A delicious sponge layer cake with easy fondant pears and apples decoration: perfect for birthdays or any other celebration! Even if it looks very elaborated, this cake is not too hard to make: if you don't believe it, keep reading! Below you will find the step-by-step recipe, useful decoration tips and quick video tutorial showing you how to make this cake by yourself.
What kind of cake is that
This cake is made of two delicious vanilla sponge layers, sandwiched with mascarpone maple frosting. It is all covered with buttercream frosting on top, below the fondant. The simple drawings of fruits are made by hand. On top the cake is decorated with simple fondant shapes of pears and apples. It is very impressive and delicious, yet, one of the best cakes for beginners in fondant decoration since it doesn't require special skills.
I made this cake for an online competition, following a design from their gallery. Unfortunately I can't link to the original design because the competition site does not exist any more.
How to make the layers
Baking the layers is easy and you only need one cake pan. The easiest would be to prepare the base with self-raising flour but you can also use all-purpose flour mixed with baking powder.
How to make the frosting
The mascarpone frosting is very easy: just beat with a mixer all ingredients until thick and creamy.
For the buttercream frosting you would need to cream the butter and gradually add the sugar until light and fluffy.
Find all ingredients and the detailed preparation steps below the post, in the recipe card.
How to make the decoration
To make the decoration, you would need to cover the cake with fondant and then paint it with edible food colouring. Use gel and powder food colouring dissolved with some alcohol in order to make it similar to watercolours. If this is your first time painting on fondant, you can try first on a piece of thick paper in order to understand how much you would need to dissolve the colours.
Making the fondant fruit shapes is quite easy: almost like using play dough. Watch the video below to see how I made them!
If you like this cake you might also want to see some of my other simple fondant cakes:
- Easy Cherry Strawberry Layer Cake with Fondant Flowers
- Puzzle Cake with Ricotta Filling
- Funfetti Cake with two kinds of Buttercream Frosting
- Spiderman Themed Healthy Coconut Date Cake
In case you made a similar fondant fruit cake, I would be really happy to see your creation! Please tag me in Instagram on your photo or comment below the post!
📝 Recipe
Sponge Cake with Fondant Fruits Decoration
Ingredients
For the cake base:
- 1 cup / + 2 tablespoon / 150 g self-raising flour, sifted (see notes)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 large eggs, divided
- 1 ¼ cup / 250 g sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the maple frosting:
- 1 ¼ cup /300 g mascarpone
- ⅞ cup / 200 g sour cream
- ½ cup/ 100 ml maple syrup
For the buttercream frosting:
- ⅔ cup/ 150 g butter, soft
- 2 cups/ 250 g powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Decoration:
- 2 lbs/ 1 kg fondant
- Gel food colouring
- Few drops of alcohol
- Optionally: dust food colouring
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350º F/ 180º C.
- Line a 9 inch/ 23 cm cake pan with a circle of baking paper. Grease well inside the pan.
- In a small bowl combine flour and salt and set aside.
- In a large bowl beat the egg yolks with sugar and vanilla until thick. Wash the beaters and dry them out with a towel.
- In another bowl beat the egg whites for about 5 minutes, until thick.
- Using a rubber spatula, gradually fold the dry ingredients into the egg yolk mixture, until absorbed. At the end carefully fold in the egg whites.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from oven and let cool for 10 minutes in the pan before transferring it to a wire rack.
Maple frosting:
- In a large bowl beat all ingredients until fluffy.
Buttercream frosting:
- In a large bowl beat butter and vanilla. Gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
To assemble and decorate:
- Using a serrated knife cut horizontally the cake in two equal layers. Place one layer on a cake plate, cover with the whole mascarpone frosting and place the second layer on top.
- Frost the cake all around with the buttercream frosting. Cover it with the fondant.
- Draw fruits on the fondant with the gel food colouring dissolved in alcohol. Make fondant fruits in different colours (for details see the video).
Notes
- Instead of self-raising flour you can use all-purpose flour mixed with 2 teaspoon baking powder.
- If you don't want to cover the cake with fondant, you can place the fondant fruits on top of the buttercream frosting. Don't place them on top of the mascarpone frosting as they would melt!
- The recipe was updated in November 2020: clarified that it calls for "self-raising flour" and not just for "cake flour"; added some useful details.
- The layers recipe was adapted from The Golden Book of Desserts
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