About MissCakeBaker

I spend the week running in heels and the weekends in my apron.

Sunday 19 February 2012

Rob Ryan Inspired but Amended Valentine's Cake





This is my rather belated Valentine's Cake for Mr CB.  I love my silicon heart shaped cake mould but I hardly ever use it so this was a good excuse. I made a chocolate cake using my Mum's tried and tested recipe with a simple vanilla buttercream frosting. The icing was meant to be inspired by the whimsical Rob Ryan.  I just LOVE his designs and am saving up for one of his screen prints.  I think each of his pictures is like looking at a modern day fairytale - the sentiments are just so beautiful.  So I did a sketch in the spirit of his artwork but I soon realised that Silver Spoon's Designer Red Icing Tube was just not going to cut the mustard. The tube comes with 3 different nozzles and they just weren't fine enough. A bad workman can't always blame his tools either -  my icing skills are not very good by any means.  So the icing was amended and it hopefully doesn't look too bad.   I'm going to invest in some good icing equipment and practice, practice practice.  I will then do a cake one day which is a homage to Rob Ryan!


This is also my entry for this month's Tea Time Treats Challenge hosted as ever by the lovely Kate from What Kate Baked and Karen from Lavender and Lovage. The theme this month is of course 'Romance'. 


The Recipe


Apologies but this is in ounces which is how I always do my basic sponge mix.


6oz butter
6oz sugar
3 eggs
5oz self raising flour
1oz cocoa powder


For the frosting see here.


1. Preheat the oven to 180c.  Grease your cake tin.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs then add the flour and cocoa.
3. Bake for around 20 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.



24 comments:

  1. This cake is so lovely!
    Happy Sunday

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  2. Thanks Manu. Enjoy your Sunday too! x

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  3. how beautiful... and such brilliance to be inspired by a wonderful artist... I love it... I assume you saved me a slice?

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  4. What an absolutely beautiful entry to tea time treats this month, thanks so much and I LOVE the fact that is was inspired by Rob Ryan too.
    Karen

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    1. Thanks Karen - I can't wait to see the round up.

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  5. The cake looks great as it is, but your sketched design is gorgeous - I look forward to seeing it at some point in the future and admiring once again. I'm just not that creative!

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    1. I will do it at some point but think I'm going to need to improve a lot!

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  6. What a beautiful and romantic cake. Lucky Mr CB!

    I must admit I always work in ounces too. I just can't visualise weights if they're in grams for some reason.

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    1. Glad it's not just me! I can only seem to remember the quantities that way.

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  7. This is beautiful - such a lovely design

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  8. Un très beau gâteau. BRAVO!
    See soon

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  9. What an inspired, beautiful, beautiful cake. Thank you so very much for entering it into our little challenge!

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  10. Such a beautiful cake which definitely says Romance :)

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  11. I think your cake is beautiful and romantic! Happy Belated Valentine's Day! I'll bet Mr. CB didn't complain . . .

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  12. That is one stunning cake. I'm mightily impressed with your icing skills and you've come up with an artistic design to be proud of.

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  13. Wow! What a gorgeous cake. So lovely & sweet !

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  14. Pretty cake but I really love the sketches for the design - I do this occasionally when I do kids cakes though they don't often look like I had planned

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