thebigfatnoodle

For her Majesty… thebigfatnoodle’s Diamond Jubilee cake for the Queen

Posted by thebigfatnoodle on June 3, 2012 · 16 Comments 

While the cakes were baking, I was practising my union jack cake decorating skills.

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

As I sit here typing, I’m watching the Queen’s floating pageant take place on our TV. The 1,000 ships that are taking part in the flotilla will actually end up right outside our flat in London at the end of the day. Unfortunately, we no longer live there so we are instead joining in the festivities organised in Godalming this Bank holiday weekend.

I have been up since 8am baking furiously; my way of sharing in the wonderful spirit of celebration that has slowly been engulfing the UK as everyone gathers to party hearty everywhere for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Though I have been living in the UK now for almost 15 years, I’m not actually British. I still hold on to my Singaporean passport. However, what most people don’t know is that for a brief spell, my family were actually considered ‘British’. I was born in Hong Kong when it was still a British colony and my family therefore had British passports. My parents decided to give up their British passports when they moved to Singapore after I was born, and opted to become Singaporeans in the 1970’s before China took Hong Kong back under its rule in 1997.

I’ve been in the kitchen baking since 8am this morning! 🙂

Singapore too used to be a British colony and it remains to this day a Commonwealth member nation.

I studied the British curriculum at school, as students in Singapore still do, and we all dutifully took our GCE ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels, with our exam papers actually shipped to the UK to be graded.

It’s actually only occurred to me today how Great Britain and all it stands for has therefore played a HUGE part in my life, more than I actually realised. And then of course I ended up marrying an Englishman too.

So, today I have gone all out – we have hung bunting outside our front door (I’ve never bought or hung bunting before ever in my life…!) and I have baked a special cake just for the occasion. I was originally planning to make a traditional victoria sponge, but then I realise I wouldn’t have been able to decorate it the way I wanted to. So, I’ve made a very simple but delicious vanilla sponge cake, layered using traditional English strawberry jam and fruits, covered in buttercream frosting and then topped with more fruit designed with the Union Jack in mind.

Hip, hip, hooray!

All over the UK today, I know hundreds of families have created similar union jack cakes. I love the idea that for once, British reserve is cast aside, and people have unleashed their patriotism to pay tribute to Queen and country.

Our contribution to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Tomorrow, I will do more baking – traditional English picnic food – as friends will be gathering at our house before we all trek into Godalming town centre to watch the special Queen’s Jubilee fireworks display – one of hundreds of displays up and down the country.

Happy Sunday everyone, and happy Diamond Jubilee celebrations to all!

Lots of love

thebigfatnoodle

The extra Jubilee celebration cupcakes I made had milky bar white chocolate buttons, strawberries and blueberries.

thebigfatnoodle’s special Diamond Jubilee vanilla and summer fruit cake

Click here for a printer-friendlier version. 

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius. You’ll also need 3 18cm sandwich cake tins and 5-6 muffin cases and a muffin tray. The amount below enabled me to make a 3 layer vanilla cake and 5 extra large cupcakes.

260 grams self raising flour

260 grams sugar

260 grams butter

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

1 tablespoon milk

Strawberry jam

Fresh fruit for decorating

I made a really nice buttercream frosting that I found online – it was divine! The blog I took it from has amazing pictures to show you how it’s made so here’s the link from the Tasty Kitchen if you want to learn to make it.

Cream your butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Gradually add your eggs, one at a team, continuing to beat the mixture. I would ensure at least 30 seconds to 1 minute of beating before you add each egg. Then add your vanilla essence and milk and beat in.

Finally, add your self-raising flour and fold in well.

Distribute your cake mixture evenly between the tins and put any extra batter into muffin cases.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Wait until your cakes have cooled completely before decorating with buttercream and fruit. I used a traditional organic strawberry jam between one of my cake layers and then piled raspberries, blueberries and more buttercream on the second layer.

I decorated the extra cupcakes with buttercream, milky bar buttons, blueberries and strawberries.

For her Majesty. Happy Diamond Jubilee everyone!

Enjoy!