Play date sweet shop cake

Things in our house have been a whirl of activity with weekend activities, play dates, lots of crafting, extra works commitments and what currently feels like generalised mayhem. 

Here's what our little blossom made with her beautiful buddy. They were so stoked with their efforts! It was actually very easy to make from a simple sponge base, assorted lollies and quite a lot of raspberry buttercream. 

Sweet Shop Cake, made with a simple sponge

For the cake:
3 eggs
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons cornflour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat the oven to 190deg. C and line a 20 x 30cm sponge roll tin with baking paper. 

Beat the eggs and caster sugar together until it is pale and thick. It should fall into defined ribbons when the whisk fitting is lifted from the beater bowl. 

Sift the flour, cornflour and baking powder, then gently fold it into the egg mixture. 

Pour the sponge into the lined tin and smooth over the top. 

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the sponge springs back when pressed. Turn out onto a cooling rack and remove the baking paper. Leave to cool before attempting the decoration.








For the buttercream:
200g butter - softened
1 cup icing sugar
3 tablespoons boiling water
the juice of a lemon
4 tablespoons freeze dried raspberry powder

Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. With the beater running, add the boiling water one tablespoon at a time. Beat well in between each addition. Lastly add the lemon juice followed by the raspberry powder. Test the flavour and add more raspberry if you like a more intensive flavour. 

To decorate:
an assortment of sweet varieties, about 1/4 cup of each 
2 waffle icecream cones
1 or 2 small cupcake cases

Cut the cake width-ways into thirds. Then cut one of the thirds in two again. The larger parts form the shop table, while one small section is the back of the counter and the other goes in front of the bench. It really doesn't matter how it is arranged!

Use some of the buttercream to sandwich the sponge pieces together. Now smooth a layer of butter cream over the outside of the cakes. Using a bread knife cut the tops off the waffle cones. The girls then decided how they would arrange the sweet shop counter and pressed the cones into the cake. They then arranged the lollies into the cones and cupcake case, and stuck the lollipops into place. They finished by writing price tags for their shop. 

You may have noticed that things on the screen front have been pretty quiet; behind the scenes I've been concentrating on getting some serious crafting done. With plenty of potential blog posts bubbling in the back ground watch this space for upcoming food and craft ideas.