Hey there!
Since I got my new turntable cake stand, I’ve made more cakes than I usually did before. I can’t stop it! I love spreading the icing with the palette knife and scrapping the cake sides whilst I turn around the stand. It’s very relaxing!
Last weekend was even hotter than the previous one, so I had to prepare a refreshing recipe as well, like the previous lemon & orange cupcakes. But in that occasion it had to be a cake…
Furthermore, I wanted to try techniques that I had never tried before. I wanted to experiment… So I checked my nozzles and I noticed a new one, which I got several weeks ago.
It was the tip #47, used to make the basket weave effect. As you can see, it has a flat side and a serrated one. Then I though on how could I benefit from it. When I checked my fridge and I saw some fresh raspberries, the idea came instantly. Oh, yes! A raspberry basket!
To make this cake, I used:
♥ 5″ round cake tin (13 cm) to bake the lemon sponge (my favourite at the moment).
♥ Tip #47 to make the basket weave effect (see this technique down below).
♥ Tip #22 to make the effect of the borders on top (by drawing overlapped U shapes).
♥ Brown food colouring. I used the Wilton brown concentrated paste to colour both buttercream and marzipan.
♥ Brown coloured buttercream. I used triple of the amount of icing sugar (375 grs) than butter (125 grs) because it was an extremely hot day and I didn’t want my buttercream to melt! I flavoured it with lemon to enhance the sponge flavour.
♥ Brown coloured marzipan to make the basket handles. I twisted 3 thin marzipan rolls in order to emulate them.
♥ Raspberries (as many as fit onto the top of the cake).
♥ Cake board (base)
I left the lemon sponge to settle for a day before decorating. It is what most cake decorators recommend, but it was a long wait for me!!
I used my new turntable cake stand to turn the cake around whilst I was applying the icing. First of all, I covered the cake with a thin layer of brown buttercream by means of a palette knife. Then I left it to cool inside the fridge for about 30 min. After that, I piped the basket (tip #47). Look at the Wilton basket weave tecnhique:
Once the basket dried, I covered the top of the cake with a thick layer of buttercream and piped the borders (tip #22). I stuck both basket handles onto these borders and carefully placed the raspberries onto the center (fresh buttercream works well as glue!!).
Once the cake was decorated, I had to put it inside the fridge because of the baking hot!
The citric lemon flavour works well with the acid and sweet raspberries. Very refreshing. Try it out! Yesterday I repeated this combination with some cupcakes. And I’m sure I’ll do it again!
Have a nice week!