oh for heaven's sake ds has asked for a blue birthday cake and possibly the moon on a stick too

[Escallonia]

I can follow a recipe but don't think I make particularly fab cakes, I am not very good at shapes, icing etc - always looks like a 8 yr old has done it!

But ds has asked for:

a number 4 shaped cake
it must be blue inside with
chocolate icing on the outside.

Is this a matter of doing eg a sponge cake + blue food colouring (liquid? paste?)?

What's the best way to do choc icing that is soft but will cover the sides and top of the cake. He doesn't like the "chewy" sort of icing you get on supermarket novelty cakes.

I intend to put something in the middle of the cake - choc buttercream? It is going to look bizarre.

Oh dear, a blue cake!? Should be able to do it with food colouring but never tried this so will wait for someone who's tried it to come along. Glad daughter not yet old enough to make such demands!

Chocolate icing - I would do a ganache as that would not be chewy at all.

I cant help but your post really made me laugh!!
My dd asked for a pink cake (inside) and my dh made one in a heart shape (we are both rubbish at baking) and what really made me laugh was when the teacher at school showed us some writing she had done - it was about 'what made me happy and what made me sad'. She said that it made her sad when her dad made her a birthday cake that looked nice but tasted yucky!'

Can you find somewhere to hire a 4 shaped tin?

Blue food colouring in a basic sponge. Don't bother with filling, just make a chocolate butter cream icing.

The thought of cutting a 4 shaped (will you buy/hire a tin?) cake in half so that you could put icing in the middle gives me the sweats. I know Id break it but you may be better at that than me.

A ganache icing (melted choc, cream, and maybe icing sugar) would work and gives great coverage. or a choc buttercream - butter, icing sugar, cocoa .

Two bottles of blue liquid colouring should give a good colour.

Talk him out of it. Blue food colouring used to make my DCs absolutely insane. There will be riots - hordes of marauding four year olds looking for a fight.

(but yes, a good splash of blue in the sponge mix will do it)

To make the sponge blue then just use a bottle of blue food colouring. The whole bottle will give you a very intense blue colour, so decide hopw blue you want it to be.
For the choc icing you could use the betty crocker chocolate frosting. I don't know how to make my own. You can use it for the filling as well. Alternatively you could use just icing sugar and water mixed with brown colouring or use melted choc, it will go hard but will taste lovely.

Finally if you get a no 4 tin then you have to line it with parchment paper, pretty easy to do, or the mixture will seep out. A madeira mix might make a heavier cake so will cope with the icing better.
Don't worry about it looking bizarre. Dd wants a 7 layer rainbow cake covered in black fondant. That looks stunning.

Post a pic when you make it

here for tins

If you are feeling very lazy/pressured you can buy ready made choc butter icing from the supermarket, but it is dead easy to make.

Just make a couple of square cakes, use grease proof paper and make a 4, cut pieces of sponge to fit it.

Blue food colouring in a basic sponge.

I'd make a butter icing and put it inside & outside the cake.

Decorate with smarties - jobs' a good 'un

Just be grateful he doesn't want a Ben10/Spiderman/Batman 'action' cake ie the character and not just a 'picture'

thank you everyone! it sounds utterly ludicrous but hey you're only 4 once and he's only having a family tea, not a party so I feel I should try my best with the cake.

ganache sounds perfect.

thank you for talking me out of cutting the 4 cake in half, I hadn't thought that through! unless I do a big rectangle, two cakes, put together with filling then cut a 4 out of it? oh man this is waaay too ambitious for me.

You must post us a pic of the finished cake. Sounds interesting!

Yes, just sponge with blue food colouring. Paste is best if you can get it as otherwise they are inclined to look a bit green.

Either make choc buttercream, or buy a tub of the Betty Crocker one.

I wouldn't fill it - those number shapes give you a pretty small cross section of cake with icing all round it

x-post with ChippingIn, great ideas on the construction.

I have a few weeks to think it through but may have to do a trial run or two!

Do the icing from this, it's very very yummy (but you can use cheaper chocolate if it's for a 4 year old)

I have no blue cake advice but just wanted to thank you for mentioning wanting the moon on a stick - I often say it and nobody knows what I mean!

Print a big '4' off your computer - use wordart in word to make it a fat one. Use as template, bake rectangular cake and cut round!

I can't be bothered with shaped tins. They make life harder.

Good luck!

Lush do a moon on a stick bath bomb.

HTH :)

Betty crocker chocolate ready
Add cream icing is half price in sainsburys at the mo.

Ds is 3 tomorrow and I'm making him a 'stickman' cake, it's the Julia Donaldson book which he's crazy about! Looks foolproof...... Just lots of brown sticks!

ASDA do a 'natural' blue food colouring - made from algae apparently.

As for frosting, just buy the stuff in a tub, soooo easy. I used some the other day it was yummy (was worried it might taste a bit fake)

I made a 4 cake, by as Mrs Plumber said, printing out a big number 4 and cutting round it. Mine had to be pink though! I also agree with butter icing and smarties. I always make a number cake for my 2, but may re-think that soon as the next one is 10.

I have nothing practical to add, but you may want to warn the parents of the children who eat it. My BIL had a blue cake for his 50th, and we all did bright green poo for about 4 days

you can make a four out of strips - do you have the Australian Women's Weekly birthday cake book? see herehere

Blue paste food colouring (look on ebay) to get the blue color, chocolate ganache (chocolate and cream) for the icing.