Homemade Castle birthday cake for 1st birthday

blondette31

Hi Everyone,

Need cake bakers help please:

My daughter will be one year old in November and for her party I really would love to have a pink castle birthday cake for her. I have priced around a few local places and they are really expensive. So now I'm thinking of trying to make my own (my husband is:rotfl:at the thought)!!! problem is I'm not a baker (although I'd love to learn) and just made my first bog standard jam and cream sponge a couple of weeks ago which turned out really well for my first attempt!!! I'm keen but I think a castle might be totally beyond me though!!! I have been googling and found lots of pictures and recipes that they state as being very easy to make!! but I'm really not so sure can anyone with cake baking experience advise me if this might be manageable or would I be simply wasting my time??? Many Thanks in advance Gemma :T

Golden_Anemone

Hi Gemma - I'd keep it fairly simple. Your daughter is a bit too young to really pay much attention to anything except the colour.

Make a plain sponge in a square tin and ice it in pink. 4 cup cones for ice cream [the ones with the flat bottom] turned upside down and also iced and put one on each corner to make the turrets. Then have fun decorating with sweets etc.

Alternatively, and even easier, is to find a picture of a Fairytale Castle in a book or on the Internet and print it out. Then take it to Asda or Tesco who will scan it and put it onto a ready made sponge cake for under a tenner. Be careful that there are no copyright markings on the picture or the store can't print it.

Artytarty

I made one of these many years ago when my daughter was a toddler. At that age its all about the appearance, not the taste!
I cut 3 swiss rolls to different lenghts ( they became the castle towers when placed on their ends) and i think I used chocolate covered ones.
Then I stuck on square liquorice allsorts for windows. Lots of smarties in a pattern around the castle walls too.
I made cones from card for the roof. Your could cover them in icing if you wished.
Put the whole thing on a cake board or tray covered in coconut mixed with a little green food colouring,
Maybe give it a dusting with icing sugar "snow".
I saw edible glitter in Lakeland recently which is amazing stuff but you dont need it unless you are really trying to impress! Come to think of it, if it had been available 20 yrs ago, I would have used it!
Arty.

Phoolgrrrl

My mum made one for my sister years ago, a square sponge with 4 swiss rolls with upside down ice cream cones on top. like this one http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/pink-castle-cake/30644b1f-8ec2-4c23-b8d8-cce1d9566df4 but a bit simpler!

Artytarty

^^^ wish I'd thought of ice cream cones! nice touch.

blondette31

:beer: Thank you all for your great tips and advice I am definately going to attempt this now and have decided to do a small trial one over the next week or two to see how it turns out!!!! Wish me luck I think I might need it!!!!:rotfl:

Bigcammy

Good luck, and if it doesn't work out, I have a friend who does birthday cakes, so PM me if you want his number

Golden_Anemone

Yes Blondette31, good luck and maybe post a picture of the cake when you're done!

loopylouc

Hi
I've made one of these in the past, just one quick tip - if your using swiss rolls for the towers pop them in the freezer before you ice them, this stops any of the outer layer of the cake coming loose as you ice over it. I used butter icing it might not be a problem if you use the rollout out icing. Also if you go to a cake decorating shop - you can get edible glitter than you can sprinkle over the turrets for that bit of magical sparkle.
Good luck and have fun xx

mirrorimage0

hi i made one for my niece i used battenburg cakes for the walls ice cream cones for the turrets and covered it in butter ice with red food dye to turn it pink, silver edible balls on top of the turrets and inside the cake i put lots of edible sweets for the kids to pick at and edible glitter to make it sparkly

blondette31

I will try and post a pic of the cake when it gets done over the next week or two!! But I'm telling you in advance that it might well turn out looking more like the ruins of dunluce castle!!!!!:rotfl: