To wonder if my toddler's birthday cake really needs 46 ingredients?

[PuffPants]

I am ordering a cake for DS's birthday party from Waitrose. It's just a simple buttercream and jam sponge in the shape of a number 2. I have just looked at the ingredients listed for it and there are 46 of them. Some sound most unappealing. I'm no baker but does it really require 46 ingredients to whip up a sponge cake?

You have to link it now :)

No.

Flour, butter, eggs, sugar. Maybe a splash of vanilla extract.

Icing sugar and butter.

Fruit and sugar.

That's 7 ingredients. What more is needed

Then again, a shop bought cake (and I would imagine that would include a bakery in a supermarket, although am happy to be told otherwise) will have to have all sorts of preservatives and gubbins in it.

Make one yourself?

The majority of the ingreidients will probably be in the icing I bet.

www.waitrose.com/shop/ProductView-10317-10001-148621-Farmyard+Animals+Number+2+Cake ?

You are buying a shop-bought cake. Presumably, like all shop-bought cakes, it is not made that day to be eaten that day. Therefore IT HAS TO LAST. If you would prefer it to be made with eggs, flour, sugar, butter, with raspberry jam in the middle (raspberries, pectin, sugar), buttercream (butter, icing sugar) and no colouring whatsoever then you're going to need to learn to become a baker, I'm afraid.

It probably also breaks down the ingredients of the ingredients lol

I don't buy Waitrose cakes for this very reason - they are full of artificial junk. M&S are a bit better.

God, no! A basic sponge has flour, sugar and eggs, and maybe butter. And buttercream is butter and sugar again. Then add cocoa or vanilla. It's still only 5.

We have a basic rule when buying pre-made food in this house: pick the one with the shortest list of ingredients!

Um.

Flour, eggs, butter, sugar for the cake.

Butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract for the buttercream.

Why on earth aren't you making it yourself!!!

It doesn't need it but if they use a professional madeira or sponge type mix, which they probably do, then that will add several; and there is nothing evil in these mixes as such, some are raising agents and some are preservatives which stop it drying out after a day, giving you a moist, light, delicious sponge. I have used these mixes in the past from professional suppliers for cakes I need to take several days to decorate.

Then, each seperate colour that is used in the decoration may have up to 3 different "ingredients" - to make that colour blend. So a cake with 5 or 6 different colours in its theme could easily clock up several, even though the amounts are actually tiny, but they have to be stated by law.

So in a sense YABU, well, you are not, in that it seems excessive, but if you are terribly worried you could just whip up a Victoria sponge with jam and cream in your own kitchen with about 6 ingredients and 45 minutes and a few extra dishes.

I've just made a number shaped birthday cake for ds and it was perfect. Icing was a bit tricky though. He only had a tiny piece anyway so the cake was more for the adults.

Baroness we have the same rule!

Butter
self raising flour
baking powder
eggs (x3)
caster sugar
icing sugar
jam

That 7 ingrediants. What the hell are they putting in it? You don't bake you say (hmm ideas of a new business come to mind) off to eBay cake tins in the shape of numbers

OP, I am just baffled. I would never buy a shop bought cake. Why would you?!

That is why I never buy cakes.

Look, you can't have it both ways. If it were super natural you'd be moaning because you had to pick it up between 10 and 11am on the day and pay extra for them to make it that morning...if its full of shit then that's a problem...if its not full of shit but stale, that will be a problem...you can probably get a slightly less ingrediented cake (there are a lot of "filler moistener" type ingredients in that according to the link and some dogey fats) but at the end of the day its just one piece of cake each, it won't really hurt. Does it need it? No, but you could shop around or bake it yourself or get your DH to bake it.

'In the shape of a number 2' - am I the only one that read that a bit wrong the first time??

Make one yourself. Put jam and cream in the middle, buttercream on top to hide any imperfections and buy a number 2 candle. Job done!

I'm no baker but a sponge cake is easy peasy, honest.

Make one yourself. Put jam and cream in the middle, buttercream on top to hide any imperfections and buy a number 2 candle. Job done!

I'm no baker but a sponge cake is easy peasy, honest.

then make it yourself

You can get number tins too so could buy a 2 tin and keep it till he's 12 and buy a 1 tin to go with it

Bake your own its so easy it will taste better and people will appreciate it more. I'm sure your friends and family aren't expecting a betty crocker perfection

Why don't you make it yourself? I have a really good, all-in-one cake recipe:

8 oz marg
8 oz sugar (caster, but you can use granulated)
8 oz self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 tbsp-ish milk

8 inch baking tin.

Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl together and mix, but not too much. If you want a chocolate cake, add 1 oz cocoa powder and some more milk.

Put in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 3 for 1h 10 mins. Check if done by putting a skewer into the middle. Bake for a little bit longer if skewer does not come out cleanly.

Open out onto a cake wire when you take it out of the oven. Decorate as desired.

Our wedding cake was from Maison Blanc (not one of their over-priced wedding jobs, just a yummy strawberry thing) and had to be collected the afternoon before at the earliest, but they really wanted us to collect on the morning, which we couldn't manage. It was preservative-free and delicious. So will any cake be that you make yourself. You choose - do you want convenience (Waitrose, which will hardly kill your child) or fresh, organic loveliness, in which case, man up and make a 4 egg sponge. It's not hard and it doesn't take long. Buttercream on top - piss-easy. Stick a few mini-figures (Charlie and Lola went down well here a couple of years back). Easy.

This is why I make my own as well! My cakes are NOT pretty...they are lopsided and crumby and the buttercream is sometimes lumpy, but they are absolutely delicious, free of odd ingredients, and I love making them!

'In the shape of a number 2' - am I the only one that read that a bit wrong the first time??

Thanks, can't get that thought out of my head now.

Also loving the suggestion I get DH to bake it. Think I'll just text him saying "Darling, this weekend, could you please whip up a cake in the shape of a number 2 and craft some farmyard animals out of icing to go on top? There's a dear..."

I suppose the reason I'm not making one is I don't have any baking equipment. Not a single cake tin (I always think I'll have these things when I'm a proper grown-up). Even I bought all the gear, I'd still have to have a few attempts before I'd consider serving one up in public.

(I have never baked a cake)

Then, weirdly given my OP, I actually think shop-bought cakes are more reliably tasty than home-made ones *(despite the 46 bits of crap). I reckon good baking is quite a skill and it seems to me (based on the amount of cake I've hidden in hankies or disposed of in the nearest wheelie-bin after children's parties) that far too many people think they're good at it just because it seems easy. 2 inches of sugary, gooey frosting dumped on top of 12 inches of dry sponge isn't my idea of confectionary heaven.

See, last year we had a Waitrose one, didn't bother looking at the ingredients and it was flipping gorgeous. But now I can't stop thinking about humectant vegetable glycerine and sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate.

I make my own cakes as well, just cover with chocolate ganache and robert is your mother's brother.
I guess adding smarties as decoration has me in the 324687 different ingredients, though