STORY: Maple from Canada creates Jubilee cake with UCB students

Maple from Canada UK’s development chef Olivier Briault and students from University College Birmingham (UCB) and Halesowen College in Birmingham have created a two-tier, seven-layer cake for the Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June.

The cake is a twist on a traditional Victoria sponge, with seven layers and seven different flavours to represent each decade that the Queen has been on the throne – from dark maple syrup, vanilla cream, Earl grey tea buttercream to white chocolate, maple caramel, dark chocolate and lemon curd.

UCB Lecturer in bakery and patisserie Laura Millerchip joined Briault, along with students Megan Collinge and Piper King (also from UCB) and Emily Nelson from Halesowen College in Birmingham, to help make and decorate the cake.

The layers were finished with a maple sugar coating and the cake was decorated with seven edible red roses, a royal blue ‘70’ badge and topped with a gold pastillage crown – taking a total of 24 hours to complete, making enough to serve 70 people.

“Just like the Coronation Chicken and the Battenburg cake recipes, I wanted to develop something that was representative and paid homage to Queen Elizabeth’s reign – and importantly, that was inclusive of maple syrup," says Briault.

“It was great that the students were able to get involved with this project, they're currently studying level two professional cookery and level three bakery and patisserie, so this was a fantastic development for them to be a part of.”

To share the celebrations with those less fortunate and in need, the cake was donated to local charity Feedo Needo which offers food and provisions to vulnerable members of the community.

Service users from St Basils charity, which supports young people aged 16-25 who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, also attended the Feedo Needo café in Digbeth for a slice of the cake and a hot drink.

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