It was quite a challenge, so this was a definite team effort! We knew that it would have to feed quite a few people, but that I’d be bringing it into work on my own (because Thursday is one of my craft days) so it needed to be transportable too. By making it over two cake boards we could place them in position once it was at work, and I could get them there in a taxi!

We decided to make a lemon sponge for the cake, because it’s a tried-and-tested recipe that always goes down well and I also had a jar of homemade lemon curd to go with it! Click here for our cake recipe – we made two 12 inch square cakes using 5 eggs and 10oz/280g of butter, sugar and flour. Once baked and cooled, we cut around a ukulele template that we had printed out to fit the size of the tin.

Then we spread buttercream and lemon curd on the bottom layer, before placing on the top layer – we turned the top layer upside down so that the top is flat. We placed the cake on a 14 inch cake board, covered in white royal icing.

The next step was to cover the whole thing in icing!

To make the neck of the ukulele, we made a large gingerbread biscuit – we cut around a pre-printed template to get the right shape. We did a little test run with the sound hole to check how much the biscuits would spread when cooking, but they didn’t spread too much which was very helpful! We also made the bridge out of gingerbread, but cut a rectangle after baking. Click here for the recipe!

We used white and brown water icing for the frets and the strings, and I also iced ‘Kala’ on the top, which is the make of ukulele that Jackie has. The last step was to cut out the words ‘Happy Birthday Ukulele Lady’ out of the coloured icing. In order to support the gingerbread neck, Tom made a white card support that looked a bit like a Toblerone – but it worked amazingly well! You can’t see that on the photo above because that was placed underneath once I had taken it into work. The neck sat on the cake a little and because the card was white it blended in really well with the board – you can see it on the next photo!

I was so worried about actually getting the cake to work in one piece, but it made it ok! Only one slight blip was on the bridge, but it still looked fine so I was so relieved!

Tom was teaching when we had our little get together this afternoon, so I took lots of photos!

Here’s one of the ukulele lady herself! Happy Birthday, Jackie!

The post Ukulele Celebration Cake appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Mary Berry’s Lemon Victoria Sandwich recipe was specially commissioned by the GDST for the 140th anniversary of the Girls’ Day School Trust and appeared in issue 12/13 of Verve Magazine (also available online here). Mary Berry is a GDST alumna, and all girls were given a postcard with the recipe to celebrate the Bake Off event (the final of which was just by one of the hosts of The Great British Bake Off, Mel Giedroyc – another GDST alumna!). I used to teach music at Central Newcastle High School which makes me an ‘Old Girl’, and as I love baking I just had to try out this recipe. If you make your own lemon curd, it will taste even better! I also added buttercream, which is not in the original recipe.

Ingredients

225g butter, softened

225g caster sugar

4 eggs

225g self-raising flour

2 level teaspoons baking powder

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

For the filling

About 4 tbsp lemon curd

250g icing sugar, sifted (plus extra for dusting)

80g unsalted butter, at room temperature

25ml semi skimmed milk

Finely grated zest of half a lemon

Method

1. Lightly grease two 20cm loose bottomed sandwich tins and line the bases with a circle of non-stick baking parchment. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160F/Gas 4.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl. Beat the eggs and add the grated lemon zest and mix well. Pour the mix in a little at a time and mix well. Sift in the flour and baking powder and combine together. (Mary’s original recipe suggests using an electric whisk – put all ingredients into a bowl and beat for a couple of minutes).

3. Divide the mixture evenly between the two tins and level with a spatula or the back of a spoon. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes or until well-risen and golden.

4. Leave the cakes to cool in the tins for a few moments then run a blunt knife around the edge of the tins to free the sides of the cakes. Turn the cakes out, peel off the paper and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

5. As the cakes cool, make the buttercream by creaming together the butter and icing sugar. Add the milk and lemon zest and beat until smooth.

6. Choose the cake with the best top, then put the other cake top downwards on to a serving plate. Spread with the lemon curd and then the buttercream. Put the other cake on top and dust with icing sugar. Put the kettle on, cut a big slice and enjoy! If you’re not a fan of lemon, you could always try out my Classic Victoria Sponge. Either of these cakes are best enjoyed with a cuppa!

Post updated 19th June 2016.

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