This cake was actually created for one of my dearest friends, Claire who is the ridiculously good looking foodie behind SA’s first YouTube cooking channel ‘Good Looking and Cooking‘. There is no one on this earth more obsessed with doughnuts than she is (except that she calls them ‘donuts’) but I love her anyway! ;). I was tasked with making her a cake for probably the most epic bachelorette party in the history of bachelorette parties. Guys, there was a candy floss bar, build your own freak shakes, inflatable unicorns, Private Chef Matt Manning, rainbow bagels – it was like every dream I’d ever had came true!
So of course, I had to dream up one seriously cool cake and this one is straight out of a Candy Land fantasy! I baked an easy one-bowl butter cake in 3 savarin moulds (those silicone microwave bundt cake moulds would also work well), and then stuffed each cake with a raspberry vanilla buttercream. I piped on the royal icing to get that cartoon-looking doughnut design but you could just go ahead and drizzle it over the cakes. And of course, giant doughnuts, deserve giant sprinkles so I’ve also included a fun, easy way for you to make your own using leftover royal icing – simply pipe colourful strips of icing, allow to dry and break them up! Clever, right?! *throws sprinkles on self*
Makes 1
250g butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups Natura Sugars Golden Caster Sugar
6 large eggs, at room temperature
3 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 cup milk
Frosting
250g butter, softened
2 cups Natura Sugars Demerara Icing Sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
drop of milk, if necessary
1/4 cup of good-quality raspberry jam
Royal Icing
1 egg white
1 cup Natura Demerara Icing Sugar
Pastel gel food colourings
Sprinkles, to decorate
Preheat oven to 150° C (fan-forced) Grease 3 x 20 cm savarin or bundt cake tins. Place the butter, vanilla, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and milk in the bowl of an electric mixer (fitted with the paddle attachment). Beat on low speed until combined. Increase the speed to high and beat the mixture until it is just smooth. Spoon mixture into the baking tins and bake for 1 hour 5 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in cake tin on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Turn out onto the wire rack and cool completely.
For the buttercream, whip the butter in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment until very white and fluffy. Add the icing sugar and vanilla and whip for 5 minutes until almost white and the icing sugar is completely dissolved (add a drop or two of milk if necessary). Swirl through the raspberry jam – don’t mix it in completely. Place in a piping bag with a plain nozzle.
For the royal icing, whisk the egg whites and icing sugar together to form a firm icing then divide in three and tint each a different colour. Place in piping bags fitted with plain nozzles and set aside.
To assemble the cake, poke the bottom of each ring with the back of a wooden spoon and fill the holes with the raspberry buttercream. Pipe the icing onto each layer to create a dripped effect (TIP: Start with your royal icing very thick to pipe the outline, then thin it out slightly and fill in the lines). Decorate with sprinkles and allow to set completely then place the ‘doughnuts’ on top of each other.
Epic in so many ways!!! And so delicious!!! Unfortunately had to share with everyone at the party (sigh) hahaha