Now I drew inspiration from Erin Made This and Raspberri Cupcake, to create this Vanilla Sponge with Eton Mess Filling for my best friend’s wedding cake. I pre- made all of the elements and then assembled the cake in the hall on the morning of the wedding. I discussed with fellow cake makers, on Instagram, whether or not I should skewer the cake – and I am so glad that I did.You see, it was a warm day – and even though the cake was in the fridge at the hall – the cake did end up with a little bit of a lean as the cream slightly melted from the fridge doors being opened so frequently by the caterers.
This was not as bad as I had imagined in my head, when the wedding caterer Matteo’s Gourmet food services representative came and told me that he thought that my cake was going to tip over at around 4pm in the afternoon. In actual fact, the bride and groom cut the cake at around 10pm and the cake was still in one piece.
The leaning tower of Piza would have had more lean then that cake at 10pm, so I shouldn’t have got so worked up about it earlier in the afternoon. Needless to say, when the cake was cut the lean didn’t matter – and it was mighty tasty!
- For the sponge cake:
- 60g (about 4.5 tbsp) butter, melted and cooled plus extra for greasing tins
- 180g (about 1 & 1/3 cups) plain/all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
- 6 eggs, at room temperature
- 200g (about 1 cup) caster/superfine sugar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- For the meringues:
- 4 egg whites, at room temperature
- A pinch of salt
- 200g (about 1 cup) caster/superfine sugar
- For the strawberry and Pimms jam:
- 500g fresh strawberries berries
- 1/3 cup (about 65g) sugar
- 4 tsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 2 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch) + 4 tsp cold water
- 4 tbsp Pimms
- For assembly:
- 600ml (about 2.5 cups) thickened (heavy) cream
- 1/2 cup icing (confectioners’) sugar, sifted
- 1 vanilla bean pod, split and seeds scraped (or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste/pure vanilla extract)
- Strawberry sauce and meringue cookies from recipes above
- Fresh strawberries to decorate, hulled
- Make sure your eggs are at room temp and preheat oven to 180°C. Brush three 18cm round cake tins with melted butter, line base and sides with baking paper, grease paper with a little extra butter and then dust lightly with flour.
- Triple-sift flour and set aside. Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer until thick, pale and tripled in volume (about 7-8 minutes). Sift over flour in two batches, folding each batch in with a large metal spoon or spatula.Fold in melted butter.
- Carefully pour equal amounts into prepared tins and bake until light golden and centre springs back when pressed lightly with your fingertip (about 20 minutes).
- Pull cake gently away from sides of tin with your fingers or carefully loosen with a knife. Turn onto a wire rack, remove baking paper, turn back over swiftly and cool completely.
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- Preheat oven to 120°C and measure all your ingredients. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
- Place egg whites and salt in a large, clean mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. With the mixer on low, add sugar 1 tbsp at a time then whisk on high until thick and glossy (at least 5 mins).
- Pinch a small amount of mixture between your thumb and forefinger. If mixture is smooth then the sugar has dissolved, if it is still grainy, beat for a minute or so more and check again. Beat until sugar has completely dissolved.
- Place mixture in a large piping bag with a 1cm round tip and pipe on the prepared baking trays.
- Place in oven and reduce oven temp to 90°C. Leave the oven on for 60-75 mins or until the meringues are crisp, then turn off oven and allow the meringues to cool completely in the oven (2-3 hours).
- Store in an airtight container until ready to serve cake.
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- Place strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla in a medium saucepan and place on medium heat. Stir over heat until sugar dissolves.
- Mix cornflour, water and Pimms together in a separate small bowl then add to the saucepan and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens, about 3-4 minutes (if mixture becomes too thick, add water 1 tbsp and stir until it reaches the right consistency). Set aside to cool.
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- Place cream, icing sugar and vanilla bean seeds in a large mixing bowl and beat on high until it reaches stiff peaks.
- Use a sharp, serrated knife to level the tops of your sponge cakes.
- Place first cake layer on your serving plate or stand and top with a thick layer of cream swirled together with dollops of strawberry jam and crushed meringue cookies. Keep filling about 1 cm from the edge of the cake to stop mixture from overflowing when you sandwich layers on top.
- Sandwich with another cake layer and repeat.
- Decorate with fresh strawberries. Place in fridge and store there until ready to serve. Can be served with extra cream, sauce and crushed meringue.
Have you ever made a wedding cake? I think a wedding cake is way more stressful then a birthday cake. What flavour was your wedding cake? If you whip up one of my recipes, I would love to see it on social media. Remember to use the hashtag #goodfoodweek.
Oh wow! Fantastic job, Shari! I’m sure the newlyweds loved it! I’ve never made a wedding cake and think I would be quite nervous to actually seeing as so many people would be looking at it and eating it. I’d love to make my own…whenever that will be!!
Yes, it was nerve wracking making the wedding cake. But I think that making my own wedding cake would have been too much {we had a 4 tier wedding cake for 350 people}. I’d recommend doing as little as possible yourself on your wedding day to make it completely stress free.
Oh yum, could you save me a piece? I’m sure they loved it and it was scrummy to boot. xx
I wish that you could post cake – I would so post you a slice Zoe 🙂
Oh thanks Shari xx
I am still SO impressed with this cake, great job!
Thanks Karrine – it’s always nice to have a comment like that 🙂
What a cake Shari! I bet they were happy with it. Job well done.
Thanks so much – a lot of time and effort, but I think it turned out pretty darn good in the end. Don’t know if I’d take on the stress again.