Leopard Print Madeira Sponge Cake

Leopard print Madeira Sponge Cake with a colourful print baked into the layers and decorated with a cocoa stencilled swiss meringue buttercream.

Hmmm, where did we leave off two weeks ago? Oh yeah, Bunny Magic! Since then, I became unemployed, re-employed, managed to fit in some long overdue sleep and travel, gained a few pounds, started training for a marathon ;), enrolled in more courses, spring cleaned, redecorated, and got back to sewing. I'd say it's time for a loooong vacation! Yes?

Well, that was the plan, for the entire months of April and May, in fact. However, I received and accepted a job offer sooner than expected. Even with my savvy nogotiations skills, I could not negotiate my way out of starting immediately, so I jumped right in and have been ridiculously busy. This new arrangement does offer some time flexibility in the form of a compressed work week, which has been a huge plus.

So with most Fridays off,  I thought I would spend some quality time with my niece. She likes sewing and plans to become a Fashion Designer one day. So we hung out in the little sewing room tucked in the back corner of my house creating skinny jeans -  RED skinny jeans. We measured and cut and talked and laughed and sang and it was fun. Lots of fun. I realized how much I've missed sewing and how much we two have in common (for now anyway).

Shay felt we should make the leopard spots pink and teal, I agreed without hesitation. So we:

1. Spooned some of the plain batter into the bottom of each pan, about two inches deep.
2. Separated the remaining batter and coloured one third, teal, another pink and the final was left plain. You need not colour as much batter as we did, as it resulted in a shortage of the plain batter for the top layer. You will need to play around to determine what is a suitable amount based on the cake size.
3. Filled three piping bags each with plain, pink and teal batter.
4. Piped a layer of teal in circles, then a layer of pink directly onto the teal, then another layer of teal onto the pink.
5. Filled in the gaps between each circle by piping the plain batter and then used the remaining plain batter to cover it all up.
6. Tapped the pans and into the pre-heated oven they went.

While the cakes rose in the oven, we whipped up some Vanilla Bean Swiss Meringue Buttercream. The cakes were then filled, frosted and yada, yada, yada, we had ourselves a Leopraffe. A leopard in giraffe's clothing. Um...yeah, best to not explore that any further. It's my niece's creation and that's all you need to know about that. Well, and that it was very tasty and the recipe is super easy!

We used the stencilling technique that I created on my Chocolate Espresso Giraffe cake last July. A little cocoa powder, some food colour and a tasty, wild, hybrid was created.

Madeira Sponge Cake

Madeira Sponge Cake with a colourful print baked into the layers and decorated with a cocoa stencilled swiss meringue buttercream.

Print Recipe

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Course: Dessert

Servings: 2 -7" round cakes

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

• 240 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 200 grams granulated sugar
• 100 ml milk
• 3 eggs room temperature
• 250 grams unbleached all-purpose flour
• 16 grams baking powder

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325ºC.
• Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer, or hand mixer. Beat on medium speed until well incorporated and fluffy.
• Turn the mixer to low and add the eggs one at a time, adding a tablespoon of flour with each egg addition.
• Add the remaining flour and the baking powder and continue to mix on low.
• Add the milk and mix until fully incorporated.
• To make your pattern in the cake, proceed as described in the post above, and bake for 40 minutes.
• Cakes are ready when an inserted toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.
• Allow the cakes to cool on a rack for about ten minutes, then invert onto the rack to cool completely.

Notes

Recipe from Masam Manis

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