April 2023

 

Simnel-Style Cake

A delicious cake filled with the flavors of lemon, almonds and ginger and topped with colorful marzipan! One of the villagers made this as part of the Kingdoms Easter celebrations last year, she even brought along some extra pieces of marzipan because she knows how much Princess Odette enjoys this tasty treat!

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

• 150g crystallized ginger, finely chopped

• 3 lemons (finely zested plus 7 tbsp juice)

• 250g golden caster sugar

• 250g butter, softened

• 6 large eggs, separated

• 225g self-raising flour

• 175g ground almonds

• 2 tsp ground ginger

For the Ganache:

• 150ml double cream

• 300g white chocolate, broken into squares

• 35g butter

For the Buttercream:

• 225g icing sugar

• 125g butter, softened

• 1 tbsp milk

• 50g white chocolate (to be melted and cooled)

For the Marzipan Balls:

• 250g marzipan

• edible gold dusting powder

• blue gel food colouring

• purple gel food colouring

• pink gel food colouring

• green gel food colouring

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4.

2. Grease the sides of 2 round, deep, loose-based cake tins (20cm). Then line the bases of the tins with baking paper.

3. Mix the lemon juice and lemon rind with the chopped ginger and set aside.

4. In a large mixing bowl, use an electric whisk to cream together the butter and sugar until pale and smooth.

5. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition.

6. Fold half of the flour, ground ginger and ground almonds into the mixture.

7. Fold in half of the lemon and ginger mixture.

8. Repeat with the remaining flour, almonds and lemon and ginger mixture.

9. Beat the egg whites until white and stiff with an electric whisk.

10. Add a large spoonful of egg whites to the cake mixture and fold in.

11. Use a large metal spoon to fold the remaining egg white in to the mixture until well combined.

12. Carefully divide the mixture between the prepared tins and bake for 35 mins or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.

13. Allow the cakes to cool in the tin for 5 minutes.

14. Turn the cakes out on to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

15. Whilst the cakes cool, you can start the white chocolate ganache. Firstly, put the chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl. 

16. Fill a bowl with water and place the bowl over the pan before slowly heating the water until it is barely simmering (make sure the bowl isn't touching the water).

17. Stir the chocolate until completely melted.

18. Add the butter and carefully remove the bowl from the pan.

19. Beat in the butter and allow to cool. 

20. Chill the ganache for 45 mins or until the mixture thickens to a spreading consistency.

21. Now you can start the buttercream. Begin by placing the icing sugar, milk and butter into a bowl. Then beat until smooth and combined.

22. Stir in the cooled, melted chocolate and set aside.

23. When the cakes are completely cold, sandwich them together with a thin layer of the white chocolate ganache in the middle.

24. Next, spread the buttercream all over the top and sides of the cake, keeping it nice and smooth.

25. Chill for 15 mins until firm.

26. Now spread the rest of the white chocolate ganache over the top and sides of the cake.

27. Allow to chill whilst you make the marzipan balls.

28. Divide the marzipan into 5 pieces, with one piece being slightly larger than the rest

29. Take the larger ball and divide it into 3 pieces.

30. Roll the three smallest marzipan pieces into balls.

31. Sprinkle some gold dusting powder on a small plate and gently roll the marzipan balls in it to coat them in the powder.

32. Take the remaining pieces of marzipan and add a different color to each piece before gently rolling them into balls of different colors.

33. Arrange the marzipan balls in a circle on top of the cake - or in any other way that you would prefer!

 

Build a Bird Feeder!

Princess Odette loves animals and seeing them all come out to explore. During spring, she loves hearing the birds and seeing them fly around. This bird feeder is fun to make and your animal friends will love it too! The Swan Princess always enjoys watching animals play and seeing their young families grow!

 You Will Need: 

Melamine Plate 

Melamine Bowl 

Melamine Salad Plate 

Rope (approx 0.5 inch thick) 

2 x Wooden Clothes Pin 

10 inch long, thin copper pipe (large enough to thread the string through).

 Method: 

1. Make a hole about ⅜-inch wide in the center of the plate, bowl, and salad plate. You can ask an adult to drill the hole, carefully twist a nail/tweezers or any other method that will create the desired hole. 

2. Thread a piece of the rope through the peg style clothes pin. 

3. Tie a knot on the shorter side of the peg so that it has a tail of about 3 inches. The rope on the other side of the pin will vary depending on how high/low you want the feeder to hang. Make sure you leave enough room to thread everything on including the pipe. 

4. Working from the peg (so that you build the feeder from the bottom), thread the salad plate on the rope until it is on top of the peg, then thread the bowl on top. 

5. Next, thread the rope through the copper pipe. 

6. Now turn the remaining plate upside down and thread it onto the rope. 

7. Place the second clothes pin above the plate, so that everything remains as close together as possible. 

8. Tie another knot above the peg. 

9. Hang your feeder in a tree or from another source so that the birds can get to it. You can tie the rope around a branch or make a loop at the end of the rope and carefully hook it somewhere. 

10. Add some food (e.g. bird feed) to your bowl and keep an eye for when your animal friends come to visit! 

Let us know the types of birds that you see, you might even spot some other animals depending on where you live, such as squirrels! You can decorate the plates and bowl before putting them together or leave them plain.

 

This April we are celebrating the birthday of the villain we love to hate, Rothbart! This makes Rothbart's zodiac sign Aries and his birthstone a diamond.

Aries are a very strong personality. They are loud, brave, passionate, and strong. They are warm and likeable with a big personality but get bored easily so they are constantly finding new ways to entertain themselves.

They love competition and even more than that they love to WIN competition. This makes them very driven to get exactly what they want out of life.

Aries thrives off attention and thrill-seeking adventures. They have a big presence and love to make an entrance.

Though they are courageous they can also be reckless. Aries are very honest and somewhat tactless, they always say what they're thinking.

The diamond symbolizes strength and has been worn by many powerful people in history, both good and bad, to bring strength and invincibility.

Is your birthday in April or do you just love the color of the sparkling diamond? Purchase your gemstone locket here!