Strawberry Lotus Cake

1. Blend the dry powders well. Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and eno.

2. Blend in Oil to the above.

3. Blend in Yoghurt and then Milk, till it is soft and creamy in texture.

4. Add strawberries. Blend well

5. Add colour.

6. You can blend the colour completely  or just stir with a fork to give it a striped designer look.

7. Preheat oven to 400 F

8. Bake in a round 8 inch pan for 20-25 minutes or till toothpick comes out dry

9. Cut the cake in half. Put Strawberry jam in between or butter cream icing/whipped cream icing with strawberry pieces.

1. Mix Shortening, Sugar, salt, vanilla essence. Add water spoon by spoon. Blend well. Add colour, blend.

2. Spread the cream in between the cake.

3. Join the 2 pieces of cake.

4. Ice the cake all over. This first layer of icing  is called crumb coating. It will set the cake crumbs together.

5. Refrigerate the cake for 15 -30 mts.

6. Ice the cake again properly the second time, refrigerate for 15 mts to half hour.

1. Blend fondant and gumpaste with the hands. Do not mix it on the  kitchen platform. The warmth of the hands will make it softer. Little vegetable shortening can be used to soften it.

2. Add the colour and blend well.

3. Take a small mound and cover the rest in a plastic bag or under a glass (it dries fast if exposed to air).

4. Dust the rolling board with confectioners sugar. Roll the mound like a thin chapati-1/8 inch thick.

5. Cut it according to the size of a petal stencil. ( The petal stencil should be made  from a thick paper/cardboard ,about half inch bigger than the height of the cake. You can combine 3 petals together and form a single petal , and 1 separate petal  to be used as a filler between two 3petal group ).The mound size  can be increased according to the size of the petal desired.

6. Let the fondant petals dry on the edge of a round curved inverted utensil/it can be dried on flat surface too. It takes about 1-2 days for it to harden.The Curved look will make it look realistic.

1. Take the petals one by one ( I had made one petal which looked like 3 petals combined together and another single petal) and stick it to the side of the cake with the help of butter icing.

2. Between two 3petal combo put a single petal

3. Cover the whole cake

4. Decorate the petals as shown in the picture  with pink butter cream icing from a plastic cone using tube number 3/4.

6. At the end, with a paint brush, take the corn syrup and touch the petals . It will look  like water droplets on the petals and give it the finishing touch.