checkerboard cake to cover in fondant.

[curlyclaz13]

I am hoping to make a checkerboard cakes for ds's first birthday and cover it in fondant. Would Madeira be the best type? I won't be carving it just leaving it round. Also will it work with just two sandwich tin cakes or are more layers required?

I did a 3 layer cake, using the method in GBBO Showstopper book. I piped a circle in one colour & then the next. I iced it using normal butter icing in an attempt at roses.

I made one with vanilla and chocolate Victoria Sandwich. I made a Vanilla Sandwich and then a chocolate one. I only used one layer of the chocolate one - I froze the second layer for another time - otherwise the cake would have been enormous.
So I had 3 layers, 2 vanilla, one chocolate. They were about an inch deep. I used a different method to GBBO - one I found on YouTube. You need round cake cutters of 2 different sizes and create a 'bullseye' so with the chocolate layer, you cut out two circles, one from the centre which is about 2-3 inches across. You take your bigger cutter and cut out around the first circle you have cut, keeping it all centred versus the outside edge of the cake so now you have a small circle in the middle, surrounded by two larger rings of cake. You repeat with the vanilla layers and remove a vanilla ring of cake, replacing it with the corresponding chocolate ring.It sounds complicated and you will get a lot of crumbs but looks great. I sandwiched mine together and covered it with dark choc. ganache. It is better if you totally cover the cake so that you only see the full effect once the cake is cut.

I did the same method as missmoffatt but with chocolate and orange sponge, and I covered it in chocolate ganache. I used the ganache to 'glue' the rings and layers together as well...