Celebration cake..

[Rockchick1984]

DH's birthday next month. I want to have a go at making and icing a fancy cake for him (likely to end up as batman/spiderman/green lantern themed :) )but I have no idea where to start - I do bake, but normally things like muffins, occasionally a chocolate sponge cake etc, nothing like this! So, 2 things I need help with if anyone could please help me:

1. a good recipe for the sponge itself - the sort of cake you get in store-bought birthday cakes but not so full of additives etc!

2. instructions or a website to look at for beginners guide to icing and decorating a cake.

If anyone has any advice I would be incredibly grateful :)

Firstly have a look on youtube so many good tutorials on there for everything, it taught me how to make model animals from fondant icing.
then you need a good recipe especially for decorated cakes, like a madeira cake, loads recipes on line, that enough for now.

That's fab, thankyou. So is a Madeira cake the best sort to use?

yes, i think so, it keeps longer, but its up to you really what type of cake you want.

8,8,8,4 mix with 125ml natural yoghurt and 100g white choc chips in. Its sooo good.

BBC food have a tutorial here

Or you tube.

Are you familiar with gel colourings etc?

Nope, I've used liquid colouring but had read I'd need gel for icing the cake.

Sorry to sound dumb, what's an 8, 8, 8, 4 mix?

Never mind, have googled it! When do you add the yogurt and choc chips?

After the flour. So basically when everything is mixed just stir them in and put into the tins.

I think I used two 23 cm square tins for that mix but I will double check for you.

Gel or paste colours are really fun! Just dip a cocktail stick into it then wipe it on the icing before kneading through. You dont need much to make good colours! They do get on your hands a little but wash off within a day!

Sorry, I think I used a bigger mix for those tins.

That mix should make a 20cm round sandwich.

Oven temp 180. Gas 4.

That sounds fab! Thanks wannabe