Angel Cake

About

You Will Need (23 things)

Steps (27 steps, 180 minutes)

1. 1

   Level all the cakes and fill them with ganache. Push eight dowels through the bottom 20.3cm (8in) cake, 2.5cm (1in) from the edge, right down to the board. Start at 12, 6, 3 and 9 o'clock, then fill in the gaps, and add a dowel in the middle. Mark the dowels at the level the cake comes to with edible pen.

2. 2

   Take each dowel out and trim it to that level with wire cutters. You can sand the ends if they are wooden. Put the dowels back in the holes.

3. 3

   Spread ganache on the top of the cake to hide the dowels. Place a 17.8cm (7in) cake card on top and add ganache on top of this.

4. 4

   Place the second 20.3cm (8in) cake on top and then the 10cm (4in) cake card. Mark round this with a sharp tool. Push in the remaining lengths of dowel as before, in the middle and round the 10cm (4in) ring. Mark the height of the cake with edible pen, trim and replace as before.

5. 5

   Spread ganache on top to hide the dowels, then add the cake card and spread ganache on top.

6. 6

   Place one of the smaller cakes on top and mark round a 7.6cm (3in) cake card. As before, push in the remaining lengths of dowel in the middle and round the 7.6cm (3in) ring, mark and trim them to length and replace them, then place the final cake on top. Chill in the fridge.

7. 7

   Use a 20.3cm (8in) ready-made cake cone or make one as follows. Cut a circle 40.6cm (16in) in diameter from card, cut it in half and fold and tape into a cone 20.3cm (8in) tall. Draw round the base on card.

8. 8

   Draw tabs as shown, cut out the base and stick it to the cone with sticky tape.

9. 9

   Place the stacked cakes on a turntable with the cone on top, ready for carving

10. 10

    Dip a large knife in boiling water and begin carving, cutting an angle from the base of the cone to the base of the bottom cake. Keep wetting the knife so that it does not tear the cake.

11. 11

    Keep carving until you achieve an even cone shape, and then tidy up the edges.

12. 12

    Cover the layered whole cake and cone with ganache and chill.

13. 13

    The ganached cake.

14. 14

    Smooth the chilled ganache with a palette knife dipped in hot water.

15. 15

    Roll out white sugarpaste, lift it on a rolling pin and and offer it up to the cake.

16. 16

    Flip the sugarpaste over the top of the cake and wrap it round.

17. 17

    Trim off the excess with a small knife to create a neat join.

18. 18

    If there is a gap, create a patch to roughly the right size and shape and place this over it.

19. 19

    Trim to size to create neat joins. Smooth the sugarpaste with a smoother.

20. 20

    Cut triangles roughly 9cm (3½in high) and 4cm (1½in) wide at the base from sixty-four of the sheets of edible wafer paper. I do this by eye. Cut smaller ones 6.3cm (2½in high) and 2.5cm (1in) wide at the base from the remaining twenty sheets.

21. 21

    Use a piping bag to pipe a line of royal icing at the base of each triangle.

22. 22

    Stick the smaller triangles from the top, overlapping, until about 7.6cm (3in) down.

23. 23

    Then begin sticking on the larger triangles as shown. Cover the whole cake.

24. 24

    Roll out white flower paste and sprinkle it with edible glitter. Tip up the flower paste sheet to spread the glitter evenly.

25. 25

    Tip the excess back in the glitter pot. Use a snowflake plunge cutter to cut out snowflakes. Push down, wiggle, then push the plunger. Remove the snowflake from the cutter by pushing with your thumb. Make three sizes and leave them to dry overnight.

26. 26

    Where you are going to stick on a snowflake, first stick back the feather triangle with royal icing, so that it isn't weighed down. Stick on the snowflake with royal icing.

27. 27

    Allow two hours for the cake to set, then place it on a circular mirror for display. Decorate it with coils of crimped 26 gauge silver wire, hooked over the feathers. Place more snowflakes on the mirror. To make the star on top, feed 20 gauge wire through a big snowflake.