My cake for Clandestine Cake Club Dundee

For the latest Dundee Clandestine Cake Club meeting, I had to do something pink but had no idea quite what to make.  When mentioning it to a friend, who has come along as my eater on the odd occasion, she suggested something she'd just read in a magazine.  A peek-a-boo cake, or patchwork cake as it looked to me.   (Sorry but I can't get a link to that particular recipe, though I'm sure any madeira sponge recipe would do fine as it's slightly heavier than a usual sponge, so would hold its shape better once cut).  It looked a bit technical, but do-able.  So I tried it...

The recipe used ground almonds, so it was quite a heavy batter.  This meant it baked up well and held its shape for cutting.  You see, you had to make the three layers in colours (though silly me should have chosen two shades of pink for this meeting, not the purple of the recipe) then cut out circles then stack them in a particular order to achieve the final effect.  In order to get the middle cooked well, the outer edges got a little too well done for my liking, so that once cut into rings, in parts they cracked.  Nothing a later splodge of buttercream couldn't fix, but not perfectly tidy.

Once cut and assembled I got onto the task of the pale pink buttercream.  You were only to use jam to hold the rings together, so that the patchwork look was more prominent once the cake was cut.  It was a bit tricky to get the icing super-smooth all the way around (I always find that bit tricky, as we don't have Viva paper towels in the UK.  I have a good smoother, but still...)

I'm thrilled to say that the cake worked, and it went down a storm at the meeting.

Ooh, check my silly smile - I was just so pleased that it worked as I planned!

All that was left at the end were some multi-coloured crumbs - result!!