Veronica’s Top Picks: Swan Cake Recipe

Soften the modelling paste, then roll into a sausage shape to the thickness that you want your swan’s neck to be. Shape the rolled icing in to a swan’s neck and head, flattening at the end to create a beak shape. Insert the dowel about half way up and trim to length, leaving enough of an end to poke into the cake (around 6cm to 8cm).

Leave to harden overnight or longer if possible. Do not take any short cuts with this process.

When dry paint the beak with the gold metallic paint and leave to dry.

To make the cake first preheat oven to 160◦C /Gas 3. Grease and line cake tin.

Add 115g softened butter, the caster sugar, the eggs, the flour, baking powder and strawberry flavouring into a medium sized bowl and beat until light and fluffy

Then divide the mixture in two and use enough food colouring to colour one half of the mix in to the shade of pink of your choice.

Spoon the cake batters into the cake tin, mixing the colours in a random fashion, and use a skewer to swirl the two colours together to create a marbled effect.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until well risen, firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins, turn out on to a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.

To make the Russian buttercream first whip 250g butter for around 5 to 8 minutes, or until it is really light and fluffy. The appearance of the butter will become much whiter as you do this.

Gradually add the condensed milk whilst still beating at a medium speed.

Be careful not to over whip the mixture

Note: This mix takes flavourings and colour really well. I like to add a pinch of salt to my mix to complement the sweetness.

In order to make the chocolate decorative feathers, gently melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan filled with a little hot water.

Lay out your parchment paper on a work surface. Pour a spoonful of white chocolate, in a puddle, on to the parchment (I’d advise working with around four ‘dollops’ at a time).

Using a palette knife or pastry brush spread the mix in one quick movement to get a feather effect. You can add extra texture using the tines of a fork but don’t spread too thinly or make holes in the chocolate. Leave the end where the ‘puddled’ chocolate relatively thick in order to make it easier to apply the feathers to the cake.

Tip: Try to make some different sizes of feathers, which will help with filling in any gaps and covering the cake more successfully).

Leave to set for at least half an hour in a cool place before peeling the feathers off the parchment.

To assemble: If you’ve made a deep cake cut it through the middle then sandwich the two pieces together with jam and buttercream.

Cover the outside of the cake in a thick layer of buttercream and, starting at the back, carefully stick the feathers to the buttercream, overlapping as you go. If you need to place the feathers on top of each other use some extra buttercream or melted white chocolate as glue.

Work your way round to the front one side at a time, trying to keep the front as neat as possible.

When you’re happy with the feather placement, attach the swan head on to the feathered body by pushing the skewer in to the cake.