Valentine's Confetti Cake

Every couple of months or so, we hold some sort of charity fundraiser at work. I am on the committee that organises them, and so they often involve cake! This month we held a heart-themed cake sale to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.

There was a splendid turnout, so many beautiful and delicious cakes! I wasn't the only person who took in a large Tupperware container to bring home samples, and I confess to ending the day with a deep and sincere craving for lettuce! (mmmm . . . iceberg!)

 

I made a Confetti Cake, a bit of a risk as I'd never made one before, only seen a picture on t'interweb, and didn't have a recipe. They say baking is an exact science, I say Phooey! With a little common sense you can tweak, tailor, and refine any recipe you like.

I took my Strawberry Clouds cupcake recipe and tweaked that to make this pretty sandwich cake. And this is it:

Confetti Cake

For the cake:

 

200g self raising flour

225g sugar

1/4 tsp salt

100g margarine

2 eggs

150ml milk

few drops vanilla essence

50g multi-coloured sprinkles

For the icing:

 

100g cream cheese

40g butter

375g icing sugar

35g strawberry nesquik powder

hundreds and thousands to decorate

 

Preheat the oven to 150C / 300F / Gas 2

Grease, line and grease two 17-20cm cake tins really well, springform tins would be best.

 

Sieve the flour and mix together with the sugar and salt. Rub in the margarine. Beat the eggs and milk together with vanilla essence. Stir the wet mixture into the dry and beat well until light and creamy. Fold in the sprinkles. Divide mixture evenly between two cake tins and bake for approx. 55 mins until just golden brown and springy to the touch. While they cool on a rack, make the icing.

Beat together the cream cheese and butter until well blended and creamy, then beat in the nesquik. Add the icing sugar about a third at a time and beat until thoroughly mixed. Sandwich and coat your cake. Decorate with hundreds and thousands. 

This cake would work better with really bright sugar sprinkles that you don't seem to be able to find in the supermarket anymore (bloody health regulations!) but you can still see the little flashes of colour they leave inside the cake, and it really does taste fab.

Ok, I got one slice left, might as well go deal with it now. Screw the iceberg . . .