Birthday cake - your help, please!

[Kefybaby]

I would like to make a cake for DD's birthday. I am planning to put some sugar paste figurines on it so it needs to be able to take the weight.
I was thinking of this sponge covered with ready to roll icing. What should I put in between sponge layers: buttercream? Also, do I need buttercream or jam at the top (below the icing)? Any other tips? Many thanks!

Anyone?

I use jam on top of the sponge (no fruit) to make the icing sugar paste stick to the cake.
In between you could put buttercream, or whipped cream with bits of tropical fruit or a chocolate ganache type cream. My DD hates butternut cream, so it depends what you guys like as well.
Good luck!

I would just use jam in both cases, it will be very sweet, and quite sickly with buttercream.

That is the recipe I use. It doesnt come out very tall so I sometimes make two. By the time it is levelled two makes a much nicer sized cake.

I sandwich together with jam and buttercream. Cover the whole thing in thin layer of buttercream then cover in sugarpaste.

If your not fussed on buttercream then ganache under the icing. Gives a much nicer finish than jam.

I like the sound of ganache. So, I can use it to sandwich the cakes as well as under the icing? Thanks so much for your responses!

Key, like Mike said it does give a lovely finish under the icing, give it a crumb coating first and use a scraper to get the excess off, put it in the fridge to firm over then another coat.

Thanks, nanny. What is a crumb coating?

A crumb coating is like an undercoat of icing you out on first to catch all the crumbs. Then you can do the top coat without getting crumbs in it.

Crumb coating is basically covering the cake in a thin layer of buttercream or ganache. It seals in all the crumbs and gives a smooth finish under the icing.

Have a look for some tutorials on youtube.

Thanks a lot!