Beach Cake

I designed this beach cake for a farewell party for a friend. They said that they would miss the beach most about Australia so I took the things that stood out to me as the beach. A marbled like blue effect for the icing representing the ocean, crushed up wafers to represent the sand, a fondant beach ball and towel and a little umbrella just cause it was cute. It was made of three layers the bottom dark blue, the middle light blue and the top white with white icing defining the different layers.
The recipe was a basic white cake which was delicious (my go to cake recipe, when i have no clue) and a basic butter cream (I have learnt actually following the measurement makes SO much difference in the taste!)

Here is my White Cake recipe 

Ingredients

·         2 1/4 cups cake flour

·         1 cup milk at room temperature

·         6 large egg whites at room temperature

·         2 teaspoons almond extract

·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·         1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

·         4 teaspoons baking powder

·         1 teaspoon table salt

·         1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened but still cool

Instructions

1.       Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8-inch cake pans.

2.       Make sure milk and eggs are room temperature.

3.       Pour milk (I used skim) , egg whites, and extracts into medium bowl and mix with fork until blended.

4.       Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter, cut into cubes and continue beating on low for about 1-2 minutes.

5.       Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to flour mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat for about 1 minute.

6.       Pour batter evenly between two prepared cake pans.

7.       Bake until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 27 to 30 minutes.

8.       Allow cake to cool to room temperature.

9.       Frost cakes with favorite frosting.

You can you any icing you want even pre-made ones and just colour them with food dye to get the icing the colour you want. If you want the marbled effect don't mix it fully mix it in a tiny bit and as you apply the colour it will blend even more. 

To get the crumbs I crushed up wafers in a ziplock bag and had fun rolling a rolling pin over and over again (lots of fun)
To make the ball I rolled a ball out of fondant in my hand and then hand painted food dye onto it (with a tiny paint brush) I then pressed a little silver sugar ball on top 
To make the beach towel I took a section of fondant and then added a few drops of pink colouring and massaged it through till I got a solid colour then rolling it out and cutting a rectangle. I then did the same with the yellow but into tiny strips to have a stripped towel securing it on with a little water. To make it look 3D as it was setting i put a tool for shaping fondant underneath to support it creating that wave shape.

* apply a crumb coating for best results for icing cakes - this is a thin layer on the raw edges of the cake to prevent the curmbs of the cake getting into the final layer of icing

** you can freeze a cake for 30 mins before you ice to prevent lots of crumbs in the icing it however i have found that the icing goes funny when the cake starts to come to room temp but thats just me try it out or if you know what works for you stick to that :) and comment your successes or failures below (we have all had them) 

any questions? just comment :)