Birthday cake filling

[sofreakingtired]

This is possibly an age old question but please excuse me as I am absolutely no baker!

A friend is making two plain square sponges for me to fill and decorate for my DD's first birthday. Is it better/easier to fill with buttercream and jam, or whipped cream and jam? It will be done the day before her party.

Also, how easy is it to cover a cake with white icing? I have bits and bobs to decorate it with already.

I have visions of this going spectacularly wrong! Any help would be much appreciated...

If you are inexperienced with icing, I'd go all buttercream in and out personally.
Fondant is a faff to work with if you are not used to it (I still have arguments with it from time to time)

Definitely buttercream. If you use whipped cream, then the cake will need to be refrigerated. In addition to being a pain fridge-space wise, chilling it will negatively affect the texture of the sponge (unless you let it come completely back up to room temp before serving.)

Fantastic, thanks - buttercream it is!