Multicolour Star Cake

A friend of mine was hosting a Silver Jungle party for the first time and she kindly asked me if I was willing to bake a cake and some cupcakes for the evening, in accordance with the theme, naturally. I had never heard of the company or their children's clothes, but after a bit of Googling I was a lot wiser! They seem to be all about a clean image with nice bright colours as well as mellow ones. Their garments are comfy and practical for kids to wear. One of the current patterns they feature is the star/stars, so that's what we decided to do for the decoration of the cake.

For the cake I baked a 3 egg sponge in a 20cm cake tin. This time the filling was a fresh and zesty homemade lemon mousse. I assembled the cake in the tin in which I baked it, making two layers of filling. I refrigerated it overnight to allow the mousse to set properly. The next day I coated the cake with butter cream entirely before covering it with fondant. The stars are also made out of ready to roll fondant. Fondant is available to buy in different colours ready to use, but I normally use Wilton's gel colours to tint the white mass. This way I get the shade I want each time and nothing goes to waste. I feel it is easier to have white fondant at home, and then just colour as much as you need one time, instead of having opened packages lying around and going off, only to be thrown away.

Lemon mousse (enough for two layers 22-24cm)

400grams cream cheese
250ml whipping cream
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
1dl caster/icing sugar
7 leaves of gelatine

1. Place the gelatine leaves to soften in a bowl with plenty of cold water.
2. Beat the cream cheese together with the sugar and lemon zest, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth.
3. In another bowl whip the cream with and electric whisk until it's fluffy and shiny. (gently, making sure not to over whip it.)
4. Heat up the lemon juice. Remove the softened gelatine leaves and give them a good squeeze, then dissolve in the hot juice.
5. Slowly in a thin string, pour the gelatinous juice into the cream cheese, lightly whisking.
6. Finally fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese until fully incorporated. The mousse is done!
7. Use as a filling for cakes or in various desserts, such as trifles or set cheesecakes.        


Basic Butter Cream (enough to cover two 22cm cakes)

250grams butter (softened)
500grams icing sugar, sifted
1-2tbsp boiling water (can be substituted for milk)
vanilla sugar (optional)

Beat the softened butter until smooth. Add half of the icing sugar and continue beating. At this point add some of the liquid if the butter cream seems dry. (you might not need to add the full 2tbsp of water/milk). Finally add the rest of the sifted icing sugar and keep beating until the mixture is soft, pale and frothy. 

Nothing pleases me more than the fact that my friend was super happy with both the flavour and the look of the cake! Absolutely chuffed to bits about that, more over I had a great Sunday evening spending time with a bunch of lovely ladies.:)