Tips needed for making this cake please - icing question

[AllBuggiedOut]

Am planning on copying this sand castle cake for the DSs birthday. Will buy ready made victoria sponges from Sainsburys (1 large, 2 small and trimming one of the small ones). But what kind of icing do I need, do I ice each layer separately or all together, and how do I get a decent yellow colour? Am complete icing novice, thanks!

Can't see it I'm afraid.

if you get a block of ready roll icing and squidge it about a bit to warm it, then make a dent in the middle, drop a few drops of yellow colouring in then knead the whole thing gently, the colour will eventually distribute throught the icing.

Does this link work?

yellow ready roll but do each cake seperately not the whole thing at once and cover joins with sweets / ribbons.

Buy the ready made icing, or you could use butter icing, its a bit rougher but could look like sand

nuy more icing than you think you need.

ready roll can also be called sugarpaste. If you have a cake shop nearby you may be able to buy it ready coloured - if not try to get paste colour as it is stronger and makes the icing less sticky than liquid.

oh yes really good idea to go to cake shop and ask - I go in mine with pictures and everything - they love chatting cake.

Thanks for sorting link, sorry about that!

How do I cover the cakes - do I do a circle for the top then a strip round the edge and smooth over the join (with hot water?) or do a big circle, drape and smooth out .

Thanks again all

I have to ask - if you are buying ready made sponges why on earth are you trying to do the difficult bit (icing) yourself?

"buy the victoria sponges"

tbh I would do butter icing which is much easier to spread over all those surfaces and as Marne says looks more like sand.

Another idea for an ice cream cake is to line a childs bucket with cling film, squish softened ice cream in, re freeze. Then dip in a bowl of hot water and turn out. You can put sugar or coconut in a bag, add a few drops of yellow food colouring, rub and sprinkle over (to look more sandy). Kids love ice cream cake

I like making things/decorating things, Prufrock, so think the icing part could be fun (am I wildly misguided here?). But am 14 weeks pg and knackered so want to keep it relatively simple (hence not spending what would take me an entire evening baking sponges). Anyway, Sainsburys do a better sponge than me .

Do I just smooth the excess in round the edges littlelapin, or cut some of it off?

Fab, thanks. And great links littlelapin.

Please don't make me feel bad about not making the sponges ladies (is it really that awful?)? There are over 50 people coming to the party which is a joint DH (40th) DS1 (4th) and DS2 (2nd) and am intending to do homemade pizza and salads for all... I will need as many early nights in the build up as possible!

I SAW THAT

All buggied....lol...there are far worse transgressions here that not making your own sponge . And sainsbury's sponge is OK

Love that website you linked to littlelapin. I bought the set of 10 tubs of paste colour a couple of weeks ago - haven't used them all yet (obviously - not much call for black icing...), but have to keep taking them out of their box to look at them again. Mmm, lovely...

Thank you!

Hmm. A little misguided methinks. I make and ice cakes for birthdays and always always say never again (this year I sliced the tips of 2 fingers off whilst opening the icing for the clowns bow tie - fortunatly I was colouring it red!) but I do always do it again because the satisfaction of the end result does make up for the stress of trying to get it perfect.

Honestly, sponge making is easy easy easy - you would only need to make one batch of mixture (just double most recipe quantities) and put it into 3 seperate Tins. Try Nigella's buttermilk birthday cake recipe.

For the icing, especially for the big cake, it's often easier to lay out your circle of icing (I always roll out onto baking paper so it doesn't stick to the surface) and then put the cake upside down and drape the icing upwards, and have it come an inch onto the bottom. Remember you must coat your cake in melted jam so that teh ready roll icing sticks

Oooh, tell me about Guinness cake LL?

Was thinking more hallowe'eny type things meself...

Where abouts are you allbuggiedout. There is an icing shop near me that will sell me a big blob of icing in any colour you can think of. I bought some and it will more than cover those cakes. I could send it to you if you want.