PAPER FLOWER CAKE
EQUIPMENT
30cm round wooden cake board
smoothing tools
paper piping bag
FRUIT CAKE
1.5kg mixed dried fruit
¼ cup (85g) marmalade
⅔ cup (160ml) dark rum
400g butter, softened
1 tablespoon finely grated citrus rind
1½ cups (330g) dark brown sugar
6 eggs
3⅓ cups (500g) plain flour
2 teaspoons mixed spice
WHITE CHOCOLATE GANACHE
720g white eating chocolate
1½ cups (375ml) pouring cream
DECORATIONS
1.5kg ready−made white icing
cornflour, to dust
5 large paper roses (see right)
1 To make fruit cake, preheat oven
to 150°C/130°C fan. Grease and line
base and side of two deep 20cm round
cake pans.
2 Mix fruit, marmalade and rum in a
large bowl. Beat butter, rind and sugar
in another large bowl with an electric
mixer until combined; beat in eggs, one
at a time. Stir butter mixture into fruit
mixture; stir in sifted flour and spice.
Spread mixture evenly into pans. Tap
pans firmly on bench to settle mixture;
level tops with a wet spatula. Bake cakes
for 3 hours or until a skewer inserted in
centres comes out clean. Cover with foil
halfway through baking if over−browning.
3 Once cakes are cooked, immediately
cut off paper around edge of pans.
Turn cakes, in pans, top−side down
onto foil; wrap each cake and pan
tightly with foil. Cover with a towel;
cool completely upside down.
4 Meanwhile, make the white
chocolate ganache.
5 Trim cakes to make them flat; split
in half. Secure one cake layer to cake
board with a little ganache. Top with
the remaining cake layers using about
⅓ cup ganache between each layer.
Spread remaining ganache over top
and side of cake. Stand overnight.
6 Reserve 60g of ready−made icing;
enclose in plastic wrap. Knead
remaining icing on a surface dusted
with a little cornflour until it loses its
stickiness. Brush cake with a little
water or jam. Roll icing on surface
dusted with a little cornflour until
large enough to cover cake. Lift icing
onto cake; smooth with hands, then
smoothing tools. Trim icing neatly
around cake base. Dry overnight.
7 Place the 60g of reserved icing
in a small bowl, add 1 teaspoon water;microwave for 10 seconds or until icing
starts to soften. Stir until icing is of a
thick piping consistency. Half−fill piping
bag with icing; pipe around base of cake.
Use a fingertip to blend icing into any
gaps where cake joins the board.
Position paper roses on top of cake.WHITE CHOCOLATE GANACHE
Break chocolate into food processor,
process until chocolate is chopped
finely. Bring cream to the boil in
a small saucepan; remove from
heat. Add cream to chocolate;
stir until smooth. Cool mixture
to room temperature, before
beating or whipping to the
desired consistency.89
STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3STEP 4 STEP 5 STEP 6Draw or trace
3 x 3.5cm, 5 x 4.5cm
and x 5.5cm rose petal
shapes on your choice of
coloured rice paper.
(Push a rose petal cutter
into the rice paper to
make an indentation of
the petal shape if you
prefer) (step 1). Cut out
petals (step 2).
Lightly wet thebottom third of a small
petal with a little water;
wrap the petal around a
toothpick (step 3). Repeat
with the remaining small
petals, wetting the ‘v’
section of the petal and
overlapping the petals
around the centre petal
(step 4). Lightly brush
the back edge of the
outer petals with a littlewater then fold slightly
backwards (step 5).
Repeat layering
petals around bud,
allowing petals to dry
after attaching the first
8 petals. Attach large
petals, brushing the top
back edges of each petal
with a little water (step
6). Stand roses overnight
to dry.HOW TO MAKE A PAPER ROSE