GF birthday cake for DS1? (will be 8yo)

[CardyMow]

DS1 will be 8 in April. He is coeliac, on a gf diet. He wants a spongebob squarepants cake. I need a nice recipie for a gf cake that isn't too dry. When I have made cakes in the past, we have used an alternative to marzipan that's made from semolina (none of us can tolerate marzipan, it makes us hurl ). Is there a gf alternative to marzipan? If not, how do you get icing to lay flat on the cake IYSWIM? And is ready made royal icing gf? I haven't a clue, this is his first birthday since being gf. HELP!

Bump

Use buttercream instead of marzipan, then sugarpaste (ready to roll icing) on top. Or just buttercream. Royal icing is gf i think but check on the packet. Or perhaps use ready to roll icing instead of marzipan as a base to put the royal icing on. Good luck!

If its too difficult, and if he could live with something delicious instead of SpongeBob, the best thing I know to cover a cake with is plain chocolate melted with a spoonful or two of single cream stirred in - turns it into fudge icing. That should be GF and it tastes so much better than normal sickly icing.

Can't help with icing, but Nigella Lawson's flourless chocolate orange cake is delicious and easy. It is in the chocolate section of her Feast book. Highly recommended and very moist!

Grimma-I don't think it's going to pass muster unless it is extremely SpongeBob-ish!

debka-If Buttercream is ok to put icing on, then I think that would be good.

redllama-Could you post the recipe for me pretty purleeeeze. I think he ould like that as the cake 'inside' spogebob!

Only just seen this reply, sorry to be late getting back to you.

It really is incredibly yummy. You'll probably have to make a tester one, just to check

Ingredients
2 small thin-skinned oranges, approx. 375g total weight (or 1 large)
6 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
200 g ground almonds
250 g caster sugar
50 g cocoa
orange peel, for decoration

Directions

1. Put the whole orange or oranges in a pan with some cold water, bring to the boil and cook for 2 hours or until soft.
2. Drain, and when cool, cut the oranges in half and remove any big pips.
3. Then pulp everything - pith, peel and all - in a food processor.
4. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C Butter and line a 20cm springform tin.
5. Add the eggs, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, almonds, sugar and cocoa to the orange in the food processor. Run the motor until you have a cohesive cake mixture, but slightly knobbly with the flecks of puréed orange.
6. Pour and scrape into the cake tin and bake for an hour, by which time a cake tester should come out pretty well clean. Check after 45 minutes because you may have to cover with foil to prevent the cake burning before it is cooked through, or indeed it may need a little less than an hour; it all depends on your oven.
7. Leave the cake to get cool in the tin, on a cooling rack. When the cake is cold you can take it out of the tin. Decorate with strips of orange peel or coarsely grated zest if you so wish, but it is darkly beautiful in its plain, unadorned state.