Monday 13 July 2015

Minecraft Cake Block Cake

It appears my kids have moved on from no-bake train & caterpillar cakes.  Well my son apparently did want a caterpillar cake, his 9 year old sister told me, but when I revealed to her that I planned to make a Minecraft cake she calmly said 'I think he'll like that'.

Googling, you'll see there are some very detailed Minecraft cakes with individual tiles of sugar paste reflecting the shading of the character etc on-screen.  I, however, could not be bothered with that and made something a little more simple.

Serves 8

6in square tin

4 large free range eggs
275g approx self raising flour + cocoa (wholemeal or gluten free self raising can be used)
275g approx soft butter or margarine
275g approx sugar
2 tsp baking powder
Zest of an orange (optional)
2-4 tbsp milk or orange juice

Icing
100g soft butter
100g icing sugar plus a sprinkle
1 tsp cocoa
Strawberry jam
Ready to roll white icing
Ready to roll red icing


The cake itself is a simple sponge cake (and this coming from a relatively new cake baker).  Weigh the eggs in their shells then use this weight for the butter, sugar, and flour.

Mix the sugar and soft butter together in a food processor (the technical term I believe is 'creaming') for about 1 minute until it looks pale and thoroughly mixed.  You can add orange zest if you like.  It makes it a bit more interesting for the grown-ups.  Add 2 tbsp of cocoa powder and make up the required weight (based on the weight of the eggs remember?) with self raising flour.  Add the eggs, baking powder and 2 tbsp of your chosen liquid and blitz until the mixture looks smooth.  The required consistency is a 'dropping consistency' which means it flops off a spoon rather than pours .  You may need to add a couple more tablespoons of liquid to achieve this.

Spoon the mixture into a greased and lined 6" square cake tin and bake for 180C for 30-40 minutes or until a metal skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin until entirely cold.  Meanwhile mix 100g of soft butter with 1 heaped teaspoon of cocoa and enough icing sugar to make the weight of cocoa and icing sugar up to 100g.  Leave to one side until the cake is completely cold.

When cold, remove the cake from the tin and slice carefully in half with a bread knife.  Spread half the butter icing on one cut side and jam on the other. Measure the cake at this stage with a piece of string from the middle  of one side to the other.  NThis is how far you want the icing to come on your cake and so, how wide a piece you have to roll.  Now sandwich the two halves of your cake back together and spread the remaining butter icing over the top of the cake and half way down the sides.

Roll out the white icing to about the thickness of a £1 coin and to the desired width based on your string measurement. Cut castellations (castle shaped 'teeth') around the edges of the white icing.  Carefully lift the icing onto the cake and ensure it is even.  I found I had to trim the corners of my icing once it was on the cake as it drooped down and had to be cut to make the bottom edge straighter and neater.

Roll out the red icing and cut 4 larger red squares roughly 4cmx4cm and six smaller ones roughly 1.5cm.  Get an image of a Minecraft cake block in front of you and lay the squares on the white icing and rearrange/trim them as you wish until you are happy with their position and size.  With a sharp knife cut around each square, remove the white square and poke the red one in it's place.  East the discarded white icing until your teeth ache!

And there you go!  I had never heard of Minecraft cake block until I googled ideas for a Minecraft themed cake.  My now 7 year old son thankfully recognised it immediately, and was thrilled.


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