Union Jack Diamond Jubilee Jelly Belly Cake!

Just to let you know, this post was written before I started the paleo diet to help ease my psoriasis. Nowadays I eat a more allergy-friendly diet, but leave these older, non-paleo posts up in case they are useful to readers, as I know not everyone eats the same as I do. Thanks for your understanding. 

When I was browsing on the Jelly Belly website I came across the amazing Union Jack cake created for Jelly Belly by Helen at the Fuss Free Flavours blog. It looked stunning and I knew that I wanted to have a go and make one myself. And while Helen's cake is square, I wondered if it would work just as well in a smaller, circular shape. And it did!

I made a classic Victoria Sponge cake and when it was cool, sandwiched it together with raspberry jam. Then I made up a batch of basic buttercream icing and spread it, fairly thinly, over the top and around the sides of the cake. Then, before the buttercream was dry, I used red, white and blue Jelly Belly jellybeans to create the Union Jack effect on the top, using a Union Jack printed napkin as my guide. It wasn't as fiddly as I thought it was going to be and the result was totally brilliant. You might need a little more buttercream in some places as you stick the jelly beans on so that they stick in place and don't tumble off when you move it.

It's already been suggested that I could make one of these for the school's summer fayre and I think it's a great idea. You can buy packs of the red (cherry), white (coconut) and blue (blueberry) jellybeans at the Jelly Belly website. My cake was 23cm wide and I needed just over one pack of the jellybeans to decorate it, so bank on buying two packs to be safe and to allow for any naughty nibbling (sorry, quality control procedures) while you work.

Me, adding the Jelly Belly beans to the cake... check out that concentration!