2013 Sprinkles and Sparklers Cake

Whether you're riding up a ski-lift in the mountains, scrubbing off the mulled wine stains on your Christmas jumper or crawling behind the sofa for that last Articulate card, l hope that you've had the best Christmas. May 2013 bring you love, happiness and... 

...lots and lots of sickingly sweet spongey gooey fluffy DELICIOUS cake.

Happy New Year!

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This Christmas, I was a bit ill. I had the kind of cold that needed 20 packets of tissues, 10 sachets of lemsip, and lots and lots of strepsils. I was happily minding my own business sniffling and snuffling around the house. My dad, however, decided I could do with a DIY treatment.

"Xinmei, do you like wasabi?"

"Um. It makes me cry."

"Okay, we're having lots of wasabi tonight - it will burn your nose and clear it right up!".

"Uh, right."

First lesson learned in 2013: cure the common cold with wasabi. Or even better, snort it.

Duh.

This cake is a victoria sponge with raspberry jam swirls, with buttercream filling and icing. I was originally going to go for an egg white icing sugar mix which is nice and fluffy, but there were going to be young children eating this and I didn't want to be liable for salmonella poisoning. (This, however, has never stopped me from eating raw cake mix.)

*Edit: Disclaimer! Don't eat raw cake mix - you may get salmonella poisoning!*

But I digress.

The decorations are Hundred and Thousand and Wilton's Sprinkles, which you can buy on Amazon for about £7.50 per 100g. I think it was that price anyway... although I may be wrong by a few decimal places....hm. You can find the recipe for the cake at the bottom of the page :)

By the way, I should mention that I was awarded DotComGiftShop's fave blog a few weeks ago :) This means someone liked my blog - hurrah! You can see my little bloggy icon for them on the sidebar here somewhere ---->?

And speaking of, they are having a winter sale to kick off 2013, with at least 40% off many items (here's the link!). Might I mention that I love the kitchen range? Not that I'm fishing for any late Christmas presents or anything... :)

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I'm going to dedicate the rest of this page for a few posts that didn't quite make the blog in 2012:

1) Cupcakes. Lots of them. Because I only had an instagram photo, and an instagram photo can not replace a real photo. Oh yes, I just went there.

2) Apple and Blackberry crumble. I think I never got round to writing anything in this post. Think of the countless iPhone and RIM jokes!

   
3) Mexican Mole Muffins. These were from the Green & Black's cookbook....mole as in chilli and chocolate. So, I decided to try and make a mole topping. 

It came out more as an evil looking fat rat with very big hands. Like Wario from Mario. Not really the look I was going for. 

So that's it! R.I.P...

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Enjoy your New Year's celebrations, wherever you are!

Victoria Sponge Confetti Cake with Jammy Swirls Takes about 15 minutes to make the cake batter, 25 minutes to bake, and 30-40 minutes to make the icing and decorate Serves 8 For the cake 4oz / 175g butter (must be at room temperature) 4oz / 175g caster sugar 3 large eggs 6oz / 175g self-raising flour 6 tablespoons raspberry jam For the icing and filling 8oz / 250g icing sugar 4oz/ 100g butter at room temperature Hundred and Thousands Wilton’s Sprinkles Candles, sparklers, chocolate stars etc. Preheat the oven to gas mark 3, 325F (170C). Line the bottom of two 20cm / 8 inch with baking paper and grease the edges with butter/margarine. In a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon or spatula, cream together the sugar and butter until fluffly. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and add to the mixture, a little at a time. It may look like its curdled, but that’s okay. Sift in the flour a little at a time and fold in with a metal spoon (this cuts through the mixture better than a wooden spoon. (You’ve just spent 10 minutes beating air into it, don’t flatten the mixture with a wooden spoon now!). Once incorporated, the mixture should be smooth and drop off the back of a metal spoon easily. If not, add a teaspoon of milk at a time and mix in. Divide the cake mix equally between the two tins. Level with a metal spoon. Then, put about 3 dollops of raspberry jam on each cake, and drag a knife/chopstick through the cake mixture until the jam creates a swirly pattern through it. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a wooden skewer once inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool. (This is important! If you ice a cake when it is hot the icing melts and drips off. Messy kitchen = unhappy flatmates.) To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into the butter and cream together using a wooden (or metal, or rubber) spoon or spatula. The icing should be soft and fluffy. Once the cake has cooled, spread the icing on top of one of the cakes and sandwhich both together. Then, spread the icing across the top and sides of the cake. Before the icing has set (i.e. preferably immediately), sprinkle hundred and thousands and sprinkles across the cake. Insert candles and sparklers. Sit back and watch the pretty cake sparkle away.