Ruby Wedding Anniversary Cake - Great Bloggers Bake Off Final

That is it. The Great British Bake Off is over for another year, and sadly over for the way we know and love it. This year I was not surprised that Candice won, she always seemed to go the extra mile despite it costing her bakes along the way. But her final bake was outstanding. I have loved watching Great British Bake Off grow from a little show on BBC2 featuring an unknown baker and a legendary cook to moving to BBC1 and making Paul Hollywood the celebrity he is now and rekindling our love for Mary Berry. But for me the two people who transformed the show from just a baking show to a comical, entertaining baking show has to be Mel and Sue. They are hilarious with their quips and baking innuendo. I simply cannot imagine Bake Off without them! But I understand why each have done what they have. Mary, Mel and Sue have remained loyal to the BBC while Paul has remained loyal to the team and show which made him. What the show will be like on Channel 4 is yet to be seen!

Anyway, now onto my final bake.

This weeks bake came along at a perfect time. My parents celebrated their ruby wedding anniversary last weekend and an occasion like that certainly deserves a show stopper of a cake. They deserved a cake fit for a Queen and her King.

This is what I did...

Ruby Wedding Anniversary Cake

Ingredients

Chocolate Cakes

200g butter

200g caster sugar

4 eggs

175g self raising flour

25g cocoa powder

Ruby Red Cake

100g butter

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

100g self raising flour

2 x 15g tubes of red gel food colouring

Decorations

200g 85% cocoa plain chocolate

300mls double cream

2tbsp caster sugar

Red sprinkles

Glacier cherries

Flower power cake decorations

Raspberry jam

Method

1 - Pre heat the oven to 180C

2 - Prepare the chocolate sponges by beating together the butter and sugar until light and creamy

3 - Add the eggs, one at a time, along with a little flour to prevent curdling

4 - Fold in the remaining flour and cocoa powder and mix until you have a smooth consistency

5 - Line and grease two sandwich tins and divide the mixture between the two evenly

6 - Place in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until thoroughly baked

7 - While the chocolate cakes are baking prepare the ruby red cake by beating together the butter and caster sugar until light and creamy

8 - Add the eggs, one at a time, along with a little flour to prevent curdling

9 - Add the remaining flour and the red food colouring

10 - Pour the mixture into a prepared sandwich tin

11 - Once the chocolate cakes are thoroughly baked remove from the oven and place the ruby red cake in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for 20 - 25 minutes

12 - Once the ruby red cake is thoroughly baked remove from the oven and leave all three cakes to cool completely before decorating

13 - Once the cakes have cooled take a chocolate sponge and spread over a layer of raspberry jam over the top, this will be the base sponge

14 - Place the ruby red sponge on top of the base cake and spread a layer of raspberry jam over the top and place the second chocolate sponge on the top

15 - Prepare the ganache by breaking up the chocolate into small pieces and placing it in a mixing bowl

16 - Place the double cream into a pan with the caster sugar and gently heat

17 - When the cream reaches to just below boiling point pour into the mixing bowl with the chocolate and stir until all of the chocolate has melted and you have a smooth liquid

18 - Pour over the cake and allow to drizzle down the sides

19 - Using a pallet knife smooth the ganache over the top and sides of the cake

20 - While the ganache is still wet add the sprinkles to the sides, this will make a lot of mess but it is worth the effort

21 - Leave the cake to cool before adding some glacier cherries to the top and arranging the flower toppers  using royal icing to stick and a few red sprinkles

This cake was an amazing success and my parents were over the moon with the cake. This cake really was fit for the King and Queen that they are!

Enjoy x

This is my final cake for the Great Bloggers Bake Off. As always Jenny at Mummy Mishaps has done an amazing job at hosting the bloggers bake off and thank you to Tesco for supplying vouchers and sponsoring the linky. Fingers crossed we can have a bake along next year!

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