The Borrowers’ Wedding

These cakes really look like they befit a borrowers’ wedding or belong in a dollhouse dining room. They are made using a Nordic warecake mold that Elle knowingly got me for Christmas. I thought I would use it to make some celebratory New Year cakes and use the tiers as an excuse to lavish them with indulgent fillings!

When using any mold like this there are a few key things to take into consideration. First is the type of cake you make - the batter can't be too bitty (as in a 'rough cut' carrot cake) since it may not take to the mold properly. It also can't be too crumbly since there is a risk that it won't come out of the mold properly. Ideally you either want a buoyant, robust sponge or a dense syrupy sort of cake. I chose Victoria sponge so that I could make the different tiers of the cake actual tiers with pretty stripes of red and white running through them - it looks so delicate when you cut through something that small and find too neat little layers of jam and cream within.

The second thing to do is butter your molds very, very carefully, making sure you brush every last detail of it with butter or oil so the fussy bits don't tear off, having stuck to the mold. I like to use a paint brush to dab the sides. Then flour the mold by sprinkling flour through a sieve and then shaking it around the mold until it has an even coating.

Below us my recipe for Victoria sponge untraditionally with raspberry and strawberry jam and whipped cream (I think traditionally the cake is just supposed to have raspberry jam between each layer but the cream tames some of the sweetness and adds another colour.) It means the cake will last less long but if your cake is still there after a day or so, there is either something wrong with your guests or with the cake!

Here is enough to fill all six molds and a little spare (for cupcakes if you like) it can also make a 4 layered round cake if you use 20cm tins.

Ingredients
340g caster sugar
340g soft butter or margarine (plus extra for greasing)
340g flour (plus extra for dusting the molds)
2 tsp vanilla essence
6 large eggs at room temperature
1-2 tbsp of milk if necessary (see below)
6 tbsp raspberry-strawberry jam (see recipe later or use a slightly less set shop bought raspberry jam such as Bon maman)
140ml double cream, lightly whipped until it holds its shape

Icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180C

Grease and dust your molds very carefully (see above) OR grease and line two 8in/20cm sandwich tins (I assume no one owns 4 so you will have to do this in batches if you want to do the traditional sandwich type cake.

Place the sugar, butter and vanilla essence in a food processor and whizz until pale and light (or beat by hand), then pour in the eggs a little at a time while its whizzing to make a mousse-like consistency. You can do this all by hand too.

Stir in the flour then whizz for 2 seconds (don’t overdo it or the cake may be doughy).

Add enough milk to make a dropping consistency. (Hold a spoon loaded with mixture sideways, and give a sharp jerk of the wrist. Some of the mixture should fall off.)

Pour into the molds leaving about 1/4 of it empty (the cake will rise).

Bake for about 20 then gently cut off the muffin tops gently with a sharp bread knife that will have formed on top of the molds and put back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out to cool. This ‘turning out’ process is a bit tricky and requires some patience. First, gently work a thin knife around the top tier, loosening the edges but not cutting off any detail. Then turn the mold onto a chopping board or clean surface and tap all over them quite hard and see if that turns them out. If not, I have resorted to banging the mould quite hard on the table and that usually does the trick, even if it does make quite a bit of noise! When they come out they look a bit bitty and boring but don’t worry – as soon as you dust them with icing sugar, all the pretty detail comes out.

Once cool, carefully cut the two largest tiers horizontally (see photo of where the layers are).
Spread the top of the bottom layer with tablespoon of jam topped with a tablespoon of whipped cream. Push this down with the next layer and do the same with a smaller tablespoon of each. Lay the final sponge on top. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Strawberry - Raspberry jam

Making your own does give it a little more fresh, zingyness. I use strawberry and raspberry because Strawberries tend to be a little cheaper. You can do this while the cake is cooking and its nice if you have some extra left over so you can always increase the quantities. Sometimes I cheat and mix in a shop bought jam so I have more which is still nice as long as you have more of the homemade jam going into it!

100g strawberries
150g raspberries
250g caster sugar
Juice of half a lemon

Wash the fruit and check for any rotten ones. Mash them all into a pulp. Put into a wide, thick-bottomed pan, add the sugar and the lemon juice, and bring to the boil. Put a saucer in the freezer.

Boil the jam for about 15 minutes, stirring regularly checking the setting point every minute or so during the last 5 minutes. (Do this by taking the cold saucer out of the freeze and dabbing a bit of jam on it, and put it back in to cool for 1 minute. If it wrinkles when you push it, then it's done.)

Take off the heat and skim off the pink scum. Sieve aggressively (there is quite a lot of yumminess attached to those stubborn seeds). If you like the seeds you can ignore this step but I quite like the more processed texture for this cake since it makes it a bit more reminiscent of kiddies’ birthday cake.

Transfer to a shallow bowl and leave to cool.