Birthday Cake Recipe

It was my Friends 18th Birthday the other day; for my birthday 6 months ago she drew me a beautiful picture which was a really nice thoughtful and creative gift. since I can’t draw to save anyone’s life, I thought I could bake her a cake instead. This was really nice when we met up for her birthday as everyone got a slice and it could be shared around. I made the cake in the morning, let it cool throughout the day whilst I got on with the day and then iced it 30 minutes before I left for her birthday gathering.

It took 30 minutes to prepare and bake and another 20 minutes to decorate. Leave as much time as you can for the cake to cool before you decorate it.

The birthday cake can serve up to 10-12 people.

INGREDIENTS:

For the cake:

200g butter

200g caster sugar

4 eggs

200g self-raising flour

3 tablespoons of milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 tablespoons of coco powder

For the decoration:

100g butter

220g icing sugar, plus extra for a dust on the top of the cake.

Pink/red food colouring (or whatever colour you would like)

1 tablespoon of sprinkles.

STEP BY STEP:

1) Pre-heat the oven to 180c fan oven and line two 20cm circle baking tins with parchment paper.

2) Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric whisk or by hand until it forms a fluffy texture

3) Add the eggs, self-raising flour and milk. Fold into the mixture. Then mix in the vanilla extract

4) Pour half of this mixture into one of the baking tins. * (To half accurately, weigh the mixture, then put the baking tin on the scales and pour the mixture in until it reads half of the full weight. For example, the full weight is 1500g. pour 750g into the baking tin)

5) Add coco powder to the remaining mixture and mix in. pour this chocolate mixture into the next baking tin. Bake both in the oven for 20 minutes. When 20 minutes is over, test they are ready by putting a cocktail stick or knife into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, it is ready.)

6) Once the cake has cooled completely, make the butter icing by creaming the butter and icing sugar together. Split 7/10 of the icing into one bowl and leave 3/10 in another. Put pink dye in the larger icing mixture and red in the smaller icing mixture.

7) Spread the pink icing over the top of the bottom tier of the cake (whichever one has the flattest top). Then sprinkle the sprinkles on top of the icing. Place the second cake on top to make the sandwich.

8) Dust the top of the cake with icing sugar. Put the red icing into a piping bag and choose how you would like to decorate the top of the cake. As it was an 18th birthday i piped the number 18 and then boarded the cake with icing dots.

*I did not split the two mixtures evenly so when I had too much chocolate mixture, I put some into the vanilla and made a swirl pattern. You could do this, or you can put it in randomly and use a knife to mix it around, this will make a marble effect, it looks so cool!

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION: per slice when it makes 8 slices

Calories Carbohydrates Protein Fats

448 45g 4g 28g