Showstopper red pepper cake

A stunner.

This red bell pepper cake by  36-year-old Rivonia resident Nolwazi (Lwazi) Ydrestal is a show stopper.

She is one of five regional winners of the Capsicum Chef Talent Scout competition and her baking skills landed her a one-year bursary at the country’s top chef school.

The inspiration of the cake was from the rules of the competition to make something red, she added bling of nonpareils (sprinkles) inside so that they pour out as the cake is cut.

The Red Capsicum Cake

Ingredients
2 eggs
100ml sugar
50ml sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
½ tsp pink food colouring
1½ cups of flour
1 tsp baking powder
250g white margarine
4 cups icing sugar
Red and green fondant
Bling nonpareils, sprinkle or hundreds and thousands
Red food colouring

Method

Set oven at 150°C.
Whisk eggs and sugar until pale yellow.

Add oil, vanilla essence and food colouring and mix well. Sift the dry ingredients and add gently to the egg/sugar mixture. Make sure there are no lumps but do not over mix. Pour mixture into a 15cm cake tin.

Place in oven and bake for 30-45min

Let the cake cool.

Mix icing sugar and white margarine to make the buttercream.

Take a sharp knife and start shaping your cooled cake into a red pepper. Cut a hole in the centre to add the nonpareils.

Take buttercream and coat the red pepper shaped cake. Put it in the fridge to chill.

While you wait, roll out the fondants. Cover the cake with the red fondant and shape the green fondant into a stalk and stick it into the red pepper.

In a small dish, pour a few drops of the red colouring. Take a brush and glisten the pepper.

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