Not Mary Berry: Frozen Birthday Party

This weekend my amazing baby turned 3 so we had to celebrate with a Frozen themed party. She loved every second. We had the soundtrack going, build an Olaf activity, Frozen balloons, and of course a Frozen cake. I am not very creative, as I have mentioned before, but I had a good go at doing fondant and some swirly patterns around the outside. To make it special for my girl, and to make my job easier, I bought a Frozen scene made from wafer card that stood up on the cake, which worked surprisingly well. It was an absolute bargain, so if you want a cheap way to excite some little children, I would recommend getting something like that (I got mine from an ebay shop).

As there were quite a few people coming and, therefore, lots of food to make I didn't do anything fancy with the cake, just made a standard chocolate sponge mix with chocolate butter icing. Simple, delicious and easy to make for a large group of people. I'm sure even Mary Berry would recommend a simple sponge for a children's party. So, here it is.

Frozen Birthday Cake
This recipe made a 3 layer cake, so obviously to make a 2 layer just made 2/3rds of the mixture.
Also, I know I usually put recipes in grams but I was always taught to make cakes in ounces by my mum so that's how I do it, and I think it's easier because then all you have to remember is 1 egg for every 2oz flour/dry ingredients.

For the sponge
12oz Butter or baking margarine (Stork is always good)
12oz Caster sugar
9oz Self raising flour
3oz Cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
6 eggs

For the decoration
750g Ice blue roll out/fondant icing
Ice blue food colouring (not liquid, paste or gel is best)
Wafer card cut out
Edible silver glitter

For the butter icing
250g butter
425g icing sugar
75g cocoa powder (this can be adjusted depending on how chocolately you want it, so for less increase icing sugar and decrease cocoa powder weight, and vice versa for more chocolately)

Preheat the oven to 160C fan, and grease and line (with baking parchment) 3 round cake tins (mine are 8in)
This is just a standard sponge with a little extra raising agent to ensure a good rise.
First, in a big bowl, beat the butter and sugar together really well until it's pale.
Then add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until fully incorporated before adding the next one.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder into the bowl and fold in using a metal spoon or spatula.
The mixture shouldn't be stiff, so if it seems too firm add a little milk.
Divide the mixture evenly between the cake tins and bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, checking at 25 minutes. If they spring back and have slightly come away from the edge of the tin, they're done.
Turn them out on to a cooking rack and leave to completely cool before decorating.

To make the butter icing, beat the butter on its own in a mixer or food processor until it is soft with no lumps, and then sift in the icing sugar and cocoa powder. Mix it for a few minutes to get rid of any lumps and to ensure everything is fully incorporated.
When the cakes are completely cool, spread 1/3 of the butter icing on the bottom layer, and 1/3 of it on the second layer of cake. I think it's easier to do this separately and then assemble.
Assemble the cake and press down on the top layer to make the butter icing come to the rim of the cake.
With the remaining third of the icing sugar, spread this around the sides of the cake, filling in the ridges between the layers to make the outside of the cake smooth. This will help create a smooth base to put the fondant on.

For the fondant/sugar paste/roll out icing, take it out of the packet and knead it. To do this, sprinkle some icing sugar on the work top, and rub some on your hands before kneading it. Keep going until it is soft, then shape it into a ball and roll out to the right size. (For the diameter of the icing = height of cake x 2 + diameter).
Lift up the icing and place over the cake. Rub down.
If you're not confident with fondant (which I am not), there's loads of videos on youtube to show how to do it. A couple of thorough ones I found were:

Once the fondant is on, add any decorations you want.

My finished piece was good. It wasn't perfect and had very amateur silver decoration round the outside but my daughter thought it was amazing, and at the end of the day that was what mattered with this cake. Next time though, I would use a stencil for the painting round the side but generally, everyone was really happy with this cake.