1930's Cake

The 1930's was an important decade for cake decorating; this was the decade in which the art of learning to bake became more widely available to the public, as well as the time period in which The Lambeth Method became popularised. The Lambeth Method refers to the technique of over piping, using royal icing, to create a 3D effect. This method is in fact still used today, and made a huge comeback in 2021.

The flavours which were most popular throughout this decade were Devil's Food Cake and Red velvet. The theme seemed to be, to have a dark cake with light and airy decorations. Colours which were popular included different shades of pink, light blue, lime green, champagne, and always had white trimmings made with royal icing.

However, cakes like this were only for the very wealthy, as this was also the decade of the great depression. This meant desserts with too much butter, sugar, or eggs could not be afforded to make or buy. Therefore, the average persons birthday or wedding cake in this decade was often a spice or applesauce flavour with very simplistic decorations.

For my cake I decided to go with a classic Devil's Food cake for the flavour, (recipe linked here: https://www.food.com/recipe/the-only-chocolate-cake-recipe-youll-ever-need-devils-food-26370). This cake was super easy to make, and I would definitely recommend it for anyone craving a nice chocolatey flavour. I also decided to use American Buttercream for this cake since it was much more popular than Swiss Meringue Buttercream at the time-big mistake! Although I have learned to make this buttercream less sweet, it still was not the consistency which I wanted it to be. I added cream by the teaspoon and it was always either too much or too little. The buttercream did eventually go on the cake smoothly, but it took an extremely long time to get there. In addition, I feel that Swiss Meringue buttercream just adds a much nicer flavour to the cake, as well as having a nicer setting (it doesn't form a crust).

My experience with using the royal icing was luckily much better. Royal icing is quite simple and easy to make as it only consists of egg whites, icing sugar, and lemon juice. To make it you simply whip up the egg whites until foamy, then slowly add in powdered sugar and lemon juice until it reaches the desired consistency. For piping intricate 3D details I made my icing a very thick and heavy consistency (soft peaks). To pipe the roses I used a Wilton 7 tip and formed them on parchment paper first before placing them on the cake. For all of the tiny dots and lace I used the Wilton 13 tip.

Something I realised from making this cake is that baking is a very unpredictable science: sometimes it will go exactly according to plan, and sometimes things will go wrong. What helps me deal with unpredictability in my baking is to always come up with a backup plan beforehand. That way I am prepared to fix the situation right away and get back on track!