I really need some help desperately

[Coralcolour]

I am meant to be making and decorating a cake for an important event and it needs to be perfect.
I am a pretty good baker but not so good at decorating etc.

I thought id found a good dense cake recipe and a good buttercream recipe too but I've made 2 cakes and they have both been lumpy, uneven and look awful when I've covered them with fondant.

I've tried googling and watched loads of YouTube videos but I cant seem to get it right.

I basically need a cake recipe,a buttercream recipe and step by step (idiot proof) instructions.

I don't have long to make it and decorate it, i would be eternally grateful if someone could help me!

I use weight of eggs and same in butter ( or stork) , sr flour,sugar , and teasp of bicarb , then vanilla ess.

cream butter and sugar then slowly add eggs , then fold in flour.
Butter cream : 250g icing sugar ( sifted) , 80 g butter and then a couple of teaspoons of milk and beat and beat and beat .

or maderia cake which is denser I use www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/madeiracake_73878

Then to ice I trim off the bottom and turn it upside down to ice ...

Use ready rolled fondant its easier....

Thank you Rosa, this seems the same as I've been doing but I just can't understand why the cakes keep breaking, splitting and I cant make it look decent when icing

Fondant ice your cakes when they are frozen. As they defrost, they may feel a bit damp on top but will be fine. My mum used to do lots of sugarcraft in the 90s and always decorated from frozen, it's the best way to put enough pressure on a cake to get the fondant glass smooth.

leave the cake to stand for a bit before icing - probably a bit too fresh so it splits. or put it in the fridge or freezer to harden a bit before icing. Then when you buttercream / crumb coat again fridge before putting the fondant on.

So i can refrigerate or freeze the cake before the crumb coat or after? How long should I do it for? Will it not go hard?

The BBC easy vanilla cake really is fab, I use it all the time. I'm on my phone so can't link but it's easy to find, plus it has a recipe for lovely buttercream to.

Cora, I always bakes the cakes in two stages, and gas 3, they are flat and even.

I make lot of decorated cakes, at least 2,3 a week, I use the same recipe on all except for choc.

For the buttercream, I use 250, butter and 400grms of icing, I beat this for 10 mins yo get it light and fluffy. Hope this helps.

Then fill, making sure they are all the same size and even, crumb coat, and leave to settle for a good few hrs.