Recipes
Recipes

Frosty forest cake

Slice into this frosted treat to reveal a secret candy-striped buttercream filling, flavoured with icy-cool peppermint

Slice into this frosted treat to reveal a secret candy-striped buttercream filling, flavoured with icy-cool peppermint

Cooking Time

Cook: 1 Hour 50 Mins

Cooking Time

Serves: 36

Cooking Time

Price: 32p per serving

Nutritional Information

Each 75g serving contains

Energy
1315kj
314kcal
16%
Fat
16.5g
Med
24%
Saturates
9.8g
Med
49%
Sugars
30.8g
High
34%
Salt
0.21g
Low
4%
of your reference intake.
Typical energy values per 100g:
1753kj/419kcal

Ingredients

275g plain flour

2tsp baking powder

½tsp bicarbonate of soda

375g caster sugar

275g Lurpak Unsalted Butter, softened

300ml soured cream, at room temperature

1tsp vanilla extract

8 large eggs, whites only

625g icing sugar, sifted, plus extra to dusT

315g Lurpak Unsalted Butter, softened

1tsp Dr. Oetker Natural American Peppermint Extract

15ml tube Dr. Oetker Extra Strong Green Food Colour Gel

1tsp vanilla extract

Pack Asda 6 Dipped Waffle Cones

Disposable piping bags

Small star nozzle

Cake stand or board

Don’t worry if the cakes ‘shrink’ or fall a little as they cool – this is completely normal.

You don’t need to grease the tins – as the sponge cools, it will pull away from the sides.

Use waffle or sugar ice cream cones for the trees. Avoid the wafer type as these will soften and collapse.

Make the sponge and buttercream in any flavours you like, but remember, more vanilla extract will darken the sponge so you’ll lose the snowy-white effect.

Method

1
Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C Fan/Gas 4. Line the bases of 4 x 18cm round sandwich tins with baking paper (do not grease).
2
Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarb into a large bowl and stir in 275g of the caster sugar.
3
In a separate bowl, beat the butter with an electric whisk until smooth. Add ½ the soured cream and the vanilla extract, then beat again until smooth. Stir through the remaining soured cream. Set aside.
4
Clean and dry the beaters thoroughly. Then, in a third bowl, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks. Turn the whisk to low. Add the remaining caster sugar a little at a time while continuing to whisk. Beat to firm peaks.
5
Add the soured cream mixture to the bowl with the dry ingredients then mix together. Gently fold through the egg whites, a few tbsp at a time, until no streaks of white remain.
6
Divide the mixture evenly between the 4 tins, then smooth and level the tops.
7
Bake for 20-25 mins, until the cakes spring back when lightly pressed in the centre. Cool for 20 mins in the tins before turning out to cool completely on wire racks.
8
To decorate, put the icing sugar and butter into a large bowl. Beat together into a smooth buttercream.
9
Put ⅓ of the buttercream in a separate bowl. Stir in the peppermint extract and food colour until you get a uniform green shade.
10
Stir the vanilla extract into the white buttercream.
11
Put about ½ of the green buttercream and about ⅓ of the white buttercream into separate piping bags (no nozzles required). Cut 1cm off the tip of each bag.
12
Put the bottom cake on the cake stand. Pipe a large ring of white buttercream on top, near to the edge of the cake. Next, pipe a ring of the green buttercream directly inside the white one. Continue to pipe, alternating white and green, until the top of the cake is completely covered.
13
Pipe more buttercream rings on a second cake, this time starting with green on the outside. Carefully lift it onto the first cake. Repeat with the third cake, starting with white buttercream. Add it to the stack then top with the fourth cake.
14
Cover the top and sides of the cake with the rest of the white buttercream, smoothing with a scraper or palette knife. Chill the cake in the fridge for 15 mins.
15
For the Christmas trees, trim 2-3cm from the base of a few of the waffle cones with a sharp breadknife, so they vary in height.
16
Slice 2 different-sized cones in half lengthways. Position the halves against the side of the cake, with the wider ends sitting on the cake stand. Push the cut sides into the buttercream to secure in place.
17
Fit a piping bag with the star nozzle; fill with the rest of the green buttercream.
18
Starting with the halved cones on the side of the cake, pipe on ‘kisses’ of the green buttercream. Work your way up from the wide base to the tip. Arrange a cluster of 3 different-sized cones on top of the cake and pipe as before to cover.
19
Shortly before serving, dust the cake and trees lightly with icing sugar to create a snowy effect.

RELATED RECIPES