Making a birthday cake.....

Sunshine_and_Roses

I have arranged a meal out for my OH's 50th birthday, and they have said I can bring a cake if I want to. They suggested M&S if I did not want to make one, but there are 30 of us, and I might have a go myself.

Now, I know that there is not enough time to make a decent fruit cake as I would not be able to 'feed' it, so it looks like a good old fashioned sponge cake. I think that chocolate would be the most popular, but I am struggling with quantities and the size of tin to use.

Also, can someone suggest some decorations for the cake? Has anyone used the Tesco photo service - dont know how well this would come out.

Any help appreciated!

boo81

The photo service is great but if you use it choose one with good contrast and generally neither too light or too dark.

You could try the ultra trendy way of doing cakes and do 50 cupcakes all piled up instead. You can write messages on them or a letter on each to spell something out. I think they are easier to make and decorate and they look really impressive

Sunshine_and_Roses

Thanks. I was hoping to do something that looked pretty impressive, and that people could have instead of spending £4.50 on a dessert. I like the idea of something sticky and full of chocolate, and obviously full of calories.

My big dread would be that it looks more like cack than cake!

Penelope_Penguin

I'd go with the individual cakes piled up idea, too. The problem with big cakes is timing them so that they're cooked through before the edges burn.

You can also get gold muffin and cake cases - chocolate in them, decorated with edible gold *smarties* and 5 (unless you can light 50 in time) small gold candles would be very impressive!

Penny. x

Sunshine_and_Roses

That sounds great - I could even make different flavours ie coffee and walnut, chocolate, plain etc so everyone would be happy.

Only problem would be - transporting them to the restaurant and setting them up on a plate or best way of presenting them?

boo81

you can rent cake stands very cheaply from cake shops and I think thats the best way or scout around for a large (colour coordinated) platter.

Nigella lawson even does it with choclate brownies and cuts them into small squares with a candle in each, it looks adorable and very rustic. The letter shaped candles you can buy are especially good. If you have a 2 tier cake stand you can pile the top layer up and put happy birthday candles on those to blow out

Fen1

This link might help with cake stands.


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=440765&highlight=cake+stand

To transport, try getting some of those big shallow boxes that fruit and veg come in. There will be a few at your supermarket (and you can ask), or at your local grocerers.

boo81

Try this for recipes, Nigella is the cupcake queen!

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/index.asp?search=1&Course=0&Ingredient=0&Keywords=cupcake

You could cook the same sponge and put different types of buttercream on top. Chocolate, vanilla, coffee, choc orange, lemon, raspberry, banana. There are loads!!

Sunshine_and_Roses

I have had another idea - he races motocross and I found this on a search...

http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/creative-birthday-cakes.html#c1

Hope I have posted this right. It looks easy enough to do for a beginner like me, and it would give him a good laugh. It will probably look like it was made by a 7 year old for a 7 year old, but I think he may appreciate the thought going into it.

What do you think?

boo81

Looks fairly easy to decorate but you still have the problem of size. You could make lots of square cakes and join them together though

Sunshine_and_Roses

Does anyone have any tips on how to get a large cake to cook evenly, and also to get it flat?