Your best children's birthday cake recipe?

[HelenMumsnet]

Hello.

We're busy compiling some new Food pages and we're looking for great suggestions for a child's birthday cake.

Please post your most scrumptious, icing-and-sweetie covered cake recipe here for us to salivate over post up to be admired for MN eternity.

hopeful bump

This is a very yummy,fruity,moist,colorful birthday cake:
2 circle sponges(i cheat and buy them already made from a supermaket)
custard
canned fruit(any,i like pinapple,peach)
bananas,grapes or strawberries
double cream for whipping
can of squirty cream
hundreds and thousands or grated chocolate
Put custard on one piece of sponge,put fruit on top(together with some juice from the canned fruit),then put the other piece of sponge on top.Whip the cream,cover the whole cake with it,squirt the squirty cream on top and decorate with hundreds and thousands or grated chocolate.cake done.

I always do (on request... i am gagging to do something new but this is the one they want - for family parties only) the nigella malteser cake with the maltesers making the number on the top.

For parties it has to be a bought one or it is just a total embarassment. Apparently.

Coconut Poke Cake.

Any yellow cake mix (even boxed)
1 can of condensed milk mixed with 1 cup of coconut.

When cake is still warm, use anything you have to poke holes all over the cake (I use the handle of a wooden spoon). Then pour the milk, coconut mix all over. Spread and push into holes. Allow to set in fridge for a few hours or even better, over night. In the morning, frost with any buttermilk frosting and sprinkle with coconut.

Makes any boxed cake taste homemade and sooooooo moist for days! And it is not to 'coconutty' for kids either! Yum!

Oh I even made a cake with the same concept using a chocolate cake and pouring toffee sauce in the holes. Then frosting with chocolate icing...oh god...

mmmmmm - these sound really lovely, thank you!

anyone else?

I'm looking for clever but (reasonably) easy decoration/icing ideas, too

Ummm an icing idea. You can use creamy buttercream frosting to frost the cake. Then you can get some of the rolled frosting, lay it flat and use any cookie cutters you have or even just use a knife if your good and cut out letters for names, shapes, numbers ect...really anything! Then place on the cake to make whatever design or theme your going for.

I use left over pastry to cut leaves to place on the edge of my pies (like apple) in the fall.

You can even use food coloring to die the rolled frosting.

Aisle 12, Asda, about four shelves down...

I did once make a hideous barbie cake. two bought sponges stacked on top of each other, slathered in pink buttercream, then various sprinkles to make look like a barbie ballgown skirt. wrapped barbie in tin foil up to waist. Jammed said barbie into middle of cake. It was revolting (plus I forgot to peel off the paper on bottom of cakes so everybody had to pull bit of paper out of their mouths) but she loved it.

I tend to cook a basic four egg sponge mix in a square or round tin.

I then cover it with ready made icing (coloured for whatever is best for the base or left white) then decorate it in various ways.

Best ones have been -
Arctic explorer cake -
white square, with icing sugar sprinkled on it for snow. Sugar cubes piled around for blocks of ice. An igloo made out of a teacup covered with icing and marked into bricks with a small icing entrance funnel thing. Playmobil man with sled.

Tea party cake -
Round cake. Pink icing draped over it to look like a long table cloth. White icing circle on top with holes punched all around to look like white lacy tablecloth on top. Tiny Fairy cake in middle with tiny candle. Tiny china te set arranged around and barbies on chairs seated around the cake.

Pirate cake-
Square cake, covered in blue icing. Green icing mound for land. The blue was swirled with white to look like the sea. On the land I put playmobil trees and a treasure chest with a skeleton. In the sea I put a boat and a shark, jumping out of the water. A couple of pirates. Gold wrapped chocolate coins all around the cake board, plus shells and jewels.

helenmumsnet,sorry im such an idiot.completley forgot JAM in my recipe...
so,before you put anything on the sponge,you spread strawberry jam on both pieces of sponge and then add the rest.

I use this recipe because you can make it in advance and it still tastes nice and moist when it's a day or two old.

Ricotta Cake

2 lemons (or oranges)
3 eggs
50g butter (softened)
150g caster sugar
250g tub ricotta cheese
175g SR flour

makes enough for a 20cm cake tin.

Separate the eggs and whisk the egg whites until stiff. In another bowl mix the butter, sugar, egg yolks and lemon/orange rind then beat in the ricotta a spoonful at a time. Sift the flour into the mixture, fold it then fold in the egg whites.

Bake at 180 for 45-50 minutes. Decorate either by letting it cool then icing it or you can put a mix of white and dark chocolate drops on top when it come out of the oven - they melt and you can make nice swirly patterns with a teaspoon.

Also, these are fab cupcakes - again they can be made in advance and also freeze really well un-iced. I did them for dd's 4th birthday party as she'd already had a cake on her birthday proper and I popped one in each party bag. They're from the BBC good food magazine.

Party cupcakes with white chocolate frosting.

