Xmas Tree Sponge Cake

I baked this sponge cake for our friends Katie and Michael's Chrismas party last night.
I wanted to give the cake a seasonal touch so I cut out a Christmas tree shape, then rolled out some green icing and cut out the same shape.

I spead jam over the cake then added the icing ontop (the jam helps the icing stick onto the cake).
Then using red icing, I created mini balls and cake decoration.
The mini xmas pictures are edible too :o)



Sponge Cake Recipe:
I used double these quantities as I wanted a BIGGER cake, but for a round cake this is what you would need:

125g butter, softened
250ml white sugar (I used castor sugar)
3 large eggs
500ml cake flour
15ml baking powder
2.5ml salt
5ml vanilla essence
100ml milk
50ml water

Method:
- Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add this to the creamed mixture, along with vanilla essence, milk and water.
- Mix with a wooden spoon until smooth.
- Spoon into deep 20cm or 23cm greased cake pan (I used a bigger pan so I can cut out the xmas tree shape)
- Bake in preheated oven at 180c for 45-60 minutes until golden in colour (45 minutes was enough for mine).
- Cool on cooling rack, then split the middle and fill with strawberry jam (if required).

Left Over Pieces of Cake:
I decorated the left over pieces of cake with chocolate icing, smarties, mini eggs and dolly mixture.