Help with Tinkerbell cake please

[mandy214]

Tinkerbell

I am going to try (!) Baking a cake like this for my DD's birthday in 2 weeks. Would be really grateful for some tips on :

1. What kind of cake will best hold the shape (madeira cake as its a bit firmer to work with?)
2. What colouring to use to colour the icing (have used ordinary food colouring before and icing has been a bit too wet)?
3. Any tips on applying the leaves and getting them to stick?

Thank you in advance!

1. if you are going to carve it then yes, madeira is your best option. But if you are going to bake in a pyrex bowl or similar, you'll be OK with a normal sponge recipe.
2. you need colouring gel or paste. Sainsburys sell it now (I think maybe asda do too?) or you can get it online (party animal on ebay are where I get mine from)
3. When you have made your cake, you can either coat it in buttercream and stick the leaves directly to that, or do a layer of green fondant first and stick the leaves to that using a light brushing of water.

Good luck!

Many thanks thats really helpful!

I find this recipe perfect for all my cakes I make, its a bit denser than Victoria sponge but not as dense as madeira.

I've used this recipe loads times in a pyrex bowl and it works well. Like Lizzie, I use the pastes and funny enough have used Partyanimal through Ebay! You need something like this. You can also get a more concentrated green, so you use less. Havent used it but I have used the black (yes someone wanted a black sponge!) and I was surprised at how well it worked!