Cooking Corner: Great A'Tuin Cake

by Dobbin

The Discworld is supported atop A'Tuin's back by the four great elephants Berilia, Tubul, Great T'Phon and Jerakeen, and the whole assemblage is circled by the small discworld sun and moon. With this ambitious recipe you will create a Great A'Tuin Cake.

You need to make 2 round sponge cakes from the following recipe

Cake

230g (8oz/2 cups) self raising flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

230g (8oz/1 cup) margarine

230g (8oz/1 cup) caster sugar

4 eggs, whisked

Cake method

1) Pre heat the oven to 160°c

2) Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl add the eggs and margarine and sugar.

3) Beat with a wooden spoon until glossy.

4) Spoon into the two round sponge tins and bake for 20 mins. Leave to cool.

If you want a chocolate flavour, you can add 1 tablespoon of cocoa blended with 1 tablespoon of boiling water to the mix and fold in. If you prefer citrus, just add 4 teaspoons of lemon, orange or lime zest to the mixture and fold in.

You can buy sugarpaste icing from a specialist shop or large supermarket that don't contain raw egg (considering the health risks from raw eggs) and is excellent quality. If you buy the icing you can skip the following (but don't forget the colouring and the sweet).

Icing

3 egg whites

3 tablespoons of warmed liquid glucose

1 kilo (2 and a quarter lb) icing sugar

Green food colouring

Black food colouring

Hexagonal or octagonal cutter

1 small sweet to make the eye (jelly tot or Smartie)!

Icing method

1) In a large bowl, stir together the egg whites and the glucose. Add the icing sugar and mix together using a knife.

2) Once the icing has formed together, remove and knead with your fingers until it forms a ball.

3) If the icing is too soft, knead in more sugar until it is firm and pliable.

4) Colour 1/2 of the icing green and the other half black.

Butter icing

75 g (3 oz) softened unsalted butter

225g (8 oz) icing sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 teaspoons milk

Butter icing method

1) Put the butter, sugar and vanilla essence and 1 tsp milk in a bowl and mix. Add the rest of the milk as you go. Use an electric mixer for a smoother mix.

Assembling the cake

1) Cut one cake into 6 equal triangular portions which will form the head, limbs and tail. Trim to form the shapes better.

2) If you have a cake board you can put the cake on this, otherwise a large tray will do. Stick the cut pieces to the remaining cake using the butter icing and a pallet knife.

3) Roll out and place the green icing on the body of the turtle. Roll out half the black icing. Cover the legs and head and tail of the turtle with the black icing.

4) Roll out the rest of the black icing and cut into hexagons or octagons. Place on top of the green icing to get a shell effect. Add the eye.

If you squint at the cake it looks almost like The Great A'tuin floating through space. You can stick in the candles and pretend they are stars (or comets, or in my case, a galaxy).

Next month: The Fourecks barbecue. All the tips and advice to avoid that 'burnt offerings' sensation.