I love making these, they are so cute and can be adapted for any occasion. I did this one for a client a few weeks ago and photographed the stages so you can all make one too, they’re pretty easy really if you have the right tin. I use the Wilton one but there are others available.

For the cake:

• 375g soft unsalted butter (plus a little extra for greasing)
• 375g caster sugar
• 375g sifted self-raising flour (plus extra for dusting your tin)
• 6 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1.5tsp baking powder
• 2tsp vanilla essence

For the decorating:

• 500g soft unsalted butter
• 1kg icing sugar
• 1tsp vanilla essence
• A covered 10″ cake board
• Fondant decorations if you wish
• 2 boxes of chocolate fingers

Method:

• Preheat oven to 160c or 140c if fan assisted, thoroughly grease your tin ensuring you get into all the crevices and put a small circle of baking paper in the bottom of the base section. Sprinkle some flour into each half and tap around until well covered, shake out excess.
• Cream together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
• Add the flour, baking powder, vanilla essence and eggs, mix until well combined
• Divide between the tins leaving about a 2cm gap from the top on each
• Bake for 1hr-1hr 10mins
• Ensure a skewer comes out clean from the centre of both so you know they are baked through

• Leave in the tins for approx 20 mins to firm up a little before turning out onto cooling racks to finish cooling completely
• Once the cakes are completely cooled (I usually leave mine 24hours before decorating as it allows the sponge to settle too) you can trim the ends to make them level and split each cake to add filling. I do three in the base and one on the top
• Fill with buttercream and jam, keeping the two parts separate and roughly crumb coat each of them, put in a fridge for 30 mins

• Once chilled move the base cake onto your iced board and add another layer of buttercream
• Stick on your chocolate fingers starting from the front as you will need to trim them to meet at the back
• Place your top section on and pipe little stars up to meet the join
• Split the remaining buttercream in half and colour with whichever colours you’d like to use, put one in a piping bag and the other in a second bag
• Tske a third piping bag and fit with a 2D piping nozzle, trim the ends off the two coloured bags and put into the third one ensuring both are alongside each other evenly

• Pipe even roses starting at the bottom, make sure you overlap the row of stars below. Continue up the cake finishing with one or two at the top
• If you have gaps either fill with a swirl or star and add your decorations, I like butterflies on mine
• Use a ribbon cutter to add a ribbon and bow to the front and if you like add a message to the board
• I always finish mine with a ribbon around the base of the board

 

The best thing about these is that you can use any colours you like, mix up the chocolate fingers, add different fondant decorations and basically make them into whatever you fancy with little effort. To make it a chocolate cake just add 60g of cocoa powder mixed with some hot water to make a paste into the recipe instead of the vanilla essence.

Have a go yourselves and post a picture of your creations xx