When you bake cakes for a living people are sometimes reluctant to buy or make you a birthday cake. That is one of the best parts of a birthday for me - an excuse to have cake for breakfast, lunch and diner right?
This year, I decided that my birthday presented me with a perfect excuse to try out something I've been dying to do and bake a graduated pink rose swirl cake. For those of you that know me, you'll know my obsession with pink. I love it, all shades of it :-)
I baked a classic Victoria Sponge with a twist, colouring all 4 layers in various shades of pink.
In my early days of baking I hadn't had much success with coloured sponges - opting to use the liquid based food colouring. This, I soon learnt was a big no no as the colour looses it's vibrancy in baking and the additional liquid messes with the consistency of the cake.
I now use the gel colouring and it proves to be very effective. You get a lovely bright colour and it only needs a little amount of colouring to make it 'pop'.
This cake is one to stay firmly away from if you're on a diet...the frosting alone has enough calories to keep a person going for a week! But hey, it was my birthday, and if you can't have a treat then when can you?