Liam Charles’s Upside-Down Cake

Method

Step 1
Download and print the image template of Liam Charles.

Step 2
Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/Gas 6. Grease your cake tin. Cut your face template so that it fits into the middle of your cake tin, then secure it with a paperclip to the underside of baking paper cut to the size of your tin.

Step 3
Remove the base of the cake tin and place the baking paper and template on top.

Step 4
For the pumpkin spice cake, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating the mixture together in-between each addition.

Step 5
Sift together the flour and baking powder, then add to the butter, sugar and eggs. Add the vanilla extract and ground nutmeg, then beat to combine. Stir through the pumpkin purée.

Step 6
Add 1 tbsp of mixture to a small bowl and colour brown. In a second bowl, add 2 tbsp of mixture and colour black. In a third bowl, add 1 tbsp of mixture and colour red. Finally, in a fourth bowl, reserve 1 tbsp of uncoloured mixture.

Step 7
Spoon each mixture into four separate piping bags.

Step 8
Snip a small hole in the piping bag with the black mixture and pipe the outline of the face onto the baking paper. Use the remaining black mixture to pipe the details of the face, including Liam’s eyebrows, mouth, nose and hair.

Step 9
Snip a small hole in the piping bag with the red mixture and fill in Liam’s lips.

Step 10
Snip a small hole in the piping bag with the uncoloured batter and fill in Liam’s eyeballs.

Step 11
Snip a medium hole in the piping bag with the brown batter and pipe into the gaps of Liam’s face, being careful to cover everything without smudging the details.

Step 12
Carefully remove the paperclips securing the baking paper to the template, then transfer the cake tin base to the tin.

Step 13
Transfer the remaining cake batter to the piping bag and snip a large hole in the end. Pipe the mix over your design to fill the tin without smudging the face below. Smooth with a palette knife.

Step 14
Bake for 25 minutes, until the cake has risen, pulls away from the sides of the tin and springs back when gently touched in the middle. Leave to cool before turning out onto a cooling rack and peeling off the baking paper.

Step 15
For the maple toffee sauce, add the sugar to a medium saucepan and cover with just enough water to make it damp. Heat over a high heat until the sugar has melted, and it turns a dark golden colour. Remove from the heat.

Step 16
Mix the vanilla bean paste with the cream, then pour into the melted sugar a little at a time. Be careful as it will spit. Add the maple syrup to taste, then transfer to a heatproof jug.