Juliet Sear's Lambeth cake and her golden tip to cutting it!
That’s right. We’ve all been cutting cake wrong… And with September being the busiest month for birthdays, Juliet Sear is here to show us the CORRECT way to cut your cake, which will get you an incredible 32 slices out of just one cake. And she’ll also be showing you how to master the latest cake trend - the lambeth cake.
Juliet Sear’s Geometric Cutting Technique
Serves: 32
What you’ll need:
1 x 8” round cake 1 large, long cake knife
Method
1. Cut the cake through the middle to make two equal semi-circles.
2. Turn the cake, and cut through the middle again, at a 90 degree angle to the first cut. You will have 4 equal segments.
3. Turn again and cut through the middle two more times, like cutting a pizza, to produce 8 even slices.
4. Cut diagonal from the corners of each slice into the centre, to make two smaller triangles per segment. Carefully remove the two small triangles, and repeat for each segment. You will have 16 identical slices, and 8 diamond shapes, arranged like a snowflake.
5. Cut each diamond in half vertically, to produce 16 more identical slices. You will now have 32 even slices, all from one cake!
Juliet Sear’s Birthday Lambeth Cake
Makes 1 tall 8” round cake
Ingredients
For the cake:250g butter spread (e.g. Lurpak) or margarine of your choice50g light olive oil or sunflower oil1.5 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract300g caster sugar6 medium eggs1 tsp baking powder½ tsp sea salt375g self-raising flour100g soured cream, room temperature
For the frosting and decoration:800g unsalted butter, softened1.6kg sifted icing sugar2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extractFood colouring of choiceCocktail cherries (stem on), optionalRibbons tied in bows, optional
Equipment: Stand mixer, electric beater or bowl and wooden spoon8” Cake tins x 3Cake board, stand or plateTurntableCrank handle palette knife/sCake scraper (optional)Pastry brush or paint brushSmall bowl or cupCake leveller or bread knife if neededPiping bags with a few nozzles for variation, I’ve used a medium petal, large and medium open star nozzle and fine toothed round nozzlePin tool/scriber needle or pinBaking paperScissors
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170C fan (or air fryer about 150C if you wish).
2. Prepare 3 8” round cake tins. Line the base and sides.
3. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together.
4. Beat the butter, oil, sugar, vanilla together until pale and fluffy, then add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well before adding the next. Don’t worry if it curdles a little. Add the food colouring to get your desired shade if you’re using - it will go a little lighter when you add the flour and you can always add a little extra once the flour is in if you need to.
5. Fold through the flour until smooth and add the soured cream.
6. Spoon the mix into the 3 prepared tins and level off.
7. Bake for 20-25 mins or until well risen and golden – a skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean. Leave in the tins for 5 mins then turn out to a wire rack to cool.
8. To make the frosting, place the butter and vanilla in a stand mixer bowl with a paddle beater, or use a bowl with a hand whisk and beat on high until very creamy and smooth, for a minute or so.
9. Gradually add the icing sugar, about a quarter at a time, beating each addition slowly first so the icing sugar doesn’t puff up everywhere. Once combined, turn to high speed for a minute or so each time.
10. Add a little food colouring until you achieve a pastel pink (or any colour) shade. Loosen with milk to get a good soft spreading consistency that you like to work with. Set aside, covering with cling film or a damp clean cloth to prevent it crusting over.
11. Time to assemble. If you have any humps on top of the cake from the rise, level off any uneven tops of each cake to make flat with a cake leveller or bread knife.
12. Place the first layer onto a cake stand, board or plate and spread over a layer of frosting right to the edge, letting it go over the edge a little.
13. Add the second cake layer, line it up neatly, press down and add a further layer of frosting.
14. Place the last layer on top, and make sure it’s all flat and in line with the smooth side up. Press down on the top sponge gently with your palm to secure the sponges and frosting together.
15. Use a palette knife and generously spread more of the frosting all around the sides of the cake first (this allows you to be able to hold the top of the cake still while you work around the cake). Use gentle pressure against the side of the cake with the palette knife and use a back and forth spreading motion to spread the coating over the sides.
16. Once the side is covered, spread a nice even layer over the top of the cake
17. Once the whole cake is covered, clean the palette knife and go around the cake again to smooth off the excess covering, spreading it until you are happy that it’s nice and neat. This is a crumb coat, which is a good base to work on to give a neat second coat finish as it locks in any crumbs and holds the sponge together firmly once chilled. Pop this into the fridge to chill and firm up for about 30 mins.
18. For your final second coat layer or frosting, repeat the crumb coating process as above, but using a slightly thicker coating. Paddle around the side and over the top until you are happy with the covering. If you have a side scraper, use this to neaten around the side and top of the cake. Place in the fridge to chill for a further 30 mins. The cake must be cold when you mark out the paper pattern so you don’t damage your icing.
19. When ready to decorate, mark out the cake so you can get your swags of icing neat and even. The best way to do this is wrap a band of baking paper around the cake to the exact size of the cake circumference. Trim this down to be the same height as the cake, this is your template for making out the swags. Fold the parchment strip in half horizontally, so it is the same width but half the length. Then fold this half into thirds as equally as you can.
20. Cut a U-shape into the top of the folded parchment, going almost halfway down the cake in depth, then open out the strip. Place it around your cake snuggly, secure with tape at the join if need be, then run a pin tool/scriber needle or pin over the U shapes, tracing the line marking a light line into the buttercream frosting. This is the most important thing to do to get a really even, neat design, so you avoid having mismatched swags of different heights which will just take away from this cool design. It's worth taking the time to make sure it’s neat if you’re going to make this cake.
21. Then you can just begin piping away and increasing, adding to your design as and where you like. You can freestyle these Lambeth style cakes very easily. Anything goes!
22. Pipe swirls onto the top of the cake and pop a cherry on each. Adore the sides with small ribbons if you like.