My own British Bake Off

A short while ago my beloved bought me a book providing all the hints and tips you need to create show-stopping cakes. Some would take offence. Baking? Moi? Ardent feminist that I am? Get out. But not I. While - to borrow a phrase from Caitlin Moran - I am a strident feminist, I also like crafting and baking and traditional housewifely pastimes. So I took it as a hint that he would appreciate a show-stopping cake for his birthday.

I started with standard victoria sponge mix - putting a generous amount of blue food dye in one cake tin, and a good glug of orange in the other - then popped them in the oven for about 15-20 mins. Once cooked, cooled and sandwiched together with butter icing and jam, I got to work crafting the icing.

Ready to roll regal icing is really easy. It does exactly what it says on the box. I covered the whole cake in a thin layer of butter icing, piling a bit more on top (I hate marzipan) then gently layered on the icing rolled to around 5mm thickness. You use your palms to smooth it out, not your fingertips, as this will make sure it's dimple free.

Then the tricky stuff happens. Creating the 'ribbon' was a matter of dying the icing orange and then cutting out thin strips. The bow was a little challenging but also not as tough as it looks. You cut out five strips the same thickness, but two about double the length. Slice a triangle out of the bottom of these longer strips and they become your 'trailing ribbons'. For the bow, wrap the two next strips around a bit of rolled up kitchen roll to give them their shape. Carefully slide them off, pinch the ends and then place them together, wrapping the last strip around the middle. Et Voila, your bow. Now it's just a case of carefully transferring it onto the cake.

Finally I made the dots by dying the remaining white icing blue, using a small shape cutter and then attaching them to the cake with a tiny dab of water. Then I presented it to the birthday boy. He was thrilled, but a little alarmed that the dye job hadn't worked out quite as planned...

Perhaps a little more dye was needed? Oh well. Happy baking!