Advice please - making a Birthday cake in the shape of a number 6

[jemjelly]

I am planning to make a birthday cake for my little girl in the shape of a number 6 tonight. I saw a tip on tinternet where you bake 2 sandwich tins then cut a hole out of the middle with a clean tin and use the cut off bit to make the top of the number 6.

Has anyone tried this? Do you think it will work? Will a normal victoria sandwich recipe work okay with a bit of coco added as we like chocolate cake.

What would be the best way to decorate? I am thinking maybe buttercream in the middle and spread over the top would be easier than rolled flat icing for a novice. Will this work with candles though?

I would love some tips as it is her birthday tomorrow so I have to get this right tonight (won't have time to make another one).

Not sure to be honest but sounds good, i have a 50the to make with the numbers 5 and 0 so dunno yet how gonn tackle it.

Not sure to be honest but sounds good, i have a 50the to make with the numbers 5 and 0 so dunno yet how gonn tackle it.

Not sure to be honest but sounds good, i have a 50the to make with the numbers 5 and 0 so dunno yet how gonn tackle it.

Old thread with number cake ideas on, may be helpful www.mumsnet.com/Talk/cakes_and_bakes_pictures/1834362-Please-come-and-help-a-novice-Icing-advice-needed

For the cake recipe, yes, a basic sponge recipe is fine, replace some of the flour with cocoa powder to make it chocolate: when you get to weighing out your flour, start with a few spoonfuls of cocoa powder, then make up the remaining weight with flour.

My advice is get it roughly in the right shape by cutting cake, then cover it with chocolate butter cream followed by sweet/chocolates. No-one will be examining the shape, just waiting for their share

Thank you, I will have a look at the other thread.

This website has quite a good guide on how to cut/shape cakes into any number from 0-9. It's based on pre bought sponge cakes but would obviously work if you were making your own too.

I don't do icing, I just pour ganache over the whole cake. Google Nigella birthday cake ganache from How to Eat. No spreading, rolling, nothing, and it always looks good.

MerryChristmasYouFilthyAnimal (I love the name by the way) that is a brilliant link, thank you. I am going to make my own cake but the way they showed it layed out really helped me visualise how I am going to do it.

Think I will still cut the circle out of the round cake with a clean tin as planned but I will make another cake in a loaf tin instead of trying to use up the spare bit as it will look more like a 6.

Off to google Nigella's ganache now, think I would be able to decorate that with Smarties or would they slide off?

Really looking forward to doing this tonight, if its okay I'll post some pics later. x

Thank you, and you are welcome! I thought it was handy so I bookmarked it for later…I knew it would come in handy one day!