Make Mum’s Day

There’s no better way to show your mum how much you appreciate her than with a lovingly-prepared home-made gift – especially when it’s a delicious cake. Simpler than you might think to create, our beautiful cake is an impressive way to say it with flowers this Mother’s Day, and is sure to put a smile on her face – far more so than a box of shop-bought chocolates or a last-minute bunch of flowers.

Let’s get started

First things first, you need to make your base cake, using whatever size cake tins you have available – you could stack up a few layers using shallow tins or use a deep cake tin. It’s up to you what kind of cake you’d like to make, too. Anything will work, so we suggest going with your mum’s favourite – whether it’s chocolate, a Victoria sponge or fruit cake, it’ll be a lovely surprise when she cuts into it. Once you’ve baked your cake, let it cool on a wire rack, and get cracking with the marble-effect icing – don’t worry, it’s easier than it looks. All you’ll need is white fondant icing, food colouring (we went with pink and purple) and arolling pin.

Icing impact

Think it looks unachievable? Marbling fondant icing is actually a really quick and easy way to give your home bakes an elegant, unique and impressive finish.

All you need to do is divide your whitefondant icing, add a littlefood colouringto each portion, twist, roll and stretch to work them together, then roll out and… ta-da! You’ve just made a really beautiful icing effect – no fancy techniques required.

Sound too simple? That’s because itreally issuper easy.

The more times you twist and roll the fondant, the more marbled it will be. We made ours with shades of white, pink and purple, but you can change the colours to suit your mum’s tastes. And the best bit? It’ll look like you’ve gone to much more trouble than you actually have… we won’t tell if you don’t.

Once you have your lovely icing, lay it over your cake, smooth it down and trim the edges.

The (flower) icing on the cake

What’s better than a bunch of flowers? One you can eat. Finish your beautiful marble-effect cake with a pretty flower – it may look complicated, but withPME’s Large Flower Cutter Set, it’s surprisingly simple.

• First of all, roll out pink modelling paste to around 3mm thickness. We used different shades of pink to create an ombre effect.
• Using each cutter in turn, stamp out the three shapes.
• Starting with the smallest set of petals, ‘glue’ (using either a brush and water or edible glue) and fold the paste petals, joining the tabs so the petals pop up, creating a lovely 5-petalled flower.
• Repeat with the two larger sets, and then stack them up to create your bloom. Add a ball of paste to create the flower centre, and it’s ready to make a beautiful centrepiece on your Mother’s Day cake.

Finishing touches

One of the awkward parts of gifting a cake can be presenting it – most cake boxes don’t look all that special, which can ruin the effect of your lovingly baked creation. Give your gift the perfect finishing touch withPME’s Crystal Cake Gift Box– we tried it out with our Mother’s Day cake to make sure it was just right. Made from clear PET plastic, it comes in three parts – the base, sides and lid – so it can be assembled around your finished cake, rather than you having to carefully lower your cake inside (we all know how that sometimes turns out…). It even comes with a pretty golden bow, making for a truly spectacular gift that’s sure to make your mum feel special this Mother’s Day.

So what are you waiting for? Get baking your mum a gift she’ll never forget.

We’d love to see how you get on, so share your finished cake with us on social media and let us know how much your mum loved her special treat.