A special birthday cake for Her Majesty ... and Madhouse Daddy !

With the Queen's state birthday and the Patrons' Lunch on the nation’s agenda for this weekend, Stork got in touch and asked if we'd like to try out their recipe for a Union Jack Celebration Cake. They described it as "a wonderfully easy, British classic made with a super light and fluffy sponge, with fresh cream, fresh berries and filled with buttercream. The perfect cake for her majesty the Queen!" Well, it was the perfect cake for Madhouse Daddy too because it was also his birthday this weekend. He's only half the Queen's age though, literally !

Here's the recipe, created by Iced Jems, if you fancy giving it a try.

Union Jack Celebration Cake

ingredients :

For the Sponge

200g Stork with Butter

200g Caster Sugar

3 Medium Eggs

1 Tsp Vanilla

2 Tbsp Milk

200g Self Raising Flour

For the Buttercream

150g Stork with Butter

300g Icing Sugar

1/2 Tsp Vanilla Essence

For the Topping

200ml Double Cream

Fresh Berries; Strawberries, Raspberries and Blueberries

Start by preheating the oven to 150C, a low oven temperature for this recipe will ensure an even rise on your bake and a light colour. Line a large rectangular baking tray with foil or baking parchment.

Beat the Stork with an electric whisk until it goes paler and fluffy. Add the sugar and cream together.

Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl until light and bubbly.

Add the eggs to the mixture, then the vanilla and milk, and mix on a high speed. Don't panic if it splits - it will sort itself out when you add the flour.

Add the flour and mix a final time until you get a smooth, creamy batter.

Pour into a rectangular tin lined with foil or baking parchment. (I only had a square one, which is why I changed the recipe slightly further on.)

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 30 minutes, or until a sharp knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Leave to cool and peel off the baking parchment. Don't panic if it looks a bit battered. You could cut all the edges off to get a nice regular shape if you really want to, but the topping will cover up all the imperfections. 

Now, if you made a rectangular cake as suggested, this is where you cut it into two squares and sandwich them together with buttercream. To make the buttercream, whisk 150g Stork with Butter until light in colour, then add the icing sugar and vanilla essence and mix until creamy. (I skipped this part altogether because I only had one square.)

For the topping, pour the double cream into a large bowl, and whisk using a hand mixer or stand mixer until the cream forms soft peaks and can be spooned onto your cake without running over the edges. (Madhouse Daddy isn't keen on whipped cream so I just mixed some icing sugar into some marscapone and spooned that on top.) Top with the fruit in a Union Jack design. Start with a red cross of whole strawberries, use quartered strawberries for the diagonals and fill in the gaps with blueberries.

The only thing left to do was adding a few candles and singing Happy Birthday !

Big smiles all round !

for more recipe inspiration : http://www.bakewithstork.com/

Disclosure : We received a shopping voucher to cover the cost of ingredients.