How to make Birthday (and other celebration) Cakes!

marmiterulesok

I made this recently,it's really nice and moist with subtle flavours.

Mincemeat and Marzipan Teabread

200g SR flour
100g cold butter,cut in pieces
85g light muscovado sugar
85g marzipan,cut into 1cm cubes
2 eggs
300g mincemeat
2 tbsp flaked almonds
icing sugar,optional

Preheat oven to 180c
Butter a 2lb loaf tin and line.
Tip flour in bowl,add butter and rub til it forms fine crumbs.Stir in sugar and marzipan.

In another bowl,lightly whisk the eggs,then stir in mincemeat.Stir this into flour mixture til evenly combined.Spoon into loaf tin,smooth and sprinkle top with flaked almonds.Bake for 1 hour,til risen and golden brown.Lightly dust with icing sugar while it is still hot.

Allow to cool in tin for 10 minutes before turning out.

stiltwalker

What about a lovely rich ginger cake or parkin ? - It will "come again" and get all yummy sticky nicely in time for Christmas.

alisong_2

Delia's boiled fruit cake is really easy and VERY nice!

conradmum

Thanks everyone. I think I may go with the first suggestion of a belated Christmas cake as it can be made to look decorative. Also, a work colleague has been mithering me to make another Christmas cake like I did last year.

Callie22

Nigella's Chocolate Christmas cake is gorgeous - I made one last year and it's lovely to eat straight away, but it matures really well and would be lovely given a couple of extra weeks. I marzipanned and iced mine as usual and everyone loved it.

Moominmamma

I'll second the vote for Nigella's Chocolate Christmas Cake, it's really easy to make, tastes fantastic and looks fab with loads of gold decorations and ribbon so you don't even need to ice it

zippychick

I've merged this with our celebration cakes thread

kippers

Hi all, I wonder if someone can help me...

It's my DD's 13th birthday in a couple of weeks and i need to make her a cake. I want to make a 9 inch sponge cake with butter icing in the middle and iced with white icing (the icing you roll out so it's smooth). The problem is i want to put another smaller iced sponge cake on top...will i need to buy 'dowls' to keep the top cake in place (not sure if thats what they are called) or will it be ok to just place one cake on top of the other?

I hope someone can help me with this...thanks for any replies

Moominmamma

I reckon it'll probably be ok just to put the smaller one on top, but if you don't want to risk it you can just use plastic drinking straws instead of buying dowels

Rachel021967

Please can I have a talk through guide to baking a 10 inch square sponge cake. I'm not very good at making sponges. My daughter wants a Batman cake for her half birthday (Christmas baby). I was thinking of covering the cake in butter icing and having Lego Batman face in the centre and the rest dotted with sweets. The shop suggested covering the cake in white fondant icing and making Lego Batman's face as the centre piece. Any advice to somebody who last did a cake decorating course 20 years ago?