Inspiration for a cake or a link to a good site please

[DelGirl]

DD is 1 in just over a week

I want to bake a cake but need a bit of inspiration as I want to make it special. (not that she'll know, but I will}

Any ideas please or links to any good websites would be great.

tia

[sunchowder]

This is an American site, but great: \link{http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/special/specialfeature/cakefinder-birthday/\familyfuncakes}

[Dior]

When ds was 1, I did a triple layer plain sponge. I made icing with melted wgite chocolate and spread it all around the cake too. Then I stuck chocolate buttons all over it. It tasted yummy, but as you say, it went over ds' head! (Not literally, you undertand!)

[sunchowder]

I love this one: \link{http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/special/cake/cake_Flowerpower/cake_Flowerpower.html?CMP=LEC-DisneySearch&lnk=cake_Flowerpower\flowerpower}

[DelGirl]

gosh, i'm not that adventurous thanks for the links.

I have lakeland around the corner, not sure if they hir out tins. I was thinking of using a couple of loaf tins to make a one. Just not sure what to put on it. I'm ok at baking, just not that arty.

[Raro]

Does she have any favourite characters yet? Pooh or teletubbies perhaps? You can cover a simple sponge with white roll out icing and draw on the character with dyes or those squidgy pen things. OR, my friend made a rectangular cake , iced it, put a photo of her ds in the centre and then decorated all around with jelly sweets etc - looked like jewels, really effective and delicious no doubt!

[sunchowder]

The flower one uses fairycakes for the flowers....doesn't look too hard Delgirl, wish I was closer,I would make it for you!

[CountessDracula]

\link{http://www.cakes4fun.co.uk\here}

[DelGirl]

that sounds the kind of thing. She does like winnie the pooh, but I can't draw for toffee! Maybe i'll check out the baking section at the supermarket tomorrow. I don't want to cheat but I feel it may be necessary. It will be homemade though.

[DelGirl]

How easy do you think this would be? \link{http://www.cakes4fun.co.uk/html/celebration02.html\this} It's a christening cake apparently. 2nd row, 2nd one in with a teddy and abc blocks

[DelGirl]

oh thanks sunchowder i'll have another look

[Raro]

My 'technique' (big word!!) is to take a picture of the fav character and cut it up into colour sections then roll out ready made paste icing in each colour, put the pieces on top and use them as a template to cut out and then put them all together like a jigsaw. Does that make sense? Stick it all down with some apricot jam and bob's your proverbial uncle. A bit fiddly but can be good fun if you've got the time.
I love Nigella Lawsons 'party cake' recipe by the way - contains buttermilk (or yog and milk) and is just the most delicious thing!!!

[Raro]

Oh that bear looks like quite hard work - how good are you at rolling and molding??? Another alternative is make two sponge cakes, squidge one on top of the other with some icing, cut round the edges so it's sort of dome shapes. Slather with chocolate icing then stick broken up flake all over the 'back' and use chocolate buttons for eyes - voila - a hedgehog!

[onlyjoking9329]

how about one i did some years back,a mouse/rabbit/teddy in bed. you need a rectangle cake, for the head board a pack of choc fingers, stand a row of them up at the end of cake to make the head board, roll out some icing to make the quilt, you can leave it plain or decorate with flowers/sweets/mini buttons, then put a piece of icing under the quilt to make the body, make a pillow and then you just need to make a head, guess you could use a plastic winnie the pooh for in the bed, and put some hunny pots next to the bed.

[jenkel]

I made a toadstall fairy house one. Made a sponge cake in 2 pyrex pudding basins, one a bit bigger than the other. Placed the larger cake on a piece of cardboard the same shape as the base covered in foil. Sliced a bit off the top of the smaller cake and and placed the large cake on top. Covered the bottom in yellow buttercream and the top in pink buttercream. Made a little door and windows out of sweets and put on the base and covered the top with sweets, made a little chimney for the roof. And then decorated the cake board with lots of sweets, as flowers, path and fence. I had great fun decorating it and everybody loved it.

[MadameDeMars]

I made a .... yes I know...... lemon drizzle cake, cut it into the shape of a number 1. Iced it and covered it with blue and pink smarties (blue for DT2 and pink for DT1).

We all wolfed it down and I felt like a proud mum.

For their second birthday I made a.... hang on, different this time....... chocolate cake. Which I cut into a 2 shape and then I iced it and covered it with smarties and sprinkles.

We all wolfed it down and I felt like a proud mum.

Guess what I'm doing for their 3rd birthday next year? lol

[DelGirl]

well actually Mars, the lemon drizzle cake sounds so lovely that I was thinking of making it but wasn't sure whether icing would go ok on it. I haven't made your cake yet btw but I lurve lemon cake. I may well resort to that. However, Only Joking's idea sounds sweet, I might try that. I guess I'm best making it on the day aren't I? I'll probably be up at 5

[MadameDeMars]

I make my cake the day before sometimes. Lemon drizzle cake doesn't take long. Only about 40mins start to finish. You don't have to put lemon juice in the icing if you don't want to.

Onlyjoking's cake sounds nice.

[Bozza]

Right searching through the archives for inspiration I came across this thread. Looking at sunchowder's link I found \link{http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50107\this cake} which seems fairly doable. But what is a twinkie? And assuming I can't get hold of one what could I use instead for the body?

[sunchowder]

Ah Bozza! A twinkie is a spongie little cake with creme filling. Probably about 4 inches long and and inch wide. I am sure any cake will do! Maybe you could subsitute two Cadbury chocolate rolls instead?

[sunchowder]

I meant one above the other (to make the length)--I think it would look great and then you would just have to eat the rest of the ones leftover in the box. :o

[Bozza]

Yes sunchowder that is what DH suggested. DD is going to be 2 and I really wanted a cake that would look good but not stress me out too much. By frosting does that mean butter icing (ie butter/icing sugar mixed together)?

[sunchowder]

Yes Bozza, the frostings here are usually made with butter and confectioner's sugar and in this case some lovely cocoa. I usually melt the butter first (just my preference). If you need a frosting recipe, let me know!

[Bozza]

No I think I am OK with that thanks - it's just the terminology. I was a little worried that the chocolate and yellow might run together and not get so clean a line though.

[cheeseypeas]

My DS was 1 on Sat. I made a Victoria Sponge, easy and very Yummy. Put strawberry jam & fresh cream in the middle. Being able to put stuff in the middle helps because you can 'pad out' the cake if it doesn't rise well.

I actually quadrupruled the amounts and made one 'Uber Cake' and some little cakes. My thinking was if it does go flat, there would be so much mixture that it wouldn't look like a pathetic failure. It took bloody ages to cook in my rubbish oven but was huge and delicious. If you have two cakes tins it would probably be better to seperate the mixture.

For the icing I used a pack of royal icing and then spelt DS's name out with little icing animals & sliced up cadburys mini-roll (both of which I picked of before giving to DS as I'm s stickler for avoiding Enumbers. We had a big part for him and it went down a treat! Felt v.proud that I had cooked him a big cake and got lots of nice compliments.

Here's the recipe I quadrupruled...

110g (4oz) Butter
110g (4oz) Caster Sugar
110g (4oz) Self-raising Flour
2 Eggs
Vanilla Essence or 1 tsp Grated Lemon Rind

Preheat oven to 190°C: 375°F: Gas 5.
Whisk together the butter and sugar until light and creamy.
Add the beaten eggs gradually with a little of the flour.
Fold in the remaining sieved flour and add the flavouring.
Divide equally between two 15cm (6 inch) sandwich tins.
Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.
Turn out on to a wire rack to cool.