birthday cake

[redpanda13]

I have never made a cake and DD wants a homemade birthday cake this year. So any recipes for a simple sponge and some icing that will not turn out like a brick? Any tips from experienced cake makers would be most welcome
I really want to give this a go for DD. She has not even asked for any fancy shapes or elaborate requests. Just a nice cake that she can help with.

Anything by Delia Smith will be foolproof and she has a great website. Make sure the oven is well heated in advance and is the right temperature, and once the cake is in don't keep opening the door as that will make the cake collapse. If you have a food processor use it, because it will cream the butter and sugar much more easily than if you use a hand beater. Good luck.

I'd go for a madeira sponge as it's the most stable. It is very easy to make it a bit glam. Put your sponges together with nice jam and a vanilla butter cream. Cover the outside all over with a thin layer of butter cream (doesn't have to be neat at all) and roll out some white shop bought icing using a little icing sugar like flour to stop it sticking. Make it much bigger than the cake so that it goes over the whole thing. Smooth it all out nicely once you've got it on the cake. Then use shop bought decorations and stick them on with a paste of icing sugar and water. You can get some really nice decs from the supermarket these days. Or you can buy online for very little money. Edible glitter always goes down well too.

Thank you for the tips. Going to try before the day before so that I can retry if needs must! Going for it now. I am making homemade pizzas the lot!

Tip for the pizzas, don't use buffalo mozzarella as it's too wet, use bog standard fresh mozzarella for best results. And use passata for the tomato base. The kids will love it!

And on the cake front I'm a big fan of butter icing, just butter and icing sugar beaten tomorrow. Naughty but nice.

Why does the predictive text keep getting in the way, that should have been 'together' not 'tomorrow'. Must try harder.

I'm doing the same as OP so i wonder if a kind MNetter would mind posting their foolproof recipe.
I'm not even going to attempt royal icing so a Victoria Sponge or a Chocolate Cake?

TIA