Birthday cake- whipped cream filling/buttercream icing-fridge or not????

[winnybella]

Gah. Yesterday it was DS's birthday, today it's DD's. I'm doing a sort of sponge (minus butter) and will do layers with strawberry jam and whipped cream. Now, as DD wants Smarties on her cake as in Kipper's Birthday I thought I'll do buttercream icing and stick Smarties on.

BUT whipped cream will need to be in the fridge. Icing will get all hard, though.

Any ideas?

Btw she has gorged herself on her brother's choc cake yesterday and was sick several times throughout the night. Maybe I'll just make a toast with jam and stick candles in

Would it be too much faff to ice the sides but leave the top bare, and keep some of the icing back in a covered bowl or something. Then shortly before serving, take the cake out of the fridge, mash up the leftover icing with a fork, spread over the top, and chuck on Smarties?

She wants Smarties on the sides as per Kipper's cake

I guess I could do the icing at the last minute, it should be fairly easy.

Do you add anything to the whipped cream so it stays firm? I find those 'fixes' in packets give it weird texture.

Ah, I was stymied by not actually knowing what Kipper's cake looks like. But yes, especially if you have made the buttercream in advance, it wouldn't really take much time to slather it over.

Or alternatively you could just not put cream in the middle, and leave it with just jam. Then it wouldn't need refrigeration.

In answer to your other question, no, I don't add any sort of fixer to whipped cream. In fact, I invariably over whip the damn stuff so it is like concrete.

Oh no. I DD loves whipped cream.

Seriously, how did I manage to give birth to two kids 7 years apart on basically the same date (if you take the fact that one was born in the US, they were born on the same day because of time difference)- I wanted to do their birthday together, but was shouted down by family for being lazy and selfish

The cheek of them!