Show us your cakes and win a signed copy of Delia's new book

[CatherineHMumsnet]

As part of Food Feb - a month-long celebration of food on Mumsnet - we want you to show us the cakes you've made and decorated for your family. It could be a first birthday special, or a wedding cake for your sibling - whatever it is, we'd like to see it.

The three best cakes submitted will each win a copy of Delia Smith's new book, Delia's Cakes. Even better, we'll have the cooking goddess herself coming in for a webchat on 28 February, when she'll announce the three winners and personally sign a copy of her new book for them.

What we'd really love is that when you post your picture you include any tips on how you made it and give specifics on decorating styles, tools or tricks that you used, so that others can emulate your cake-decorating prowess.

To enter, simply upload your image as a post on this thread, using the image upload tool. See our image-uploading tips in the topic note above.

We'll shortly be showcasing this comp on our Facebook page too. (We'll post up the link when it's live.) Winners will be chosen from all the cake pics uploaded to this Talk thread and to Facebook.

The competition closes on 20 February, at which point we'll convene an MNHQ panel to judge the entries and decide on three winners. For additional terms and conditions go to our T&Cs page

If you're one of them, we'll contact you on Wednesday 27 February to ask whether you'd like Delia to inscribe the book with your Mumsnet or RL name.

m.flickr.com/#/photos/13259622@N02/7767081524/

Not sure that will work!

Not up to the standard of the amazing cakes on here, but it is dairy and egg free, so I'm quite proud of it.

Second try! Made this for my little nephew.

The cake itself was a madeira filled with raspberry filling (wilton recipe) and buttercream. Covered with fondant, iggle piggle figure also made from fondant. I piped the blanket stitching with royal icing and it wasn't quite dry when I took the picture! I was unsure how I was going to do those little balls you see in the forest on the show, but in the end I just rolled up some balls of fondant, coloured some sugar and coated them in it. I think it turned out alright. Nephew loved it :)

Oh it hasn't worked. Will have to try later from DH's laptop.

It was for DD's 3rd birthday. I used a Wilton 2D icing nozzle. It is a vegan sponge recipe, which I can post if anyone is interested.

I can see it Trixy, it's gorgeous!

I have to re-enter as I used a cake I made for a friend. This cake was made for my son's 6th birthday at christmas. He is power ranger mad and was really pleased with it. It was a chocolate cake with rich chocolate fudge buttercream. One happy child = happy mum!!

No where near everyone elses, but I'm still proud of this one for my son's 3rd birthday...

I made this minecraft cake for one of my minded childrens birthday last week :)

Inside it has chocolate and vanilla layers sandwiched together with Chocolate Ganache. Then I covered the whole cake with Chocolate Ganache and stuck on 250 multicolour fondant sqaures!!! The small cake on top is a replica of the cake you can make in the game and is chocolate sponge with white fondant icing.

My goodness nokids I bet that took some time!

Am I allowed more than one entry? I have a castle cake made similar to the minecraft cake that I'd like to enter. If not will stick with the one thats up

For sister's 30th birthday.

This is my dd's 6th birthday cake

My cake decorating is a once a year event, and now that she's six I've picked up a few tips!

She asked for a 'Moshi Monsters' cake, and requested lemon sponge.

I made all of the figurines etc a week in advance so that I wasn't quite so time stressed when it came to assembling it the evening after her party (there's a large rabbit-y type Moshi standing next to the cake on the side you can't see).

The lettering detail was created with the various ends of syringes that come in the box with [popular brand name] infant ibuprofen. (Am tight resourceful)

The cake itself was a lemon sponge (from a Delia recipe, natch) that I split into a number of different containers, coloured separately then baked individually. Each layer took ~10mins to bake, and I lined the tray with greaseproof paper to make turnover easier (only have one pan that small).

The major difference this year to previous attempts was that I crumb coated the cake. Googled a video and had a go (with lemon buttercream). It was a relatively easy step, but made all the difference when rolling out the fondant for the top.

It's my first cake not to go in and out at the sides in line with the sandwich layers

The surprise factor when dd cut into it (with assistance) was worth it, and she was really pleased with the rainbow-within-a-cake.

Also, and perhaps more importantly, there is something immensely cheering about eating rainbow cake!

