Crown Cookie Cake
For tomato soup cake
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2 cups cake flour*
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4 teaspoons baking powder
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1 teaspoon baking soda
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1 1/3 cups sugar
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1.5 teaspoon cinnamon
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1.5 teaspoon ground allspice
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10 ounce/300ml can tomato soup
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1/2 cup/120 g melted butter or vegetable oil
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2 eggs, lightly beaten
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1/2 cup water
For icing
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250g/1/2 a pound cream cheese, at room temperature
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125g/4ozs butter
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3-4 cups of sifted icing sugar
For cookies
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85g/3ozs. butter
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3/4 cup caster sugar
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1 egg
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1 teaspoon vanilla
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1 1/2 cups flour plus extra for rolling
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1 egg yolk, extra
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1/2 cup sugar
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a few drops yellow food colouring
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Decorating pens (I used the Queen ones in white and pink)
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M&Ms to decorate and flowers-you can also use other hard candy or jubes, colourful cachous/nonpareils
To make 1 cup of cake flour, add 2 tablespoons of cornflour/cornstarch to a measuring jug and then top up to the 1 cup mark with plain/all purpose flour. Mix well.
1.Make the cookies first as they will have to dry. To make the cookies: In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until combined. Then stir in the flour and vanilla until combined. Take a sheet of cling wrap and pat down the cookie dough into a flattish circle. Refrigerate for about an hour. Meanwhile print off a stencil for the cookie pattern here . Trace onto some clean cardboard and cut out. Make some yellow sugar by placing the sugar in a ziplock bag along with a drop or two of yellow food colouring and close up firmly and shake to distribute the colour.
Step 2 - Dust a surface lightly with flour and then roll out the dough. Using a small paring knife use the cookie guide to make 13-14 cookies (a couple of spares just in case, I needed twelve for my cake). Place the cookies 1cm/half an inch apart on a parchment lined baking tray. Brush the tops lightly with egg yolk and the sprinkle with the yellow sugar. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool on tray.
Step 3 - Decorate the cookies using the pens and decorations as shown. The Queen pens set firm overnight although I found that the pink icing pen was much softer and took longer to set than the white. Other than that, I liked the tips given (straight, scallop and leaf) and being able to easily screw them onto the tubes.
Step 4 - To make the tomato soup cake preheat oven to 180C/350F. Grease and line a 20cm/8 inch springform tin with baking paper. In a bowl add the flour, baking powder, soda, sugar, cinnamon and all spice and mix well to combine. Add the tomato soup (undiluted), melted butter, eggs and water. Mix well until combined. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 60-65 minutes until a skewer inserted inside comes out clean. Allow to cool.
Step 5 - To make icing: beat the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes until smooth and there are no lumps. Add the icing sugar in three lots and beat until combined.
Step 6 - To assemble the cake: sometimes I get cakes that dome and sometimes I don't. We actually want one in this case but of course it didn't. I levelled off the top of the cake with a sharp knife and kept the scraps. I turned the cake over to give it a completely smooth surface and then added the scraps on top in the centre. Then using a thin layer of the frosting I made a crumb coat-this is a layer that will catch all of the crumbs. After you finish your crumb coat, refrigerate the cake for 30-60 minutes to set it. Then with a clean angled metal spatula layer a final coat of frosting, there should be enough to develop a peak smoothly. Don't worry too much about the sides as they will be covered by the cookies. To make the icing effect on top use the back of a teaspoon and drag the icing from the outside to the centre. Then attach the cookies to the side-mine only _just _fit!
Another look at the cake transporter-with handle!
Straws from LovelyLittleParties