Almost angelic...

After last weekend's surprising baking success I decided that I would bake something every weekend as far as possible.  I spent most of the week thinking about what I could make and then found this blog post and could not stop thinking about rainbow cake.  I know that baking seven different coloured layers of sponge and sandwiching it all together is still beyond me but I could not shift the thought of gloriously coloured cake and this thought led me on a trip down memory lane.  I don't seem to remember my mum baking much when I was a child but if we were well behaved children, which was rare, then she would pick up some angel cake from the supermarket.  I know that cheap supermarket cake tinted with nasty food colouring is about as far away from real cake as I am from a prima ballerina but it still has a nostalgic feel for me plus it fulfilled the brief of having different coloured layers.  I hit on a snag that I only own two matching cake tins rather than the three I would need for the pink, yellow and white layers and decided to lose the white (how do you make cake white anyway?!) and give a nod to it with some white frosting.  Not just any white frosting but white chocolate frosting. So this is my homage to my childhood favourite, I'm calling it almost angelic cake:

I used:


225g very soft butter
225g caster sugar
200g self raising flour
25g cornflour
4 large eggs
1 tsp baking powder
3-4 tbsp milk
Red and yellow food colouring.


Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. This is so much easier since I took the plunge and bought an oven thermometer, it really does make a difference!
I am a convert to the Nigella method of making a victoria sponge which is all this really is and indeed this is her recipe from How to be a Domestic Goddess.  Put everything but the milk into a food processor and blitz until smooth, the butter really does have to be very soft for this.  I put it in the microwave until it is nearly melting to get it soft enough for the lumps to blitz out easily.  Then pulse the mixture while adding the milk a tablespoon at a time until it has a dropping consistency.  
Divide the mixture into two bowls and add yellow food colouring to one and red to the other until the desired colour is achieved.
Pour into two greased cake tins (I think mine are 8" ones) and cook for 25 minutes until a skewer or knife comes out clean.


For the frosting:
140g butter
140g icing sugar
100g white chocolate, melted


This made a bit too much frosting but half would probably not be enough to sandwich the cakes together and have frosting on top so if you're not really greedy and addicted to frosting like us you may need to find a way to use up the leftovers rather than just slapping it all on like I did.  
Melt the chocolate in the microwave and leave to cool.  I saw on the Sport Relief GBBO last week that it's easiest to use melted chocolate if it's close to the temperature of the other ingredients.  I don't know if this is true or not but I let mine cool for a long time.
Cream together the butter and icing sugar, the Kitchenaid really is a godsend for this!
Add the chocolate and spread onto the cake.


Eat with a cup of tea and a big childish grin!