Lambeth celebration cake

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF / 180ºC / Gas 4 and grease and line two 8” cake tins (we recommend loose bottomed ones). Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl then add the almonds, baking powder, sugar and salt. Lightly mix together and set aside.
2. In a separate bowl whisk together the almond extract, oil, soured cream, eggs and melted butter then add to the flour bowl. Beat until smooth.
3. Divide the mixture evenly between the two cake tins then place in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, keeping an eye on them for browning.
4. Remove from the oven and using a skewer lightly pierce each cakes’ surface a few times, then glaze using a pastry brush dipped in the Opies cocktail cherry syrup. Leave to cool in their tins.
5. To make the frosting: beat the butter until soft and creamy then add the icing sugar, whisking until combined, followed by a dash of milk. Add the vanilla extract and half of the syrup from the jar of cherries and beat again until pale and soft (adding more syrup is the frosting feels stiff)

To decorate, you will need a palette knife, piping bag and nozzles of your choice (we like using Wilton 8B for swirls and 125 and 22 for ruffles and swags.

To fill and decorate the cake: trim the surface of the cakes to ensure they are perfectly flat on the top- this will help you achieve a level cake. Place your first layer on the cake board and using your piping bag (no nozzle required at this point) pipe a ring of frosting around the edge of the cake, leaving a gap approximately 1cm from the edge of the cake. Add desired amount of summer berry compote to the centre of the cake within the circle of frosting. We like to chill the cake for ten minutes at this point to firm up the frosting ring before adding the next layer, but this is optional.

Place your top layer of cake bottom facing upwards onto the prepared base layer. Lightly press down to ensure the cake is straight, before adding frosting to create a crumb coat layer over the whole of the cake. Chill for 20 minutes to let the frosting set.

With your chillec cake, repeat the forsting process again but this time ensuring a thick layer covers the whole surface and no bits of cake are visible. Using your palette knife, smooth the surface and edges of the cake until you are happy with the result.

With a piping bag, select your nozzle and start by piping a ring around the base of the cake in swirls, before repeating above it. Decorate the cake with your own design of ruffles and swirls before adding some drained Opies maraschino cherries to the cake as a final decoration. Chill until required.