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1-Rose-Lychee-Cake_1
20Prep Time
12Serves
Easy

Rose & Lychee Cake

Celebrity recipe

5 Reviews

  • Vegetarian

About our Rose & Lychee Cake Recipe

Pretty as a flower and just as delicate to taste. One bite of this sponge will whisk you away to a quintessentially English country garden. Whilst lychee might not star in your everyday cake recipe, boy does this ingredient bring the flavour when paired with rose!

Thank you to Juliet Sear from 'Juliet Bakes' on ITV who shared with us this tasty recipe. You don't need an excuse to bake it, this sponge is perfect for any occasion.

Looking for more Juliet Sear bakes? Give our smores sandwich cookies a try or our elderflower and lemon cake.

20Prep Time
12Serves
Easy

Method

  1. Step 1:

    Preheat your oven to 180c / 160c fan / gas 4

  2. Step 2:

    Strain the lychees and set aside the syrup.

  3. Step 3:

    Cut the lychees into quarters and dry them between paper towels.

  4. Step 4:

    Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.

  5. Step 5:

    Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract.

  6. Step 6:

    Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and then fold them into the creamed butter mixture, pausing from time to time to add part of the 100ml (31/2fl oz) reserved lychee syrup, until that is all incorporated too.

  7. Step 7:

    Fold half of the prepared lychees into the batter.

  8. Step 8:

    Portion the batter into two greased and lined 15cm (6in) round baking tins.

  9. Step 9:

    Bake for 30-35 minutes

  10. Step 10:

    While the cakes are baking, prepare your buttercream. 

    Just as with calculating cake batter quantities, if you need more than the 1.5kg (3lb 5oz) of buttercream that this recipe makes, just multiply all the amounts. It’s worth making more than you need because running out before your cake is fully covered is something of a nightmare, so err on the side of generous when calculating amounts.

  11. Step 11:

    Place all the ingredients into a large bowl, or the bowl of your mixer. I use Silver Spoon icing sugar as there is no need to sift, but some other icing sugars may need sifting into the bowl to avoid lumps.

  12. Step 12:

    Set your mixer on a low speed, otherwise you will dust your entire kitchen in powdery icing sugar! Beat the ingredients together until they are pale and smooth. At this point you can add a little just-boiled water, a tablespoon or so at a time, on a low speed and then raise the speed to high. This helps to make the icing paler and more creamy. Add the rose water and the remaining lychees to it.

  13. Step 13:

    Once your sponges are baked and have thoroughly cooled, layer the sponges with buttercream between them, then crumb coat the outside of the cake with buttercream using a palette knife.

  14. Step 14:

    Apply a thicker layer of buttercream for the crystallised rose petals to adhere to. This layer doesn’t need to be completely smooth as it will be covered by the petals.

    4-Rose-Lychee-Cake.jpg
  15. Step 15:

    Starting on the top of the cake, apply the palest crystallised rose petals in a circle.

    5-Rose-Lychee-Cake.jpg
  16. Step 16:

    Continue to apply petals in circles of increasing size, gradually changing the petal colours as you get to the sides, until you reach the base with the darkest petals.

    8-Rose-Lychee-Cake.jpg

Ingredients

  • For the Cake

    • 1 can Lychee in syrup
    • 240g Allinson's Self Raising Flour
    • 2 tsp Baking powder
    • 1 tsp Salt
    • 240g Unsalted butter (room temperature)
    • 180g Billington's Unrefined Golden Caster Sugar
    • 3 Eggs
    • 2 tsp Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Extract
  • For the Buttercream

    • 500g Soft unsalted butter
    • 1kg Silver Spoon Icing Sugar
    • 2 tsp Nielsen-massey rose water
    • A few tbsp Just-boiled water (optional)

Utensils

  • 2 round cake tins, 5 x 15cm (2 x 6in)
  • Palette knife

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