NB: if using 3 deeper tins, going to about 2-3cm deep in each with the mixture, but bake for about 10-15 minutes longer for each The cakes are ready when they are just shrinking away from the sides and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. (2) Bake for about 20 minutes for the 6″ tins 25 minutes for the 7″ tins and 30 minutes for the 8″ tins. Add the remaining cake ingredients and mix gently until everything is incorporated and there are no lumps: this only takes about 1 minute using a wooden spoon: don’t over-beat as the baked cakes will be dense. Sieve the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a large bowl. You also need to grease and base-line two shallow 6″ tins, two shallow 7″ tins and two shallow 8″ tins, or if your cake slicing skills are better than mine (whose isn’t?), just use one deep 6″ tin, one deep 7″ tin and one deep 8″ tin. 600g eggs (in-shell weight), at room temperature (it is about 10 medium eggs).Recipes for the cake and the Earl Grey tea buttercream Chocolate cake layers

That’s it: the rest is just a matter of decorating it in any way you want. A fondant ribbon was wrapped around the base, which also hides any joins!

I then put a little more buttercream in the centre of the “brim” and placed the fondant-covered hat on top, smaller face down. You can use melted chocolate for extra insurance that it will not slide off, but if you chill the cake the buttercream will set firmly, keeping everything stable! I cut out a circle of the fondant icing for the brim of the hat (about the size of the top of the hat) and stuck this to the board with a little buttercream to hold it in place. Once the cake has been covered with the fondant icing it is ready to fix to the board and finish decorating. Mad Hatter’s Tea Party Cake Assembling the cake Brush over a little melted dark chocolate around the patches for the stitches! Simply cut out squares and rectangles of fondant (the same colour as the hat or even different!) and stick it over any cracks, using buttercream or melted chocolate as an adhesive. Well, this certainly goes well with a Mad Hatters’s cake where the battered look is absolutely acceptable! Allow it to dry and the blemishes and the repair work are unnoticeable! Top tip 2: patchwork cheats! You then spread a little of this mixture over the blemishes or small tears and use a knife to smooth it out. Add more drops as needed to get a spreadable consistency. Mix well and within moments the fondant will dissove a little, giving a gluey paste. Put some of the fondant icing (the same colour you want to repair) in a small container and add a few drops of water to it. Top tip 1: spread over runny fondant icing Or else gravity takes over when draping it over a cake as it rips before I get the chance to smooth it around the cake!īut I wanted to push myself with this cake by covering it with fondant icing rather than go for a chocolate covering or a buttercream covering (two of my customary ways to cover a cake!). I am not the neatest when it comes to covering a cake in fondant: no matter how careful I am, I often get cracks or small tears, especially down the side. Mad Hatter Cake Hiding cracks & blemishes on a fondant-iced cake You can trim off any rough-looking bits if you want, but it really does not have to be perfect as the cake will be covered with icing – besides, a hat with a few battered or uneven bits is no bad thing! Then with a serrated knife, gently trim downwards. To shape, simply stack the cakes without the buttercream: it is easier having the largest cake on the base, tapering upwards. NB: the flavour and texture of the cake is not affected by the freezing: I have taste-tested cakes side-by-side that have been both frozen and had not been frozen, and I can never tell the difference. This also avoids the cakes falling apart as you trim as well as preventing crumbs from getting all over the place.

You then trim it from frozen and then fill and cover it with the buttercream. Top tip: the easiest way to shape a cake and cover it with buttercream is to freeze it, un-iced. Now it turned out that I did not need all of the layers as I got enought height with five of the cakes, so I omitted one of the 6″ cakes, which then gave us a small cake to eat later! Shaping the hat: use frozen cakes!

It might seem a lot of cake but to make and bake all of the cakes took under an hour (plus cooling time) as I used the very quick and easy all-in-one method. I went for 8″, 7″ and 6″ cakes, which gives a natural tapering to help shape the hat, although you could make the cakes the same size and have a cylindrical hat. I must confess that my ability to slice a cake in half horizontally for layering up is embarrassingly poor, so rather than bake deep cakes for slicing in half, I baked the cakes in 6 shallow cake tins.

Mad hatter cake