Diamond Jubilee Dome Cake

The other day I posted my review of Peggy Porschen's new Boutique Baking book.  I was so excited when it arrived, I couldn't put it down.  I flipped through the pages over and over again, examining every recipe trying to decide what to make first.  

The recipe that stood out the most to me was a very simple, yet elegant dome cake that Peggy calls her Raspberry & Rose Dome Cake (pictured below from her book).  This cake isn't your typical cake - it's made up of a thin layer of jaconde sponge and then filled with a delicious custard butter cream that's been studded with raspberries.

I'm not going to lie - this cake is fairly labour intensive.  There's a lot of steps involved and it's best to do them over two days, but the step by step pictures are a huge asset and really do help to reassure you that you're doing things correctly.

Peggy's version of the Raspberry & Rose Dome Cake (above) is covered in pastel fondant and decorated with pretty sugar paste flowers.  I choose to decorate mine in a royal theme to help celebrate the upcoming Queen's Diamond Jubilee.  I used the same sugar paste flowers that I made last year on my Royal Wedding Cupcakes, and I also made some cute little crowns from a mould that I picked up a few months ago at the Squires Kitchen Cake Decorating Exhibition.

  

I've decided not to post the recipe for this cake because it's very long (approx 4 pages in the book) and requires a lot of steps (see the pictures above).  I don't want that to detour you from making it though.  It's not hard to make - especially the jaconde sponge (I made a similar one here, and they only take 8 minutes to bake!), it's just the assembling of the cake that takes the time.  So if you think you'd like to try baking your own dome cake, then please buy Peggy's Boutique Baking book - you won't regret it!

To make the crowns you'll need a mould like this one here from Squires Kitchen that I used.  First I took some Mexican modelling paste and tinted it a light golden colour (I used golden yellow from Wilton).  Next I brushed some gold metallic lustre dust inside my mould which helped to give it the golden colour, but also to prevent the modelling paste from sticking.  

Firmly push the modelling paste into the mould and trim off any excess with a sharp knife,  To remove the crowns simply turn the mould upside down and tap the back of the mould firmly with the handle of a knife to help shake them out.

To give the crowns their nice golden colour I mixed a bit of the gold lustre dust with a tiny bit of vodka to create a shiny gold paint and used a paintbrush to coat the surface of the crowns.  The red and blue gems in the crowns are actually just shimmery sugar sprinkles that were given to me by Waitrose in a goody bag a few months ago.

This cake calls for a dome mould (Peggy uses half of a ball pan) to give the cake it's perfect shape, but I didn't have a dome mould, so instead used a bowl.  Although the bowl worked, it didn't turn out exactly as I'd imagined.  It was a bit deeper and not as perfectly domed as I'd hoped, but I think I could have done a better job of lining my bowl with the jaconde sponge to get a better shape.  I get a bit annoyed when my baking attempts don't turn out exactly as they do in the pictures!

This cake, like most traditional UK cakes is covered in both a layer of marzipan, followed by a layer of fondant.  I'm not a huge fan of marzipan, and I honestly don't see much of a point in using both layers of covering (other than the fact that the marzipan layer makes the fondant layer a little easier to smooth out).  I almost did't bother using the marzipan, but I wanted to make the cake exactly as it's shown in the book.

I had intended on using the same fondant boarder around the base of my cake that was shown in the book, but the red fondant (Renshaw brand) I'd bought a month earlier had dried into a rock hard block before I even got a chance to get it out of the package!  Instead, I kept things simple and just used some red and blue ribbon.

Overall, I was quite pleased with my dome cake - even if it didn't turn out perfect.  Although I've done a few, I'm still fairly new to covering cakes in fondant, and really just enjoy tinkering around in my spare time making flowers and sugar paste decorations.  I've always wanted to improve my cake decorating skills, and I'm very pleased to announce I will get that opportunity this week!  


You see, last summer after I made my Peggy Porschen Baby Shower Cookies I was absolutely thrilled to receive an invite from the Peggy Porschen Academy inviting me to attend one of Peggy's cake decorating courses!!!  The only thing was, they had invited me to a course that was taking place 3 weeks after I was due to give birth to baby Jayden.  I knew there was no way I could attend a cake decorating course and leave my 3 week old at home. Luckily, Peggy's team was very understanding and told me to contact them when I was ready to take one of her courses.


A few months ago I got back in touch with Peggy's team and we decided on my course.  I'm so excited to tell you all that this Tuesday I will be spending the day with Peggy learning how to make this absolutely stunning Black and White Anemone Cake!!

I'm sooo looking forward to learning how to make this stunning cake and picking up tips from the master herself.  I can't wait to share my cake with you all when I'm done, so keep watching, and I'll post it soon!