Cake inspiration needed! To please adults AND children...

[aquavit]

have to make a pretty large cake for a birthday party (for an adult). Dark chocolate is out sadly so my default grown up cake with dark choc icing won't do. I want it to look gorgeous so def need some kind of icing/topping, it can't be too sickly but also needs to be kid friendly; and it needs to work in a v large cake tin (think 2 x 8-egg sponge if that makes sense).

Was considering lemon drizzle with a lemon/orange buttercream icing, but not sure if lemon will be OK for all the kids...any other ideas? I don't want to resort to two kinds of cake if I don't have to!

How about using white chocolate topping instead?? - I did DDs birthday cake recently, all chocolate, white choc outer decorated, with edible paints & glitters - hers was sealife, coral reef type design which was pretty easy, but you could do pretty much anything that way.

Photo HERE - but lots of good decor ideas on here too & the paints etc can be ordered from their online shop.

otherwise what about Coffee pecan cake, with maple syrup icing ?? again you could paint/decorate it as anything you like

HTH

DO you have a good white choc topping recipe? I've tried and (for obv reasons) failed to convert my excellent dark choc one to milk or white!

maple syrup icing sounds v good too, thanks for ideas!

btw that cake is AWESOME, I am nowhere near that competent!!

I use this white chocolate buttercream recipe for icing birthday cakes and cupcakes. It is gorgeous!

You probably won't need the whole amount, though.

The cakes a lot simpler than it looks, but thanks ;)

I'll see if I can dig up a recipe that looks similar to the one I use, I tend to just throw butter, broken up white chocolate & a tiny bit of cream into a bowl & melt slowly in the microwave - 20sec a time & keep checking & then whisk up with icing sugar until it thickens up & then spread/pipe as needed

pipras recipe looks similar, but I use more white chocolate, probably about 50/50 with the butter - good tip - make sure nothing cold goes in when melting as it will crystalize the mix - can be salvaged, but is a PITA

ah that does look similar to my dark chocolate one, I think it must be a question of slightly different ratios (more icing sugar to stiffen it up probably). Thanks so much!

(I don't suppose it will stop my mil muttering 'good GOD that's sweet' - her usual refrain when I do pudding - of course it's sweet, it's CAKE)

It probably is similar - I tried to convert it from white choc to dark choc recently, tweaked the ratios a bit. The icing tasted lovely but set very firm - it did mean that I could serve the cakes slightly warmed with gently softened icing - yum.

I did a choc orange (chocolate sponge on the bottom, orange on the top) for dn's 7th birthday at the weekend and it was a big hit (might be more to do with the decoration though, see profile and wear sunglasses!!)

Could you adapt the yummy one you already do, maybe sandwich with marmalade and top with orange butter cream, or orange cream cheese frosting?

mmm. chocolate orange sounds marvellous actually. though the only one I can see on your profile is a pink castle: dd would be over the moon with that, but this is (technically) for a rather older man...

Yep, that's the one - i did warn you about sunglasses! Is your dd around 7? Cos that was my target audience

Nigella's Custard Cake is delicious .

custard cake? that sounds fabulous. Is it in Domestic Goddess?

I am now thinking of a kind of St Clements affair, lemon drizzle with orange butter cream, as I have got a bit of a citrus yen today.