Lambeth Cake Recipe & Piping Guide

Create visually striking cakes by levelling up your kitchen’s decorating with the intricate borders, piped shells and layered ruffles of a Lambeth Cake.

 Queen Professional Vanilla Buttercream Icing consistently delivers smooth texture, temperature stable icing and clean, sharp lines when piping decorative elements onto your cakes. Being a base that takes on any flavours and colours, it’s an icing with endless possibilities of how it can fit into your menu, whilst simplifying your back of house process to produce more intricate cakes at higher volumes.

Preparation tip: Bake cake layers ahead, trim flat and chill well for clean stacking, sharper slices and faster assembly.

Prep

30 minutes

Cook

40 minutes, excluding cooling & decorating

Portions

14-18 serves

Download Recipe

Vanilla Cake Layers

Prep Time: 20 Mins

Cook Time: 40 minutes, excluding cooling

300g Caster sugar

5 Eggs

300ml Milk

360g Plain flour

1.5 tbsp Queen Professional Organic Vanilla Bean Paste

2½ tsp Baking powder

½ tsp Fine salt

Chocolate Buttercream

Prep Time: 5 minutes

2.2-2.5kg Queen Professional Vanilla Buttercream Style White Icing

140g High-quality cocoa powder, sifted

2tsp Queen Professional Pillar Red Box Colour 

½ tsp Fine salt (optional, sharpens chocolate flavour)

Recommended Piping Tips

Small open star tip

Petal tip

Fine round tip

  1. Grease and line three 7-inch cake tins with baking paper.
  2. Using a planetary mixer fitted with a paddle, cream butter and sugar until light, then add eggs gradually followed by Queen Professional Organic Vanilla Bean Paste. Sift together the plain flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and milk to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Continue mixing until just combined, then divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake tins. Bake for 25 minutes at 180°C in a commercial oven, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
  3. Allow cakes to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Cool completely before levelling the tops if needed.
  4. Place the Buttercream into the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until smooth, light and workable. With the mixer running on low speed, gradually add the sifted cocoa powder and the salt if using.
  5. Scrape down the bowl, then slowly add in the Queen Professional Pillar Box Red Colour until the colour is fully incorporated and the buttercream is smooth, aerated and ready for consistent piping across the full batch.
  6. After cake layers are fully cooled, place the first cake layer onto a cake board or serving plate. Spread an even layer of chocolate buttercream over the top and repeat with the second layer. Add the final cake layer, placing it upside down for the smoothest finish. Apply a thin crumb coat around the top and sides of the cake and chill until firm. Apply a final coat of chocolate buttercream and smooth the surface. Chill again before beginning the Lambeth piping
  7. Pipe shell or rope borders around the base of the cake using a small star tip. Using a round or star tip, pipe evenly spaced vertical swags and garlands around the sides of the cake. With a petal tip, pipe decorative ruffles between the swags, building depth and dimension. Create multiple stacked borders around the top edge of the cake. Layer shell, rope and bead-style borders to achieve the classic Lambeth look. Finish with piped dots, scrollwork, bows or other decorative details as desired. Elevate the cake’s elegance with a small amount of edible gold leaf or a light dusting of cocoa powder.

Products used in this recipe

Vanilla Buttercream Style White Icing 5kg

1-96-000652

Pillar Box Red Food Colour 500 mL

1-96-000220

Organic Vanilla Bean Paste with Vanilla Seeds 320 g

1-96-000264

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