NHS Cake

Vanilla Sponge:

• 240g baking margarine
• 240g caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 240g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 tbsp milk – optional if the mixture is a little thick

Filling: 100g strawberry jam

Butter Icing:

• 250g unsalted butter – room temperature
• 500g icing sugar
• 1-2 tbsp cooled boiled water – optional
• Blue gel or paste food colouring

Chocolate Ganache:

• 100g dark chocolate
• 100ml double cream

To Decorate:

• 100s & 1000s/decorative sprinkles
• Optional ‘NHS Scrubs’ washing line – instructions at the bottom of the recipe

Equipment:

• 7-inch cake tin
• Baking parchment
• Mixing bowls
• Utensils – spatula, spoons, palette knife, serrated knife
• Cake board or serving plate
• Cake turntable – helpful but not essential
• 2 Piping bags and 1-star nozzle

To make the Vanilla Sponge:

Line cake tin with baking parchment and preheat oven to 160C Fan / 180C/350F / Gas Mark 4.

Place the baking margarine and caster sugar into a mixing bowl and cream together until pale and fluffy in consistency.

Incorporate the eggs one at a time into the mixture and continue to mix thoroughly.

Add the self-raising flour and fold through until completely incorporated.

Add the vanilla extract and the optional extra milk (if you think the mixture is a little on the thick side – add 1 tbsp and add a second if necessary) your ideal texture should be a good dropping consistency.

Place mixture into the prepared baking tin and bake for up to 60 minutes, until the cake has risen, has a golden brown top and a skewer can be inserted into the centre of the cake and be removed cleanly. If your cake needs to cook for longer, check it every 5 minutes and cover with some extra parchment or foil if you don’t wish for it to brown any further.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes before removing and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

For the Butter Icing:

Beat the butter with the icing sugar until fully incorporated and pale in colour.

The butter icing needs to be a spreadable consistency, so add a little cooled boiled water to the mixture if needed to slacken it down slightly.

Split the butter icing between 4 bowls. Leave one bowl plain and then colour the other 3 bowls with varying shades of blue gel or paste food colouring.

To Assemble:

Split the sponge twice and spread the jam evenly between the layers.

If the cake is mounded from baking, trim to make it flatter.

Place the cake onto a cake board or serving plate upside down to give a nice flat finish to the presentation side of the cake.

Using the bowl of uncoloured plain butter icing, ‘crumb coat’ the outside of the cake by applying a thin smooth layer of butter icing over the whole outside of the cake with a palette knife. This will capture any crumbs and prevent them from displaying in the outer butter icing effect.

Place the cake in the fridge to firm up the crumb coat for at least 15 minutes.

If you have a cake turntable, place the cake onto it and liberally dot all around the outside of the cake with random splodges of the 3 different shades of blue icing. Please note you do not need to coat the top, a crumb coat is sufficient.

Once the outside of the cake has been roughly covered in splodges, take a long palette knife and smooth the outside of the icing to create a beautiful marbled colour effect with the 3 shades of blue icing.

To smooth the icing further, heat your palette knife and lightly smooth over.

Tidy up the top edge of the cake and remove any excess icing from the cake board or serving plate using a damp piece of kitchen roll.

Place back into the fridge to firm up.

Reserve any leftover coloured icing and place into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.

For the Chocolate Ganache:

Break the chocolate up and place into a bowl or jug.

Pour the double cream over the chocolate and place in the microwave. Set the timer of 30 seconds on full power and stir.

Place the ganache mixture back into the microwave and set the timer again for 30 seconds on full power and stir.

The chocolate should have melted into the cream and become smooth and glossy. You may need to repeat this step a third time if it is still lumpy.

Place the ganache into a disposable piping bag. Do not snip the end until ready to use. The ganache still needs to be a little warm for the drips to cascade nicely down the sides of the cake.

To Decorate:

Snip the end of the ganache piping bag with a hole approx. 3mm wide.

Place the cake back onto your turntable of using and hover the piping bag over the edge of the cake and squeeze a little ganache out of it so that it starts to drip down the outside. Work your way around the outside of the cake squeezing slightly different quantities so the drips vary in length.

Once you have gone all the way around the cake, fill in the top with the remaining ganache and leave to set.

Using your leftover butter icing in the prepared piping bag with the star nozzle, squeeze little dollops on the top around the outside.

Finally, finish with a flourish of 100s & 1000s or sprinkles and optional NHS Scrubs washing line (please see instructions below).

To make the NHS scrubs washing line

You will need:

• Scrubs coloured thick paper or card
• NHS logo
• 2 wooden kebab skewers
• 15-20 cm thin twine
• 4 mini pegs
• Pencil, scissors and glue stick and superglue (optional)

Instructions:

Draw Scrubs outline onto thick paper or card and cut out.

If you have an NHS logo, stick this onto the top.

Insert 2 wooden kebab skewers into the top of the cake to act as the poles for the washing line. You may wish to trim the skewers down slightly.

Tie twine to each end of the kebab skewer and fix into place with a small amount of superglue if it needs fixing more securely.

Using the pegs, peg the scrubs onto the washing line to finish.