I am really quite surprised by the response to our new Fake Bakes Recipe series. What initially started as a challenge for myself - to see how far I could stretch a tenner in the supermarket, to dress up a supermarket cake to look AMAZING in no time, has kind of evolved into something a bit more already.

It's so nice to hear from people that this is inspiring. Not everyone has a stand-mixer, or multiple cake tins...and many don't have an oven (as a student in halls I know I didn't!). But with the bare minimum tools, anyone can create a stunning centre-piece cake to wow.

I'll clarify again though, this challenge isn't about taste. Supermarket cakes are not my personal favourite - I find them too sweet and/or dry. I would always choose a home-baked or craft-bakery cake over a factory-line produced cake. But where taste is not a concern for me, and aesthetics, budget and time-saving are the key priorities, I would definitely be rushing to the shops! Besides, plenty of other folks like off-the-shelf cakes, and kids do too, so the mission is accomplished.

In this Fake Bakes Recipe post, I'm tarting up a basic Victoria Sponge cake from the supermarket. To make it extra tall, like our tall birthday cakes, I bought two Victoria Sponge Layer cakes to stack. The total cost came to under £10 from Tesco this time, including the mini Jammie Dodger biscuits. I even got some really fun and cute heart sprinkles to match the hearts in the mini Jammie Dodgers! 

Fake Bake Recipe - Victoria Sponge Cake

Ingredients

2x Ready-made Round Victoria Sponge Layer Cakes (5" or 6" size)

1 tub (400g) of ready-made buttercream-style Vanilla icing

Mini Jammie Dodgers

Pink/Red Heart Sprinkles (or any others you'd like to use)  

Method

1. Prepare the cake decorating station with a cake turntable, angled palette knife, cake scraper, a cake board, a piping bag fitted with a small star nozzle, and a spatula. 

2. Unbox the cakes. Smear a dollop of buttercream in the middle of the cake board on the turntable, and then placed one of the layer cakes on the board. Remove any paper wrapping along the edges.

3. Decant the buttercream into a bowl and loosen it with a spatula.

4. Spread and smooth over the top of the cake using an angled palette knife whilst turning the turntable to spread an even layer.

5. Place the other layer cake on top of the buttercream layer. Remove the paper wrapping.

6. Spread and smooth buttercream using the angled palette knife and cake scraper along the sides and top of the cake. Fill the piping bag fitted with a small or medium star nozzle with the remaining buttercream. Pipe up to 8 small swirls on top of the cake.

7. Sprinkle the sprinkles over the top and along the base of the layer cake.

8. Place the mini Jammie Dodgers on top of the piped swirls around the cake.

I legit love it. To keep the cost under £10 I only used one tub of buttercream. To make it really stretch, I frosted the cake in a semi-naked finish, and had just enough left to pipe some decorative swirls on top.

I was concerned about running out of frosting, and how the semi-naked finish would look, but I am very pleasantly surprised and happy with the result. You can opt to buy another tub of buttercream for a fully-frosted finish if you don't mind creeping up over a tenner.

I'm so happy this recipe has been received so well and you're tagging us in your pics! And if you did want to splurge, you couldn't go wrong with our very own Victoria Sponge cake, delivered speedily across London.

Lots of love,

Reshmi xoxo 

ps: the next post will be about dressing up BISCOFF cakes! I CAN'T WAIT! 

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