England Birthday Cake

This cake was for a cousin who had recently turned 18. What does he like? He loves England and everything about it. So, this cake was England themed.

I started out by baking one layer of 10-inch square chocolate cake, which I cut into four layers of 5-inch square cake and two layers of 6-inch chocolate chip cake which I cut into four layers as well.

Then I filled and stacked the cake with dairy-free Swiss meringue buttercream. First, the six-inch layers onto a cake board.

Then I crumb coated the cake in dairy-free Swiss meringue buttercream.

 I also stacked the five-inch chocolate cake layers the same way, but this time I included a thinner cake board underneath the stack because I knew I would be stacking it on top of the other tier. This one also ended up taller than the other tier.

 After the crumb coat had set up, I frosted it again taking my time to get the edges as straight as I could.

 Then I covered the tiers in white fondant. I have a hard time covering square cakes, so I've found it most helpful to make a seam at the corners.

 Then I put nine dowels in the bottom tier and placed the top tier on top of it.

 Now we have a blank slate. I marked a line down the center of both tiers with the back of a knife.

 Then I cut one-inch strips of red fondant.

 And laid them onto the lines in a cross pattern. Kind of like a giant present.

 Then I cut half-inch strips of red and did the same thing on the corners.

 Now we have a star pattern.

 Next, I cut one-inch strips to be centered in the white part of the bottom tier.

 I surrounded all sides like this.

 Then I cut 3/4-inch strips of blue fondant to continue that line on the top tier. I needed two different widths because the tiers are different sizes.

 When the strip reach the top, I trimmed it into a triangle shape to fit into the gap. It was meant to look like the Union Jack. Which I think it really did.

 I wasn't quite happy with the bottom line of the cake, so I extruded a hexagonal line of black fondant and covered the bottom edge of the cake.

 Then I rolled out some black fondant, and looking at a picture of Big Ben, I cut out the silhouette of Big Ben, pressing the details into the fondant with the back of a knife.

 Then I carefully laid Big Ben onto one side of the cake.

 I did the same general thing to create a silhouette of London Bridge.

 And I used a couple circle cutters to create the giant Ferris wheel.

 On the last side, I simply created the silhouette of an old-fashioned telephone cell. I think it worked.

 Finally, I placed the number 18 all over the cake in semi-random places.

 I love how this cake turned out. The height left me with some challenges, but I think it worked out.

 I mean, what fan of London wouldn't love a cake like this?

 And it was special because I knew I was able to bring joy into my cousin's life with it.

 Happy 18th Birthday, John.

Watch us make the entire cake on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/k-RCFQ1bsSs
Schaut zu, wie wir die ganze Torte machen auf unserem YouTube Kanal hier: https://youtu.be/JotU8vQA178