Crumbs!: Sprinkles and ...Scalpels?

So following on from where I ended the previous post OH SO MYSTERIOUSLY...

The university project that reignited my interest in cake making was a Student Selected Module in Creative Anatomy.

I should probably point out at this point that I am a medical student, and that this module was to encourage understanding of the structure of the human body through some kind of creative media...

I'm sure the module leaders were expecting a nice anatomical sketch or a creative video explaining some complex process deep within the body. What I don't think they were expecting was for a student to submit a cake.

Now I bet all sorts of questions are running through your head as to what sort of body-themed cake I made, so I will prepare you...

The topic we were studying was "Reproduction and Endocrinology" - in short, making babies and hormones.

Given the choice between the two, I chose reproduction and dutifully set out planning a cake to be examined.

Medical students are a strange (and generally non-squeamish) breed of people, and as a result I found researching the human body to turn into cake form completely normal.

(I understand that this is not the case with all people, and you may find this cake really rather odd, but bear with - I promise future cake posts will be a lot more "normal").

Anyway, I finally came up with my project - an anatomically accurate uterus cake.

Now, if you have not been totally revolted, or fallen off your chair with shock - I'd like to share with you how. This is perhaps not a cake for a dinner party (though of course you could, who am I to judge?) but more of a novelty and also illustrates the path I've taken to begin baking.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

~

Uterus Cake!

You will need:

For the cake:

125g/4oz self-raising flour
125g/4oz margarine
125g/4oz caster sugar
2 eggs
A little milk (if required)
13” cake board

For the buttercream:

140g/5oz butter, softened
280g/10oz icing sugar
1-2 tbsp milk (if required)

For decoration:

500g of pink fondant icing
1 pack of strawberry “lances”
1 pack of strawberry laces
1 pack of blue raspberry laces
1 sheet pink rice paper
2 pink jelly sweets to be ovaries
Edible glue
1 red food colouring pen

Method:

1). Prepare the cake.

1. Heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

2. Line two 18cm/7in cake tins with baking parchment

3. Cream the butter and the sugar together until pale. Use an electric hand mixer if you have one.

4. Beat in the eggs.

5. Sift over the flour and fold in using a large metal spoon.

6. The mixture should be of a dropping consistency; if it is not, add a little milk.

7. Divide the mixture between the cake tins and gently spread out with a spatula.

8. Bake for 20-25 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

9. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before turning on to a wire rack to cool.

2). Prepare the buttercream.

1. Beat the butter in a large bowl until soft.

2. Add half of the icing sugar and beat until smooth.

3. Add the remaining icing sugar and one tablespoon of the milk and beat the mixture until creamy and smooth.

4. Beat in the rest of the milk, if necessary, to loosen the mixture to a spreading consistency.

3). Once cool, cut the cake into the correct shape.

1. Cut both layers into the shape of the uteral body. You're aiming for a vaguely upside down pear shape. (I would suggest cutting the two layers together whilst stacked to ensure that their both the same shape).

2. Then cut the top layer in half, to allow a cross-section.

4). Stick the cake to the board using a little of the buttercream.

1. Fill the overlap between the two layers with a layer of buttercream and a layer of jam.

5). Ice the cake with fondant

If you're unsure of how to do this stage there are some really good youtube tutorials giving demonstrations. I'd recommend this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIdTF8SfnwQ - and just adapting the shape.

1. Knead a generous amount of fondant icing until it’s smooth and pliable.

2. Dust a work surface with icing sugar, and roll the icing out, smooth-side down until it is 3-5mm thick and large enough to cover the top and sides of the cake.

3. Taking the buttercream you have just prepared, carefully spread a thin layer over all sides of the cake with a spatula.

4. Carefully roll the icing onto your rolling pin, then unroll it on surface of the cake.

5. Smooth the icing across the top of the cake and carefully ease it smooth along the sides.

6. Trim the excess icing, leaving a small border and press smooth against all surfaces of the cake.

7. Leave the icing to set for 2-3 days before decorating.

6). Decorate the cake

1. Take some of the excess icing and roll it into a short tube, this will be your cervix. Place it at the bottom of the uterus cake.

2. You can make a small hole in the end by rotating the tip of a knife, to form a small hole called the external os.

3. Draw a border for the walls of the uterus with your food colouring pen. You can later add more detail to the muscle fibres if you wish (see final image).*

4. Use some more of the pink fondant to roll 2 long sausage shapes, these will be the fallopian tubes.

5. Attach the fallopian tubes with the edible glue to the two corners of the uterus.

6. Take the pink rice paper and cut into it, stopping a cm from the top, so that it continues to be joined. These are the fimbriae (a fringe of tissues which sweeps the egg into the fallopian tube).

7. Using edible glue, stick these around the end of each fallopian tube.

8. Take each of your 2 jelly sweets and stick them under the fallopian tubes.

9. Take a small length of strawberry lance, and stick this between the jelly sweet and the corner of the uterus. This is the ovarian ligament.

10. In the same way, stick another length of strawberry lance to the lateral edge of the “ovary” sweet. This is the suspensory ligament, which holds the uterus in place.

The final stage of decoration...

...is to add the vessels. I have only added them to one side of the cake. However, you could add them to both sides if you wish.

11. Take a cocktail stick and poke some small holes into the side of the cake, these will be entrance points for your vessels.

12. Next, take the strawberry (arteries) and blue raspberry laces (veins) and feed them into the holes.

*This is the point at which I added some extra detail to the edges by drawing repeated dashed lines with the food colouring pen within the borders previously drawn.