Calling all expert Cake Makers!!

[OhCobblers]

for the first time EVER i'm considering making a birthday cake! Not a problem you might think unless you were to see my recent fairy cake / muffin attempts.

However, i'd like to give it a go and it needs to be a character cake (but not shaped like the character just a normal round cake).

Firstly, is making a choc cake as easy as making a regular Victoria Sponge? Secondly, is it best to buy "character" decorations online (where from?) or would a cake topper be a better idea? i've seen some on ebay but wonder how difficult it is to put on the cake?
i have seen a betty crocker choc cake mixture that you just add to - am i better off getting that and just putting a few decorations on top?!

any advise/expertise you care to share or general suggestions would be MUCH appreciated . TIA

what was your problem with your previous cake?

Don't do Betty Crocker is my advice! You could do a normal sponge cake, but replace 2oz of the SR flour with 2oz of cocoa (don't use drinking chocolate!) and divide the mixture between 2 shallow cake tins. Then you could fill the middle with whipped cream and cover the top with chocolate ganache (melt 4oz dark chocolate with 8 fluid oz of double cream and spread it over the cake). Then if anything does go wrong with the cake then you've covered up the mistakes.
Not that it will go wrong, of course. If all else fails, smother it with decorations.

kayah they just don't seem to taste or look "right". my disasters with icing anything are legendary in these parts - i could barely shove a bit of coloured icing on a fairy cake!

MrsC thank you very much for your tips - what do you suggest is a good "sponge cake" recipe - shall i just google and see what comes up?
also, is it easy to add an edible cake topper or better to just put a few bought decorations on top?

MrsC is giving tips about taste :)
I found that pound cake is never failing me

do you know if your oven themometer is correct?

whats the pound cake?

i think the oven is fine - more about my amateur efforts than the Smeg

bumping for the evening crowd!

There is a very easy, and delicious, chocolate cake recipe on BBC Good Food. I've made it a number of times and it's always a hit.

here

Smarties on top etc

125g SR flour
125g caster sugar
125g butter/stork marge
2 large eggs

Cream the butter and sugar until very pale (with electric whisk for 5 minutes), the more you mix the lighter/fluffier the cake. Then add the eggs (mix for a few sec's) and then add the flour and mix for another 3 minutes.

I always find Stork is better than butter (lighter coloured cake and fluffier cake), never over mix the eggs (before puting flour in), eggs rise more the less they have beeb beaten.

I would cover it with reglaze icing (you can buy it in blocks or already rolled in most big supermarkets), glaze with jam first to help it stick. If your not very artistic then i would buy a topper (you can get them on e-bay).

many thanks marne!
in your experience if i made this cake could i put the topper straight on top, ie, without the icing first?
i was thinking of a choc cake with a choc butter cream - is it ok to put a topper straight on top of a choc covered cake?

thanks again.

I would say ay Delia Smith cake recipy would be good and would work... But I do the all in one method with cakes:
4oz Self Raising Flour
2oz Cocoa (not drinking chocolate)
6oz caster sugar
6oz marg or soft butter
3 eggs

Put all in a mixing bowl or kenwood and mix until mixed, care not to over mix.

put into cake lined tins and bake 25ish mins 180 fan assisted oven. It is done when it sprigs back when you press it lightly in the middle. Or stick a squewer in the middle if it comes back clear then it is cooked.

Yes, you might need a bit of butter cream to stick it down with.

make sure you cool down your cake well before putting any icing on

If it helps, we made some basic videos on how to cover a cake with sugarpaste (soft roll out icing). it shows you from turning the cake out of the tin - how to cover in butter cream and how to then ice to a perfectly smooth finish.

how to prepare a cake with buttercream
www.cake-links.tvhow to ice a cake with sugarapaste

watch both of them - only 4/5 minutes eash.