Alice's Teapot Cake

This post is a double whammy...not only is it my entry for this month's Random Recipes hosted by Dom over at Belleau Kitchen, but the cake was also my contribution to the inaugral Wandsworth Clandestine Cake Club.

To choose a random recipe for the month of March, we were instructed to count along our bookshelf to cookbook number 17, then flick through with our eyes closed and whichever recipe you land on you should make. Well, it seems Random Recipes is here to challenge me, as after making a flaky pastry fruit slice in January, this month I randomly selected 'The Birthday Cake Book' by Fiona Cairns, who made the Royal wedding cake no less.

Having flicked to the page with Alice's Teapot Cake, I hummed and harred over whether to join in. Then a couple of days later I saw a new Clandestine Cake Club advertised in Wandsworth...and the theme...Mad as a March Hare, cakes inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Obviously, Alice's Teapot would be perfect for this. A very fortunate coincidence...and I promise there was no cheating involved in choosing my Random Recipe!

As the cake is round in shape, I used an Alan Silverwood spherical pudding mould. However, I did have to make the cakes twice...the first time they stuck to the mould, despite the instructions saying that a liberal covering of butter would result in them turning out perfectly...it didn't! It did however, taste lovely and light. The second time I didn't take any chances, I used Wilton Cake release and lined the tins a little.

The cake itself is a lemon madeira which was really tasty. There was lemon juice and zest in the sponge and then the cake was brushed with lemon sugar syrup, and finally there was also zest and juice in the buttercream...it was certainly zingy! To decorate the cake it was covered in sugarpaste which was decorated with blossoms and then finished off with piped royal icing. The spout and handle were made in advance out of Mexican modelling paste as they needed sufficient time to harden. The final product is a lovely little teapot, perfect for Alice!

So, now to the Clandestine Cake Club. If you haven't heard of it before then check out their website. Every month in locations around the UK, CCC groups meet up. There's always a theme for your baking and the idea is you take your offering along and sample all of the other delights on offer. Since, appearing on the One Show last month, more and more CCCs have sprung up, including a number in London.

The theme for the first Wandsworth meeting, as already mentioned was cakes inspired by Alice in Wonderland...and I have to say there was an amazing array...the Queen of Hearts, a drink me bottle, a clock face, the white rabbit, roses painted red, a catepillar and many more. You can check some of them out below.I thoroughly enjoyed my first cake club experience, everyone who attended was lovely and the cakes were divine as there was also an array of flavours. I'm looking forward to next month already!

* I've just found a new decorating challenge too, the theme is 'Anything Goes' so my teapot has been entered into the Decorating Challenge