Doraemon!

Birthday Cake

A friend asked if I could bake a birthday cake for her son's first birthday... cute! First birthdays are important even if the birthday person isn't quite aware of what exactly is happening or who are all those people...!!

The mum wanted it to be Doraemon as that is his favourite cartoon character.
So off I went looking high and low of the said cat's edible icing sheet, but sadly after visiting 4 shops, Doraemon was no where in sight!
Eventually we settled for figurines of the blue cat made of sugar and some plastic toys.

For this cake I baked a Victoria Sandwich, chocolate and vanilla with butter cream topping.
As she didn't want a lot of cream, I covered the sides lightly with some butter cream before propping up bars of Kitkat that look like fences. For a festive touch I added some colourful lollipops.

Applying the fences a.k.a kitkat takes a lot of patience and a bit of icing.
Patience, so that the bars don't break as you are unwrapping them.
Icing, works like glue to stick to the cake. When done, gently press the bars to the cake and put it in the fridge to set. Same goes for the cats, a bit of icing at the bottom of eat figurines, helps them stick better.
I piped some rosette at the edge between the cake and kitkat bars, to close some gaps.
If you like, tie a colourful ribbon around the chocolate bars with a big bow right at the front.

Here is the end product, I left the front part empty for the candles.

Victoria Sandwich
source: my mum's recipe book

4 oz self raising flour (I used Blue Key)
1 tsp baking powder
3 oz castor sugar
2 medium size eggs
4 oz butter
* I doubled the recipe for this birthday cake.

Method:
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add in eggs one at a time, beat well.
Fold in flour in batches and mix well until batter is smooth.
**
Line and grease 2 baking tins.
Bake for about 25-30 min at 180 C.

Take cakes out of tins and cool on racks.
When cakes are still warm, spread jam on the surface of one cake (pick the bottom part of the cake, as it is easier to spread the jam) before topping it with the other cake.

** If you are doing the chocolate part, put aside half of the batter and add 1 Tbsp of cocoa. Mix well until all the batter is evenly mix, just use a wooden spoon or spatula. Pour batter into tin and bake.

For the butter cream
125g butter
70g shortening
80g icing sugar (please sift first)
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp condensed milk

In a bowl beat butter and shortening until light and fluffy,
then add the vanilla. Beat again.
Gradually add the icing sugar and continue beating until all the
sugar is finished. Lastly add in the condensed milk.
Mix well and it is ready to be used.

For colour, just add a few drops of your favorite colour. 

Happy Baking!