Gâteau de bateau

That means boat cake

…it rhymes!!!

For father’s day, I decided to get my daddy something special. He told me not to buy him anything, and I knew he already was getting everything he wanted from my sister, so what option did I have left but to make him a lovely, humungous cake?

Not just any cake… A Gâteau de bateau

The official name for it is actually Roisin Cake, as I promised my friend [you guessed it, her name was Roisin...]

Here’s a picture:

 

It has all the best things in/on it

• Buttercream, which I LOVE. [even better- chocolate buttercream!]
• Curly Wurlys, which everyone loves
• Moist-ness… *drools*
• NUTELLA [Well, actually, I have a bit of  confession to make... I don't like hazelnuts So the 'Nutella' I use is actually belgian chocolate spread ]
• Massive slices… even if you try and cut yourslef an itsy bitsy thin slice, you end up with a lovely big one anyway, because the Roisin’s so tall! [How ironic, beacuse Roisin is actually a midget ]

There was also a whole bunch of other things, which I suppose I better write out too – ‘Massive slices and moist-ness’ isn’t much use when you’re working from a recipe

Cake
375g butter, softened
3 teaspoons vanilla essence
500g caster sugar
6 eggs
675g self-raising flour
375ml milk

Chocolate buttercream [beware - this makes far too much!!!]
450g butter, softened
500g icing sugar
6 tablespoons of milk
150g chocolate milk powder

You will also need:
8 wooden skewers
25cm x 40cm prepared board
26cm x 36cm baking dish
Nutella/Belgian chocolate spread
Decorations! Such as edible white paper, for the sails; Curly Wurlys; a slab of chocolate for the plank and edible letters to write words with.

What to do

1. Preheat oven to 180-190˚C ; grease and line a deep 26cm x 36cm baking dish.
2. Beat butter, essence and sugar in a small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined. Stir in flour and milk, in two batches.
3.  Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake in the oven until the cake is cooked. Stand cake in pan for about 10 minutes; turn onto wire rack to cool. Using a serrated knife, level the cake top and trim the sides. [This is where we noticed our cake hadn't appeared to have baked properly...]
4. Cut cake in half lengthways, cut-side down; cut 7cm piece from each half. [Go on then, I'll show you another picture to help]

5. Assemble the cake pieces on your prepared board to form a boat shape; secure with 5 skewers.
6. Trim the front of the boat at angles to make bow, discard cake trimmings. Trim skewers to the same heights as the cake. [i think this calls for another picture!]

7.  Make buttercream: Beat butter in a small bowl with electric mixer until as white as possible. Gradually beat in chocolate milk powder and half of the icing sugar, milk, then the remaining icing sugar.
8. Spread the buttercream all over the boat, then decorate with pieces of Curly Wurly.
9. Write words with the edible letters, position the chocolate plank [I suggest using a 15g cadburys chocolate block for this] and hold it up with a piece of skewer or toothpick underneath, if you’re worried it might fall out.
10. Thread the edible paper on remaining skewers, and position the three masts on boat. Voila!