Please help me make & decorate a choc birthday cake

[ProtectiveMother]

Hey all!

I need a really simple & delicious recipe for a birthday cake and instructions on how to do some icing writing on the top. Failing that, I will buy one from Thorntons & do the icing part. How does one do icing please? I just want to write her name and age :-)

Ps I know most people have the time & headspace to do this but I'm pretty stressed and need assistance being a super mummy at present. Thanks super mummies :-)

5 oz SR flour
4 oz soft butter or marg
6 oz sugar
1 oz cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 desertspoon of golden syrup
3 tablespoons of milk

Put it all in a bowl and mix it together. Cook in two 7 inch oiled or greased and floured cake tins at 170 (fan oven) for about 12-15 minutes.

Icing -
1/2 pack softened butter
1oz cocoa
Icing sugar until you have it sweet enough

Put all in bowl and beat, gradually adding the icing sugar

Google for videos of how to do writing icing. Cutters and fondant icing may turn out neater and more effective.

TYPO ALERT! should be 4 oz sugar!

I make cakes a fair bit and use the weight of the eggs as a guide to how much of anything else I'll need.

I've not tried writing in icing, but I have made shapes out of fondant icing, dried them and attached with a little bit of icing. You could do letters and numbers this way but printing out the letters/numbers, placing them under greaseproof paper and cutting out, or you can get cookie cutters that come in numbers and letters.

Or, use the trick of writing on the cake with a toothpick, then tracing over it in the icing you're doing the name and age in. You can put a layer of icing on and then when it's nearly dry, pipe the details in.

I'll pm you a couple of links. :)

you can buy tubes of icing that are like toothpaste so you just squeeze it out and write as you go, or get a piping bag and nozzels and use buttercream icing (just mix butter and icing sugar together). It works on the same "toothpaste" principle, just squeeze it out. Good luck

If writing in icing seems a bit difficult and your DD has a shortish name, I made a great cake for a friends DD with the name spelt out in smarties and the number. Put 2 square cakes to each other to make a large oblong and decorated sides with smarties too. Was v impressive.

If icing suggest you don't try getting to swirly and stick to straightish lines where poss.

Good luck.

Oh thanks everyone! Thanks for reminding me about using smarties! I did that a previous year. To the recipe person- is it yummy?

Just same back on to say 4 oz flour! Yes it is yummy and very easy.

Oh! One more question. When ideally should the cake b baked? The day before? Thanks!

if its a sponge, then yes. If you need to do it before, wrap it in foil and put in an airtight tin or tupperware til you're ready to decorate.

Tesco have delivered me a Thorntons cake. I plan to decorate it with Smarties. I don't even feel guilty as I cook delicious food constantly and I'm in a really tight spot at the moment but I have great intentions to make this cake soon when I have time. I need practice! ;-) So thank you all for the tips. Much appreciated :-)