Our friend's daughter was turning 9 this year.. LIke every year ,we were thinking of picking up some present...But then suddenly I changed my mind and said.. NO.. I m making the birthday cake for her... as a present!! Fully excited and a bit worried too as to how the new aluminium mould would work.. Thanks to this lovely mould from India... It gave no trouble.. like most non -stick dooo... and came out perfect.
No Chocolate Cake this time!! This was the first thing I told myself.. when I decided on the cake..
Browsed a little while and boiled down to Madiera Cake..  .Undecided on the filling and topping I went on to bake the cake. Since I had lost touch... , after pouring the batter into the mould ,I realised tat it was sufficient only for half the cake :(  Had to repeat the whole process... ..
In the meanwhile , I decided on the mascarapone filling and topping with strawberries instead of buttercream frosting !!

The cake came out fantastic .. I managed to hand it over to birthday gal's mother on time and we refrigerated it.. The lil gal loved... it ... and we took out the cake from the fridge just before the cake cutting... It sliced beautifully... and she loved it!!  But... It was quite firm....
Felt very gulity.. and kept wondering the reason behind it!!  Next day my H took the rest of the Cake to work and kept warning his collegues .. that its a bit firm so b careful.... All his friends just stared at H and said.. " Whats wrong with u ?" Its Amazing ... and very soft!!
We realised that we forgot the basics... We need to put it out from the refrigerator... atleast 2 hours before....

INGREDIENTS:

For the 2 layer madiera cake :

Unsalted Butter	350gms
Caster Sugar	350gms
Eggs	6 Nos
Plain Flour	200gms
Self Raising Flour	300gms

DIRECTIONS :

• Preheat the oven to 175 C & line the baking tin with butter paper at the bottom and grease it with butter all around. You might need to line 2 tins together or do them in 2 batches.
• In a mixing bowl , sift the flours and keep it aside.
• Cream the butter until fluffly followed by the addition of sugar. Beat it until well incorporated.
• Add eggs one after the other and beat well , followed by the incorporation of flours.
• Using an hand blender , wisk the mix for about 1-2 minutes until all the lumps are gradually gone.
• Spoon the batter slowly into the prepared tin . Make a slight dip in the centre of the cake . This helps to get an even top after baking.
•  Bake for 45 minutes and check every 5 minutes hence forth  until the skewer inserted comes out neat.
• Allow the cake to cool for 5 minutes before we remove it from the baking tin.

Mascarapone Mixture for filling & topping:

( Adapted from Passionate About Baking )

Mascarpone	350gms
Sugar	8 Tsps
Single Cream	100ml

Directions:

• Beat the mascarpone and sugar till smooth and thick. Add in the single cream , beat it and make it spreadable.

Filling Ingredients:	Directions for filling:
Mascarpone Filling 150gms strawberries, chopped into small pieces	Spread the mascarpone filling over the bottom layer of the cake. Fold in the chopped strawberries, and sandwich the cake .

For Topping:	Directions for Topping:
Mascarpone Topping 50gms strawberries, sliced Dark chocolate shavings for garnishing!	Frost cake with the mascarpone mixture. Garnish with sliced strawberries around the cake and in the sides . Add a bit of chocolate shavings to complete the decoration.

Cheers