Raspberry Jam Tart Birthday Cake

 

Its my husband's 81st Birthday today.  Its also the anniversary of the day we first met in person.  I always tease him and tell him I am the best Birthday Present he ever received.  Most of the time he would agree with me . . .  unless we are in the car. Then it becomes quite debatable. He says he doesn't drive.  He just steers.

 

Two of Todd's favourite things are Victoria Sponge Cakes and Raspberry Jam Tarts, well any jam tart really  . . . he just loves anything with jam in it.

 

You know how you create ideas in your mind of things you want to do . . .  and you picture them all out and in your mind they come out looking fantastic . . .  but in reality, they don't even come close to touching what you had envisioned them as being?

  

This is one of those things.  Every time I look at it I laugh.  In my mind I saw this beautiful Victoria sponge with two layers of butter cream along with a layer of sweet jam in the middle. ✓✓

 

Two ticks  . . . one for the Victoria Sponge  . . .  two for the butter cream   . . .  and wait a third  . . . ✓ for the jam, raspberry jam. Bonne Maman, only the best for my man.

 

Normally I don't put butter cream on top of a Victoria Sponge, just in the middle. The top is usually dusted lightly with either icing sugar or caster sugar  . . .

 

But today I had the idea in mind that I was going to decorate the top with raspberry jam tarts, again Bonne Maman ones (I could have made from scratch, but was stretched for time).  I wanted to put a layer of vanilla butter cream on the top as well, to hold the jam tarts in place.

 

I decorated each jam tart with a small dollop of butter cream and a sprinkle of hundreds and thousands cake sprinkles  . . .  and then placed them lovingly all around the outside of the cake.  I had an extra one and so I cut it up into little bits to decorate around the candle in the middle of the cake.

 

I just used one big fat candle in a tiny Bonne Maman jam jar as a holder. (Bonne Maman figured big in my cake plans today!)

 

You would have to have a really big cake to sport 81 candles, so I reckoned one big fat one was as good as 81 smaller ones.

 

Its not the prettiest Birthday Cake in the world.  Not near as pretty as I had envisioned when I was dreaming it up . . .

 

But it didn't really matter because Todd loved it . . . two of his favourite things . . . plus all of the love I put into it.  He was quite happy with it. He's not hard to please. 

 

The cake itself is a really good cake, with a lovely moist crumb and beautiful texture . . .

 

Homemade Vanilla Butter cream Frosting?  You can't go wrong. Its delicious too . . .

 

Bonne Maman Jams, next to homemade, they are the best in my opinion . . . .

  

And their jam tarts on their own are also rather moreish . . .  not sure if it worked all together.  I dare not hazard a taste because the sugar in all of this would send me into a Diabetic coma, but my dear husband was one very happy Camper, and that's what counts.

Yield: 8

Author: Marie Rayner

Raspberry Jam Tart Birthday Cake

This is the kind of cake you bake for someones birthday when their favourite things are a Victoria sponge and raspberry jam tarts!

ingredients:

For the cake:

• 170g butter (12 TBS)
• 170g caster sugar (1 cup)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 large free range eggs, beaten
• 170g self raising flour (a scant 1 1/4 cups)

For the butter cream:

• 225g butter, softened (1 cup)
• 390g icing sugar, sifted (3 cups, confectioners, powdered)
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 to 2 TBS double cream

To finish:

• 6 TBS of raspberry jam
• 8 raspberry jam tarts, plus one crumbled if desired
• hundreds and thousands cake sprinkles

instructions:

How to cook Raspberry Jam Tart Birthday Cake

1. Butter and base line two 7 inch sandwich tins. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.
2. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together until light in colour and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. If the mixture begins to curdle, add a spoonful of the flour.
3. Fold in the flour with a metal spoon, taking care to use a cutting motion so as not to knock out too much of the air that you have beaten into the batter. Divide the batter evenly between the two cake tins, levelling off the surface. Make a slight dip in the centre of each.
4. Bake on a centre rack of the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the sponges have risen well, are golden brown, and spring back when lightly touched. Allow to cool in the pan for five minutes before running a knife carefully around the edges and turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
5. For the butter cream, beat the butter and sugar together on low until well blended and then continue to beat on medium for another few minutes until it begins to become fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and 1 TBS cream, only adding the second one if needed until you have a frosting of spreading consistency.
6. Pipe a tiny bit of butter cream in the centre of each jam tart and sprinkle with the cake sprinkles.
7. Place one layer of cake on a cake place, top side down. (I like to anchor it in place with a bit of butter cream. )  Spread with half of the butter cream you have left.  Spoon the jam over top of the butter cream and spread it out a bit with the back of a spoon.  Top with the other cake layer, bottom side down.  Spread the top of the cake with the remaining butter cream.  Place raspberry jam tarts decoratively around the top edges of the cake and sprinkle the centre of the cake with some more cake sprinkles and some chopped jam tart if you wish.
8. Serve cut into wedges.

Created using The Recipes Generator

 

Happy Birthday Todd.  I am going to be spoiling you all the day through with little things. We doing his proper celebration on Wednesday next when Tina and Tony are coming over for a slap up roast dinner.

Up tomorrow:  Homemade Gingernut Biscuits/Cookies