Gloverly Cupcakes

This was the cake which I made to go with Kiri’s cupcake shoes – if you have a pair of shoes, you need a box to go with them. So, for the main cake I made a carrot and ginger cake and disguised it as a Jimmy Choo shoe box. The cake is from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book (yes, I’m slowly making my way through all the recipes). It was huge but tasted really good.

I’m not a huge fan of fondant icing, I find it too sweet but it was the only way to ice the cake to give it the right effect – without the fondant icing the cake tasted great. The icing is just on the outside and only for decoration so you can always cut if off before you eat the cake!

If you want to have a go at making it, the recipe is below. In order to turn it into a shoe box:

• I sandwiched together the three layers of the cake with the buttercream and then spread buttercream on the outside. I then put the cake in the fridge to get it to harden
• I rolled out strips of white fondant icing and cut them to the size of the four sides and then stuck them on using a few dots of water
• I then cut out thinner strips of icing, for the rim of the box, and stuck them to the top edges of the cake using a few dots of water
• I rolled out a large rectangle of the white icing and cut it to the size of the top of the cake and then stuck it in place
• To neaten up the edges of the box I stuck strips of black fondant icing to the joins of the icing and on the bottoms of the “lid”
• Finally I rolled out a rectangle of black fondant icing and wrote “Jimmy Choo” in white royal icing, and stuck it to the side of the box

Carrot and Ginger Cake (from The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days)

Makes a 4 layer 8″ round (or if you want a shoe box then it also makes a 3 layer 8″x6″ rectangular cake)

450g peeled and finely grated carrots

2 tbsp peeled and grated ginger

80ml buttermilk

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

350ml vegetable oil

420g caster sugar

500g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

80g roasted pecans

Line four 8″ (20cm) round tins with baking parchment. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3.

Mix together the carrots, root ginger, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, vegetable oil and the sugar until all the ingredients are combined.

Sift together the flour, spices, baking powder and bicarb, and then slowly beat into the carrot and egg mixture in three batches, mixing well after each addition. Ensure that you scrape down the sides of the bowl between each addition to make sure that the mixture is smooth and even. Finally stir in the pecans and mix until fully combined.

Divide the mixture evenly between the four tins and then bake in the oven for 30 minutes (check after 25 and turn round) until they are lightly browned on top and spring back when pressed (and a skewer comes out clean).

Leave the cakes to cool in the tins and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely while you make the frosting.

Orange Cream Cheese Buttercream (also from Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days)

600g icing sugar

100g butter

1 tbsp finely grated orange zest

250g full-fat cream cheese

Beat the icing sugar, orange zest and butter together on a very slow speed until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. I always put a tea towel over the top of my KitchenAid to prevent icing sugar going everywhere! Then add the cream cheese and beat on a medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Be careful – if you beat cream cheese icing too much it can become runnier rather than thicker, so don’t over-beat it!