Last week for Tyne's birthday I had a go at making a birthday cake for the first time.
I had known for months that I wanted to bake his cake myself - I'm not usually the home-made kind of Mummy at all - it's so much easier to just buy things and I am usually MORE than happy to go down that route rather than have to make a lot of effort!
But for some reason, I got it into my head that I wanted to bake his 1st birthday cake.
I told myself it wouldn't be so bad, and I could make something passable.
But as the day drew closer, I started to panic!
WHY hadn't I just ordered a cake?!
I had prepared myself well, and had in my mind what I wanted.
To me, a 1st birthday cake HAS to be a Number 1 shape and I knew I wanted it to be iced baby blue with his name on.
I took a trip to good old Hobbycraft and armed myself with a number 1 shaped cake tin (£16.00)...
And various decorative supplies!
I made sure to also pick up some sugar craft so that there would be something readable and pretty on there, at least!
So, the day before Tyne's birthday I set to work on the cake.
I wanted a traditional sponge cake with a jam and buttercream filling, which meant I would have to bake 2 number 1 shaped cakes as there was NO way I was going to risk cutting one in half!
I followed my sister's cake recipe - she told me to use five eggs for a cake this size, and to weigh them - and how ever many oz the eggs weighed together - was how many oz I should use of self-raising flour, caster sugar and butter.
I was appalled to see how much butter goes in to making a cake - gross!!!! I honestly had no idea!!!!
I used baking paper to line the tin to avoid any disasters when taking it out, and it worked pretty well - although the second cake did break at the bottom when coming out of the tin - I almost threw the whole thing away but Jon convinced me it would be fine when it was iced, and he was right!Once both cakes had cooled, I covered the bottom one with buttercream and then topped it with jam.I then placed the second cake on top.
I rolled out some marzipan until it looked big enough to cover the whole cake (It was pretty huge and very deep so this was no easy task!) - I spread a thin layer of jam around the cake edges to help keep the marzipan in place and then laid the marzipan on top, trimming away the excess.
I then used Renshaw ready to roll icing in baby blue - it took 6 of the small blocks to cover the cake.
And it took SIX attempts of rolling out the icing and covering the cake only for it to split and need to be kneaded back together and rolled out again - for it to cover the whole thing! STRESS!!!
Once the icing was on, and the excess was trimmed away - I set about decorating.
I used fondant cutters to cut heart shapes and letters to spell Tyne's name out of some white ready to roll icing and arranged them on top of the cake, using a little smear of buttercream under each one to hold them in place.
I then added the sugarcraft, and made a teddy bear out of white icing with a cookie cutter to add to the bottom.
I thought the cake still needed a finisihing touch, so I used the Dt Oetker Designer Icing in baby blue to add the edging.
Overall, I was very pleased with the outcome considering it was my first attempt!
I added some cupcakes I'd made as decoration on the cake board, which I think gave a nice finishing touch.
I'm glad I made the birthday cake, but it was rather stressful and in future years - I will be buying them!!!!
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