It’s been a while since I made a large cake, recently I’ve made a lot of cupcakes and biscuits but this week I decided I wanted to make a pretty springtime cake using one of the lovely silicone moulds sent to me by Mein Cupcake for review. You’d be forgiven for thinking they were bundt cake moulds however they are described as gugelhupf moulds. After a visit to wikipedia I can reliably state that gugelhupf is an alternative name for bundt cakes and is used in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Anyway regardless of their name they look lovely and are a great way to make a stunning cake with very little effort.

The important thing when making this cake is to make sure the cake mould is completely greased with butter and then coated in flour before filling with the cake batter. Use greaseproof paper to spread the butter at first but then use clean fingers to make absolutely sure the butter is in all the nooks and crannies including the central pillar. Once the butter is done sprinkle a few spoonfuls of flour in and tilt and tap the mould until everywhere is covered in flour. The bright purple silicone of thee moulds makes it really easy to see any spots you’ve missed.

For neatness I use a piping bag to fill the mould with cake batter but pouring from a jug or spooning works also. Tap the filled mould gently on the worksurface a couple of times to remove any bubbles.

The booklet which came with this £15.25  Contoura RBV Birkmann Gugelhupf Silicone Mould has recipes to use with the  mould, alternatively the recipe below is for vanilla cake. The booklet supplied used 5 or 6 eggs in it’s recipes, I found that a 6 egg mix filled the main part of the cake mould however I increased the mix to 8 eggs to include the detail at the base. I really love the end result with simple clean lines and minimal decoration. Mein Cupcake is a german store who are expanding into the uk and have loads of lovely products. In addition to this Contoura mould they have also sent me a Novel mould from the same range which I am looking forward to trying soon.

Ingredients:

500g Castor sugar

500g Unsalted butter (softened)

8 Large eggs (beaten)

4 tea spoons Vanilla essence

500g Self raising flour

50ml (approx) Whole milk

250g Icing sugar

Splash of water

Gel food colourings (blue, yellow, green & pink)

Sprinkles to decorate

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 160c fan (180c standard).
• In a freestanding mixer cream the butter and sugar until well combined. To soften the butter either leave at room temperature for an hour or in a place in a microwave safe bowl and soften in 5 second bursts stirring in between each burst.
• Add the vanilla essence to the beaten eggs and mix thoroughly.
• Add the egg mix to the buttercream a little at a time while mixing on a slow speed. Add a couple of spoonfuls of flour if necessary to help combine the mixture.
• Add the remaining flour to the batter while continuing to mix on a slow speed. As soon as the flour is combined turn off the mixer and do the last stage by hand.
• Slowly add whole milk to the mixture while stirring with a spatula or spoon. Add milk until the mixture easily falls from the spoon / spatula into the bowl. All flours have different moisture contents so you may need slightly more or less than the 50ml stated.
• Grease the mould and dust with flour as described above.
• Pipe or spoon the cake batter into the silicone mould and tap the full mould on the work surface to remove any air bubbes.
• Place the filled mould onto a baking tray and bake for 1hr 15 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
• Do not turn out the cake immedieatly, leave to cool enough that the base cake be leveled with a bread knife before the cake is turned out.
• Turn the cooled and leveled cake out onto a serving plate and decorate with water icing coloured pink, yellow, green and blue, the icing should be thick enough that pulling a spoon through it will leave a trail but runny enough to pipe. You do not need a piping nozzel for this simply place the water icing in a disposable food or piping bag and snip off the corner to make neat lines of icing.
• Decorate with sprinkles and serve.