My son is a MASSIVE Octonauts fan. When we asked him what he would like for his 4th birthday all he asked for was an Octonauts soft toy and an Octonauts cake with his favourite characters on top.
The cake is a 10" round sponge made from 3 different layers in 3 different shades of blue filled with jam and frosting.
The wave effect on the rolled icing was done by splitting the fondant into 5 and colouring 3 of them different shades of blue and leaving the other 2 white then twisting them all together and rolling.
All of the characters are edible and made from fondant (they didn't get eaten as my son refused to and forbid everybody else to!).
All the sealife around the cake is fondant and the sand is brown sugar.
Can't tell you how my heart felt when he saw his birthday cake.He looked at it, jumped off his chair and run to hug me. Made the very late nights making it worth every second.

This was for DS1's 16th birthday.

The cake itself is a high density sponge (bit like madeira) which was carved into the right shape and then crumb coated with buttercream and covered with ready coloured black fondant. The silver parts are painted with lustre dust mixed with a bit of vodka. The whole cake was then sprayed with edible glaze spray to make it shiny.

The controller is made from black modelling paste, which is just fondant mixed with tylo powder. The coloured parts are coloured fondant and again, it has been sprayed with edible glaze.

The board was covered in fondant to look like wood. this is made by rolling out three shades of brown into different sized sausage shapes then putting one on top of the other, folding each side in, so it's a third of the original length, then rolling. Repeat until it looks grainy, but obviously once it is ready to rol out you can only roll it out once.

Thanks theicingontop!

My goodness you are a talented lot. These are all fabulous!

This is a cake I made for my nephew's 2nd birthday. He loves Scoop from Bob The Builder so I thought I'd give it a go . It's just a plain sponge and I actually made a template so I could measure the cake pieces. One tip I was given was to use something called Tylo which you mix into the icing and it makes it a bit harder when it sets. Everything on the cake is edible, even the gravel is made from fudge and honeycomb pieces.

Ok, just came back and read that cakes for friends not allowed, so is it ok to add a different one? This was a cake for my aunt. The bears and picnic were all made in fondant with tylo added, the cake itself was chocolate mudcake with choc fudge filling.

Cake monster for DS's 5th birthday. Baked in a pyrex bowl...

Oh bugger, our computer is broken so I can only MN from my phone. I've got cakes on my profile though

The knitting basket cake for my mums 80th (DD calls her Nana Knitting)

(go on HQ, accept my entry

Oh, we are supposed to talk about them aren't we.

Mums cake was a Choc fudge (her fave). The balls of wool are like huge cake pops, crushed up cake mixed with butter icing. Then moulded into balls. The strands of wool took longer than the bloody cake. I used one of DDs playDoh tools, like a glue gun but it was really hard. The basket weave is a bit of a cheat, I used a stamper as trying to do basketweave with fondant would have put years on my life.

Oh and Duncan the Dragon is another great one. He is covered in buttercream before I discovered fondant. I got the template from the Internet, it's cleverly cut from 2 x 8 inch sponges. Everything is edible, including the wings (rice paper and matchmakers). I used a sponge recipe from here using orange juice and oil rather than butter/milk - 'Yellow Sponge' it's great for modelling cakes as it is quite firm. his spines are after eights, his fire sour laces.

Whenever I make cakes I go out of the way to make everything edible. God help me my next task is a cake for mum and dads 60th wedding anniversary - I want to make a 'proper' diamond. I may just change my mind!

Ooh my barbie cake was great (well i thought it was)!

how do i put a photo on please?

Am I allowed to post my Octonauts cake as there's already one entered? I'll do it anyway and will withdraw it if need be. I've also name changed for this, as it will out me!

This was a 2 tier cake. Vanilla sponge (10 inch) on the bottom, split twice and filled with strawberry/raspberry buttercream on one layer and vanilla buttercream on the other. I also used a vanilla syrup. The top layer (8 inch) is a lemon sponge (split once), filled with a lemon buttercream (a lemon syrup was also used). Both cakes were crumb coated in the relevant buttercream, then covered with a layer of marzipan and finally a layer of fondant. All the decorations are edible and I added gum tragacynth to the fondant to make it more suitable for modelling. The cake was designed in 2 layers as my son had a birthday party with friends on one day and then a family party the next. I removed the top layer with the figures intact, cutting the bottom for the children. The bottom layer was dowelled and the top was sitting on a cake card.

My top tip would be to knead Trex into the modelling paste if it starts drying out. Always replace your paste back into plastic bags between using to keep it pliable. Also, to avoid unsightly bulges around the middle of your cake, be careful not to overfill. I chilled my cakes after crumb coating which seemed to help (don't do this after covering with marzipan/sugarpaste though, as the condensation will ruin the surface).