Festive Brief

OUGD405 - FESTIVE BRIEF 

For the edible type festive brief I chose to join my two flatmates to create a team of 3, I thought this would be more practical as we live together so can use our kitchen facilities and split the cost of ingredients. We came up with a range of ideas, our top two being either glyph-iteroles which would consist of profiteroles sculptured into the shape of  glyph, however as no-one had made these before we were unsure how complicated the recipe would be and how much time it would take. Our second idea was formed around a pun of the classic sandwich cake, the Victoria Ampersand-wich, this would consist of a Victoria sponge cake shaped into an ampersand. We felt this concept was far more achievable as we had all made the classic cake before and knew the recipe was relatively simple. 

We chose the Victoria Ampersand-wich concept as we felt it would be the most achievable and would produce the best quality result. We started by researching a range of recipes ultimately settling on Mary Berry's recipe from recommendation by family members. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mary_berrys_perfect_34317 We chose the largest tin we could find as the cutting would be intricate and would be easier to achieve a good quality rest with a larger cake, we then printed out an ampersand template that would within the cake in preparation for the cutting. 

We then started  by measuring out the ingredients and placing the mixture in a greased and lined tray to make it easier to remove from the tray after baking.  We had to cook the layers one a time due to the amount of oven space we had however this ensured ample time for the cakes to cool. When the cakes had cooled we then cut the ampersand shape from the large rectangular cakes, this was intricate and required patience and a steady hand. We then prepared the buttercream for the filling, when this was ready we placed buttercream and jam in the middle of the cake and placed the top layer of the cake forming the Victoria sandwich, we had some difficulty placing the layers of the cake together as cutting the intricate ampersand shape left the structure delicate and in danger of breaking, we achieved this by placing rows of string underneath the top layer of cake to then evenly lift it on top.

For finishing touches we dusted the top of the cake with icing sugar and placed chocolate dipped strawberries around the edge of the cake. I was extremely happy with our outcome, I think the finish was of a really high quality as the shape was representative of the ampersand and the cake looked a good golden brown colour. We then presented our cake in the completion, I think our cake looked good amongst the other entries, it also tasted really good, the cake was cooked well and I felt it was moist and rich.