Blog

Stencilled Train Birthday Cake

Published 17 January 2013 by Francine Appleby

Make A Stencilled Train Birthday Cake With Little Effort Required

I wanted to be different and many might think how oddly decorated? I am not sure what you will make of this week's post but I can say that everyone loved this cake for both it's flavour, taste and texture as well as how it looked. I wanted to achieve the best of both with the use of fondant and a light lemon flavoured marshmallow frosting so it was appealing to both children and adults. I personally am not a big fan of fondant due to it's sweet flavour. I just don't enjoy it as much as I do buttercream which is also sweet but in my opinion has a better flavour, we all have our preferences and I wanted to be able to cater to everyone attending. With having decorated this cake with the best of both for everyone who would be eating it, I wasn't sure of　what the reactions would be. And having tried it, I might just be taking a bit more of a liking to fondant. To create the outer cake covering for the sides and the plaque on top the cake, I used fondant sheets cut to the size of the train stencil that came with issue 39. I then placed the stencil on each sheet of fondant, pressed it down lightly and covered in the areas using a mixture of stiff royal icing in green using a knife to spread the icing across the length of the stencil, then repeating the process to make sure there were no uncovered sections. I allowed the icing to settle for a minute or so before pulling the stencil away to see a delightful finish to my stencilling. I repeated this for the other sheets of fondant until all of them had a green train and coaches each. I left one of them flat on a chopping board to dry overnight which would be the one used for the top. I then placed the 2 pieces of fondant for the outer covering of the sides draped around the baking tin that I had used to bake the cake in. I placed the fondant with edges right up to the rim of the cake tin very carefully using a chopping board to support it while positioning it. I used some tea towels, a large colander and the spring-form cake tin ring balanced on its side with the tea towels providing some weight and cushioning to keep it in position. Having two cake tins and colanders is a bonus for making a cake like this but you can make the pieces using one set of these items just allowing enough time for each of the fondant outer pieces to dry into their shape before removing them and placing on a chopping board positioned with glasses for support to allow the other one to be made and dried. It can take up to 6 hours for each piece to firm up and you will need to prepare them in advance. They will keep for up-to 2 days before placing on the cake as long as stored in the right way. Once each of the outer pieces were dried, they needed to be removed carefully, I did so using a palette knife to tease any stuck sections away from the tin very carefully. Once the palette knife had been run under the length of the fondant piece it was time to lift it off and position it onto the chopping board until needed when it came to the decorating.

I made up a really quick and easy lemon cake with fresh lemon juice using up some old lemons that desperately needed juicing. I chose a lighter marshmallow frosting for a delicate texture of frosting, recipes for both also included below. I had my cake ready to be sliced in half horizontally. Once I had the cake ready to decorate, I placed the base on a wooden chopping board on which I was going to serve the cake. I piped a row of large swirls using a large open star nozzle around the outer edge of the base cake and then piped in a tight zigzag fashion across the remainder of the base of the cake so it was entirely covered with frosting. I then placed the top half of the cake onto the frosting positioning so it was matching exacting at the sides from cutting. Now came the really easy bit! Attaching my dried fondant sheets. I piped a few smaller swirls in a row around the sides of the cake and there was some frosting peeking out anyway from the middle layer which also helped to secure the ready stencilled fondant sheets in place. I positioned them so that they were equally spaced apart from each other leaving a gap either side of the cake, which I filled in with piped stars of frosting. You just need to position the fondant sheets, pressing lightly into position onto the buttercream swirls and the outer cake covering was complete. I then piped the frosting in the same way across the top of the cake as I did for the centre layer of frosting and then positioned the final train stencilled plaque on top in the centre of the cake. The result was pleasing, the stencilling was excellent and I might be tempted to make the train more colourful next time and use more colours in alternating patterns. I was experimenting and didn't want to try too hard on my first attempt. I find it's always good to have a little practice run once and then the you can always run, rather than walk on the next attempt with a little better understanding of the process and also developing some ideas of your own in the process of doing so.

I could have made a third fondant sheet using the cake tin and cut it to fit the exacting shape of the cake to cover the entire outer edge for a completely neat finish using just fondant. You could always cut a circular disc of fondant for the top of the cake too using your cake tin as a template if you wish to cover the entire cake in this way using entirely fondant. It really does give a flush finish and the fondant looks very neat once all joined together. I didn't feel it was necessary for a border trim as the fondant finish was a neat enough look and this cake sliced beautifully, was the right balance of frosting and fondant and was luscious with a light and fluffy lemon sponge! Recipes below:

For the lemon sponge cake:

160g butter or margarine

160g sugar

3 large eggs

75ml milk

Juice of four large lemons

Finely grated rind of ½ large lemon

350g self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Few drops of vegetable oil

Turn on the oven and set the temperature to 180

Prepare a 9 inch round spring-form cake tin with a sheet of greaseproof paper cut to size, lightly oiled.

Place the butter, sugar, eggs and 1 third of the flour into a large mixing bowl and beat on a high speed setting until all the ingredients are combined. Add the remaining ingredients and beat on a high speed setting again until the cake mixture is of a thick batter consistency. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared cake tin. Spread the mixture out a little from the centre evenly towards the outer edges using the back of a spoon to create a small dip in the centre of the cake to allow for a more even top of the cake once baked. place on or above the middle shelf in the oven for approx 40-50 minutes until risen, light golden and springy to the touch. You can test with a skewer inserted into the cake and upon pulling it out if it comes out clean with no cake batter then the cake is ready. If there is the appearance of cake batter, return the cake to the oven and allow to cook for a further 5 minutes, checking again with the skewer.

Once baked, remove from the oven using oven gloves and allow to cool completely.

For the lemon marshmallow buttercream frosting:

90g butter (Softened at room temperature)

750g icing sugar

finely grated rind of ½ large lemon

100g Marshmallow fluff

Place the butter, icing sugar and marshmallow fluff in a large mixing bowl and beat together using a spatula at first to incorporate the ingredients, once the ingredients have started to come together you can switch the beating process over to using an electric whisk to beat well until all the ingredients are combined and a smooth piping consistency is achieved. Add the lemon rind and give a quick whisk to incorporate it. You don't want to over beat once you have added the lemon rind as this will intensify the lemon flavour (Unless you want to achieve a more intense lemon flavour).

Train 1 Train 2 Train 3 Train 4 Train 5