MOANA LAYER CAKE
SERVES 30 PREPARATION: 20 MIN BAKING: 35-40 MIN CAKE 150g cocoa powder 600ml boiling water 360g butter, softened 625ml (2½c) castor sugar 10ml (2t) vanilla essence 6 eggs 750ml (3c) self-raising flour 10ml (2t) baking powder 2,5ml (½t) bicarbonate of soda pinch of salt ICING 4 quantities basic butter icing (recipe opposite) green and blue food colouring TO DECORATE 600g chocolate wafer logs sugar flowers brown sugar for sprinkling Moana and Maui figurines (available at most toy stores) Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 22cm and an 18cm cake tin with nonstick spray and line with baking paper.
1 Cake Add the cocoa powder to the boiling water and stir until mixed. Leave to cool. 2 Cream the butter and castor sugar until fluffy. Add the vanilla essence then the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition.
3 Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into the butter mixture and gently mix until just combined. Fold in the cooled cocoa.
4 Divide between the baking tins and bake for 35-40 minutes. Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, cut both cakes in half horizontally.
5 Icing Prepare the butter icing. Colour 250ml (1c) with blue food colouring and 250ml (1c) with green food colouring and set aside.
6 On a cake board, sandwich the two larger cake halves together with some of the plain icing. Do the same with the two smaller halves. Put the smaller sandwich cakes on top of the larger and cover the top and sides with plain butter icing. It doesn’t have to be perfect as it will be covered.
7 To decorate Start packing the logs tightly next to one another around the bottom and top tiers of the cakes, leaving a 15cm gap at the front. 8 Put a grass icing nozzle on a piping bag and spoon in the green icing. Pipe grass around the edge of the bottom tier of logs then in the gap at the base of the top tier of logs. 9 Using a palette knife, spread blue icing from the top tier to the bottom to form a waterfall. Pipe more grass along the sides and top of the waterfall. Pack sugar flowers on the grass next to the waterfall. Scatter brown sugar on the top tier, on the grass and in between the two tiers between the logs. Put the figurines on top.
(Turn over)