I thought I was so organised when I planned to bake this cake, and I was determined not to replicate my mother’s infamous Mr Blobby cake disaster of 1991 (see below!).
So step one to creating a fire engine cake is to buy some good red food colouring. Unfortunately for me, it was 8pm on the Friday night before the two rule-of-six (because, 2020) parties were happening when I realised that the cheap supermarket food colouring was not going to create the dream fire engine red I had been imagining.
At best it was going to be a light pink. In my panic I also squeezed a whole tube of said supermarket colouring into the mixture, which unfortunately then tasted like penicillin. PANIC.
Quick text to the neighbours WhatsApp group resulted in another batch of supermarket colouring which I used to an acceptable volume – accepting the pink cake but removing the medicinal flavouring.
So…. here we go my top tips below!
Tip 1 – Buy high quality food colouring. My go-to now is the Sugarflair concentrated food colouring. The colours are deep, rich and delicious looking. You only need a small amount, melted into a smidge of water and then added to your recipe. Your cake will look like a fire engine, and taste like sugar. What more could you want?
Tip 2 when you go to Pinterest with your hopes high and your little one's smiling face in your mind, pick the easiest looking recipe you can see. In my defence, I thought i had done this but it was still so difficult!
Tip 3 prepare as much as possible, write a list of everything you need, don’t forget the tray or plate to display it.
Tip 4 is to give yourself time. Honestly, it’s all about the look. Start baking two nights before the party at least. Kids don’t care if it’s a little stale as long as it looks chocolatey and it's covered in icing
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