Lorna's Pecan Cake

For our Cake 'n' Bake charity picnic/tea party i decided to make a pecan cake, with fudge icing, decorated with lovely glittery butterflies! 

So shiny!

Anyway, too the  recipe;

Ingredients:

Cake:

150g margarine, softened

120g caster sugar

3 eggs

270g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 heaped tbsp golden syrup

45ml milk

50g pecans, chopped

Icing:

30g butter

15ml milk

20g brown sugar

2 tsp golden syrup

200g icing sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C, and line a deep 8" round tin (a 7" would also be fine but you'll get a tall cake).

Cream together  the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs one at a time. If you want, add a squirt of vanilla extract but it's not necessary if you don't have any in - the cake will still be super tasty! Beat in the golden syrup, then stir in half the flour along with all the baking powder. Mix in the milk, then the remainder of the  flour. Finally stir in the pecans until well distributed. Bake for 40-45 minutes (if you're using a 7" tin then increase the cooking time by 10-15 minutes).

For the fudge icing, melt together the butter, syrup and brown sugar (i blasted them in the microwave for 30 seconds). Then stir in the icing sugar and milk. Beat until smooth. It will be a little runny while it's still warm, but will solidify as it cools.

When the cake is cooked, take it out of the tine and let cool completely. Cut in half and spread your icing in the middle, then sandwich back together.

I finished my cake with some melted dark chocolate, and glittery butterflies (made from white chocolate modelling paste). You could alternatively top with more fudge icing, or just a simple glace icing.