Spring Themed Mini-Cakes

It's Spring Day!

That announcement should be followed by some sort of tra-la-la, shouldn't it?! Picture Julie Andrews singing on the foothills of the Alps...The hills are alive...

etc...

Yes, well...

The Alps are very very far away so we'll just celebrate with cake instead.  

       

I made this sponge cake in three different colours, planning on 3-layered mini cakes. But while that would have been visually appealing, they'd have been too much of a mouthful. And considering they were for real-life tea, not Instagram or Facebook-life tea,  I settled on two layers. 

I still need to try the three layered look sometime (for sharing on IG and FB, of course), but in the meantime...

To get the colours true, without yellow undertones coming through, I used an oil-based sponge recipe, and replaced whole eggs with egg whites only. 

Spring-Coloured Vanilla Sponge Cake

Ingredients:
200g egg whites (or 4 whole eggs if you're not colouring the batter) 
400g caster sugar
320g cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
250ml milk
100ml vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract 
Gel colours - pink, blue, purple

Method:
Set the oven temp to 175'C
Grease and line 3 x 8 inch round cake pans 

Mix the milk and oil together in a jug, and heat in microwave for 2 min on high. Set aside for 10-15 minutes.

Place the sugar, vanilla extract and eggs in a mixer, and beat on medium-high for 6 minutes, until pale and fluffy.

Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together. 

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the egg mix, then half the milk mix; gently blending in between.  
Repeat; ending with the dry ingredients. 
Mix until just combined. 

Divide the batter evenly between 3 bowls. Add colour to each bowl, stir until uniformly mixed.

Pour the batter into 3 x 8 inch cake pans and bake for 20 minutes, or until the sponge springs back when touched. 

Cool in the pans. 

When completely cool, use a scone cutter / round cookie cutter to cut out circles of cake (trim the tops flat, if necessary). 

Pipe swirls of icing on top of half of the rounds, and top with a different-coloured circle of cake. 

Pipe another rose swirl on top, and add some "leaves". 

The icing used here is swiss meringue buttercream flavoured with rose water, which pairs beautifully with this light sponge.  

Happy baking, and happy (Southern Hemisphere) Spring Day!

xxM