I made my first Lambeth cake with a very specific request from a young lady --- cake to be covered in red cream and decorated with black cream and pearls to match the dress she would wear for her birthday. I was honestly out of my comfort zone because my cakes tend to be naked and natural or pastel colored but I took the chance to learn something new. Total newbie at this!
What's in this cake?
- Vanilla chiffon sponge brushed with cherry syrup
- Canned cherries and cherry raspberry strawberry Italian meringue buttercream between sponge layers
- Strawberry whipped cream for frosting the cake
- No-dye black buttercream for piping black frills and details (adapted from Sugarologie) . Made some tweaks because Singapore is so hot)
- Fresh cherries and sugar pearls for decoration
I love it that I didn't have to add any artificial black colouring to achieve a deep black colour but because I substituted some butter with shortening, I had to use a little charcoal powder to deepen the colour. The vibrant red is achieved by using red powdered colouring that's used by the Chinese in Southeast Asia for dyeing food like red eggs or kueh like Ang Ku Kueh. I find it much better than other Western brands of red colouring as a little is enough to achieve a vibrant red without leaving any weird aftertaste.
Here's a peek at the filling layers...
Sharing other views of the cake because I was rather pleased that it looked nice despite little imperfections here and there!
Thank God my friend and her daughter were willing to be my guinea pigs and the cake was well received!
with love,
Phay Shing
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