat with the layer of buttercream.
3. Place the red sponge with the rounded top on the white layer. Smooth the edges to seal the joins between the sponges. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (or freeze for 10-15)
To carve the crown:
1. Use a serrated knife around the top edge of the red sponge to start creating the curve.
2. Cut a little dip in the middle of the red sponge to create an indentation in the top.
3. Use a bread knife to taper in the white and blue sponges which will make your crown shape. Angle the knife inwards so that the bottom of the sponges come to the edges of the 6” boards.
4. Cover the crown shape with the remainder of the buttercream. Chill the sponge for about 1 hour so it sets firmly.
To decorate:
1. Brush warm honey/syrup/apricot jam over the cake to make the surface sticky.
2. Knead the purple icing until it is soft and pliable. Shape into a disc, then dust the surface with icing sugar and start to roll it out to an even thickness, large enough to cover the top and sides of the crown with some excess.
3. Roll the icing up onto the pin and drape it over the cake. Smooth over the top and sides to stick the icing onto the sponges. Trim around to remove the excess. Leave to set.
4. Make the round ball for the top of the cake by crushing and compacting the Rice Krispies treat bars into a sphere slightly larger than a golf ball.
5. Roll out some brown/caramel coloured sugar paste to about 3mm thickness. Wrap it over the ball, trimming the excess and rolling between your palms to make a smooth ball. Set aside on some baking paper to harden.
6. Roll out another piece of brown/caramel coloured sugar paste to about 5mm thickness and cut it into a square so it is about the same size of the ball. Cut out sections at the corners to create a cross. Push a couple of cocktail sticks into the cutter and leave it to set.
7. Place the cake onto its final stand.
8. Roll out a little of the excess purple icing into a long sausage shape. Flatten with your hand and wrap about the bottom of the cake, using a little edible glue or water to attach it.
9. Roll out a thick sausage of the icing, about 2 inches thick, long enough to wrap around the bottom of the cake. Dust the surface with icing sugar and roll it out to make it flat.
10. Use a ribbon cutter or sharp knife to cut a length of icing. Roll it up, lift it up to the cake and unroll. Add the gold band around the bottom of the cake, trim the icing and join it together neatly.
11. Re-roll another sausage and repeat with a slightly narrower length of icing. Add a little edible glue or water to make the purple icing a little sticky, trim the length of icing on one end. Lift up the piece and attach it to the base band in the middle of the crown. Lift up and over, gently pressing to seal to create one length going right over the middle.
12. Add a length on either side in the same way to give you the gold cross design over across the top of the cake, neatly trimming the ends of the lengths where it meets the next part.You can leave the crown like this if you wish, or to add more detail, you can stick little sugar balls along the edges, or pipe these with royal icing.
13. Mix up 300g of royal icing sugar to a very stiff peak, and cover the bowl with a damp cloth so it doesn’t dry out. Remove 100g of this and tint to a light brown/caramel colour. Place this into a piping bag with a small round nozzle (a number 3 is good, or alternatively just cut a 3mm hole in the bag). Pipe little dots around the edge of the bands to add detail.
14. Attach the square onto the ball by pushing the cocktail sticks in. Stick the ball and cross onto the middle of the top of the crown. Leave this to set for an hour or so. Then paint all over the gold bits with edible gold paint.
15. Add the remaining detail by piping the ‘fluff’ around the bottom of the band using the rest of the stiff white icing in a piping bag with a medium star nozzle. Add some dots of black colouring to this with the end of a cocktail stick or paint brush.
16. Stick on bright coloured sweets or chocolates for the jewels with the caramel coloured icing or white fluff icing.