150ml plain yoghurt
3 eggs (beaten)
175g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
140g SR flour
100g ground almonds
175g melter butter

Line a 12 hole muffin case with paper cases. Mix the yoghurt up with the eggs and vanilla. Put the dry ingredients into a bowl, make a well in the centre and add the yoghurty mix and melted butter. Fold quickly and add to the muffin tin. Bake at 180 for 18-20 mins.

White chocolate frosting

100g white chocolate
140g butter
140g icing sugar

Melt the chocolate then beat in the butter & icing sugar. Can be chilled for up to a month.

ooh, am liking the ricotta cake and the cup cakes with white choc frosting!

lol at Miyazaki's Barbie cake hideousness.

And janeite: your decoration ideas are all noted - thank you!

B1984: jam, too? wow, what a cake! It must look incredible.

bumping for any other birthday cake maestros out there?

bumping because of weird time-warpy thing that knocked this off Active Convos...

sweetie house

four loaf cakes stuck together with jam to make a cube. another loaf cake, sliced diagnolly in two to make a sloped roof. cover in pink butter icing. after eights for square windows. candy strip things for windowboxes with little sugar flowers in. Pink wafer biscuits for roof tiles. jelly beans and dolly mixtures all around the edge

here

This is a lovely chocolate birthday cake.

Cake
1.5 tbsps cocoa
3 tbsps hot water
175g butter / margarine
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
175g s/r flour
1.5 tsps baking powder

Blend cocoa and hot water and leave to cool
Once cool, add all remaining ingredients to bowl and beat well
Divide between 2 7inch sandwich tins and cook for 25 mins at 180c

Icing (which is very yummy)
50g butter / margarine
25g cocoa
2 tbsps milk
225g icing sugar

Melt butter, add cocoa and cook for 1 min. Remove from heat and stir in milk and icing sugar. Beat well and allow to cool a little.

There is enough icing to sandwich to cakes together and then cover the cake too.
I then decorate the cake with smarties, malstesers, m&ms, chocolate buttons etc etc. You get the idea!

Tis lovely.
Am going to make it for DS's last night at Beavers before he moves up to Cubs

sorry link doesn't work!!

also pirate ship, chocolate loaf cakes stuck together with choc butter icing, boat shaped at the bow! Cover with choc icing and chocolate fingers. make portholes with any large round sweets. Make paper sails on bbq skewers. Top with small piratey playmobil figures.

It depends how fancy the decoration is going to be.

For stupidly complicated cakes (I am guessing MNTowers can see pictures on my profile without having to be added to my mates list?) I use a madiera cake recipe, substituting some of the flour with cocoa for chocolate variations. It freezes well, has a nice dense texture for carving into ludicrous shapes and keeps for up to 2 weeks giving plenty of time for decorating and eating. I then use plain buttercream and jam to sandwich layers together and coat the outside before icing.

For simpler cakes (see the golfer on profile) I use Mary Berry's Victoria Sponge recipe, but double the quantity of butter cream for filling/coating.

I did a pingu cake once for my penguin mad dd. i made three victoria sponges, piled them up, trimmed the top one to make it dome shaped, covered in white icing, scored with a sharp knife to make it look like ice blocks. I made some small penguins from black icing arounnd leftover white icing tummies, with silver balls for eyes, and some snowballs to decorate.

I do either a plain sponge (8oz flour, 8oz sugar, 8oz butter, 4 eggs + vanilla essence) or nigella's chocolate birthday cake here. Nigella's one sets very firm in the fridge which makes it ideal if you need to carve your cake into a shape. Also very nice to eat.

These are all fantastic : thank you!

stealthsquiggle: do you have a recipe for your madeira cake? (love the bomb cake on your profile, btw)

From memory a previous post:

For 6 eggs (which is a reasonably substantial cake - how much you need depends a lot on the final shape):

375g SR flour
185g plain flour
375g butter
375g caster sugar

Preheat oven to 160 deg C
sift flours together
cream butter and sugar until fluffy
add eggs one at a time with spoonful of flour with each
Add flavouring if you want - grated lemon rind, or vanilla, or 2-3tblspns cocoa + 1 tblspn milk
fold in remaining flour
spoon into tin and make a dip in the centre with the back of a spoon

bake until skewer comes out clean

cooking time depends on the shape - anywhere from 1-1.5 hours

BTW - it will be drier than normal sponge. I make about twice the stated quantity of buttercream and sandwich it in lots of layers.

Thank you, stealthsquiggle

We've got lots of lovely ideas for boys' cakes now. Anyone got any girly ideas?

Basic sponge recipe in square tins. Place one on top of the other with jam/buttercream inside. Smother in PINK buttercream. Take four empty ice cream cones, smother in pink butter cream and place, inverted, at four corners of cake. You have a fairy princess castle (with a bit of imagination an liberal use of sweeties to make doors, windows etc. Cover with edible glitter, or that coloured sugar you can buy for added sparkle. And now for the girlie idea....