How to make Birthday (and other celebration) Cakes!

rachbc

There is a fab guide to scaling cake sizes on lindsy cake blog and a recipe fro madeira cake to make.

http://www.lindyscakes.co.uk/Blog/2009/12/17/baking-the-perfect-madeira-cake/

http://www.lindyscakes.co.uk/Blog/2009/07/27/how-to-i-change-a-cake-recipe-quanities/

I'd print off a picture of the batman you want to use and use as a template to cut coloured fondant to piece together like a jigsaw

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

These are soooo cool!

greenbee

If you're going to cover in fondant, make an 10" square and trim the edges to make it an exact 9" square with a flat top and bottom. The buttercream and icing will add about an inch back on.

Then you need to split it and fill with jam (raspberry looks better than strawberry which goes a bit grey layered with buttercream, and I use the seedless stuff for littlies).

You then need to crumb the cake - this means spreading a THIN layer of buttercream over the sides and top (think wipe on and wipe off) to stop crumbs going everywhere and help the icing stick. (hint... Do the sides first, then you can hold the top while you do it... The other way round isn't as easy).

You want to end up with a cake that's 9" square and about 3" high (two or three layers). You'll need to roll out the fondant to 3mm thick and 15" in diameter to cover the cake.

If you need to know anything more, then shout....

MrsCrafty

If I was going to do 10" square I would use 5 or 6 eggs, weigh them and then use the same amount of butter flour. This will give you quite a deep cake but if it rises in the middle too much, you can chop it down.

I would also use delias all in one sponge method, cream butter and sugar then chuck the rest in, but use SR flour and sift it in. gas mark 3, 325°F (170°C), but after 40 mins check and if it's going brown on top, use a knife and check if it's done. Do not open the door until 40 minutes have passed.

Rachel021967

Thanks for the advice. I wish my artistic talents were as good as the picture in Jojo Tightfisted's post. I'm feeling more confident about making the cake. I just wished I costed it out before I promised my daughter a Batman cake.

greenbee

If you want a flat cake use margarine (hard not soft). Butter is more likely peak. You can also take it out of the oven for a blast of cold air if it looks like peaking (lots of people swear by blowing on cupcakes to keep them flat!)

I'm sure your cake will be fine!

Rachel021967

We followed your advice and the cake turned out well and the girls had fun making it. Thanks again.

Rachel

zippychick

really glad it worked out rachel - any pics?

ive merged this with our celebration cakes thread

Zip

emma133_2

Hi i'm looking for a recipe for a sponge cake for a 9.5" tin for my daughters birthday party. I have read that a victoria sponge cake would not work for this size tin, which was my original plan!

Any ideas or advice would be appreciated.

lucasmum

I don't know why a victoria sponge wouldn't work. My most used tin in the kitchen is my 9 in sq tin. I usually use a 3 or 4 egg mix for each half of the cake(weigh the eggs and the same quantity of everything else) if i was doing a sandwich and icing it to allow for trimming to make everything flat, or a 5 egg mix if I was doing a traybake type of a cake.
HTH