Gender Reveal Cake Recipe | Royal Baby Celebration

Step 1: The 8 inch cake

1. Weigh 7 eggs with their shells and then weigh out the same quantity of caster sugar, Stork and self-raising flour
2. Cream the Stork and sugar together
3. Beat in the eggs and stir in the self-raising flour
4. Mix in a little pink or blue food colouring to achieve the colour you want

Step 2: The 6 inch cake

1. Follow the same method as above but reduce the number of eggs to 4

Step 3: Cooking the sponges

1. Spoon the mixtures into two deep lined cake tins
2. Bake in the oven at 160 C for 25 minutes
3. Check and then bake again until ready (golden brown and springy to the touch)
4. Set aside on a wire rack to cool

Step 4: Sandwiching the sponges

1. Carefully level the sponges with a carving knife and split into two horizontally, keeping the knife as steady as you can
2. Take the bottom half of each sponge - which should be as flat as possible - and turn it over. This will be the top of the cake
3. Place the bottom half of each cake on a cake board and spread your chosen filling over the sponge Stork icing or jam (or both!) work well
4. Place the other half on top
5. Using a palette knife, smooth out the icing
6. Place in the fridge for at least two hours to firm up

Step 5: Icing the cakes

1. Add a small amount of food colouring into ready-made sugar paste (about 2kg fort the whole cake) or soft icing and knead to ensure it is well mixed in
2. Using a paintbrush, cover the surface of your chilled cake with water. Place it nearby so it is ready to go
3. Roll out the soft icing and use the rolling pin to pick up the icing
4. Quickly drape over the cake and smooth down with your hands
5. Trim the excess soft icing from the bottom and repeat for both cakes
6. Allow the cakes to set for two hours

Step 6: Supporting the bigger cake aka doweling (vital to support the weight of the cake above)

1. Work out where the dowels (which are plastic/ wooden supports) should go
2. One way to do this by putting a bottomless 6-inch cake tin on top of the 8-inch iced cake. This will show you how big the top cake is & where you will need to sink dowels into the bottom cake to support it
3. Sink about 6 full length dowels into the bottom cake. Try to make sure that they are evenly spaced with no big gaps
4. Mark the point at which each one pokes out of the cake with a food-safe pen and then remove them all
5. Find the dowel with the highest mark
6. Cut them all to the highest point (I use clean secateurs!) and plunge them back into the cake

Step 7: Decorating the cakes

1. Use royal icing and rolled-out colour soft icing to make shapes. You only need a small amount of royal icing
2. You can create any shapes you want (I chose to make some bunting out of icing and a stork carrying a baby)
3. Stick onto the cake with water

Step 8: Stacking the cakes

1. Place a blob of royal icing on top of the larger cake (this will act as glue)
2. Lift the smaller cake and position on top
3. Use ribbon to hide the joins between the cakes and the board

Step 9: Enjoy

1. Gather friends & family around
2. Serve your gender reveal cake with a cup of tea (or a glass of bubbly!)