...to hate the plethora of cakes with sheet fondant icing and fancy artwork

[CaptainTripps]

I mean these kinds of cakes are lovely to look at but I really would rather have a lovely, plain old Victoria sponge without all that disgusting sheet fondant.

Birthday parties especially. I remember from childhood delicious, crooked and slightly out of shape sponge cakes with some candles plonked in the middle.

Now it's all overly sweetened, chemically tasting and bland and uniform.

I've seen those amazing themed creations on Facebook too. Barely any cakes and all icing/decoration.

Bring back the old fashioned cake!

I meant to say "I knew you lot would help". Ironically, there is every chance that the poor innocent banana loaf is going to turn into the kind of horrible fondant encased artificialities that this thread is decyring! I bet they will sell. I will make it into white cubes and put little green christmas trees on them, or holly with red berries. Fake as Jack McFake who won the Fakest Man in Faketown competition in 2012. Deal with it!

FriendlyElephant, I used to have a job approving those cakes. They said they were not capable of sending the artwork without the cake (I don't know why) and would each time send a whole cake in a plain white box with a round cellophane window. We had to do several rounds of changes and each time we would eat the cake after sending the comments. Then you can put the box on your head and pretend you are on TV.

Hate marzipan. Dislike icing. Like "plethora".

Lol at ruining the poor banana cake with fake-ness mildred but it sounds like it will be pretty.

I have read the whole thread, and now I really want cake.

And I don't care if it's got icing on it, as long as it's cake.

I know you are dying of curiosity so I have come back to tell you that I did make the banana bread into cubes, but I did not encase them in fondant icing like Han Solo in carbonite at the end of STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE. Instead I covered them with good honest home made cream cheese icing and a jaunty chocolate coin each. They look rough as fuck and you lot would love 'em. (Quite fancy one myself! Banana and chocolate is a stone cold Taste Sensation)

Yum I want one. I am having an MandS carrotcake style cookie though they are really nice too.

Good for you, mildred. And thank you in particular for the Han Solo reference and the use of the word "jaunty". This thread has a very pleasing vocabulary all round.

I like making birthday cakes for my children too, but it's a little crazy how elaborate they're getting. In fact I just posted on this very subject on my blog applesofmyeye.com