When Toby asked to make a cake, ‘all on his own’, to enter into a school competition I knew exactly what showstopper design he could make. His older sister made a similar cake for a baking competition at her school, and it was well received (she came second). Toby of course wanted to put his own twist on his showstopper, but I knew that he could make it from scratch with nothing more than verbal instructions from me. It’s lovely to be cooked for 🙂
In essence, it’s a basic Victoria sponge but with added candy. Full instructions are below. It’s a simple design but looks very effective. Toby has helped me bake cakes before, but this was the first time he’s ever attempted one with no help at all. And I think it came out really well. He proudly took it into school today, and lots of people commented on it.
This afternoon I went to school to see the prizes given out … Toby came third. He was really pleased with himself. When I collected him at home-time he wanted to go and buy a slice to take to his sister, and the queue of children all wanted a slice of his cake – he was so chuffed 🙂
So if you have a baking-mad child, who likes to follow instructions, this is a really good cake to let them loose on. Just stock up on colourful sweets from a pound shop and you are ready to go.
It’s such a shame that I gave up sugar for April 🙁 Boo hoo!
Ingredients for Toby’s Showstopper Sweeties Sponge Cake
For the sponge:
225g butter (room temperature/soft)
225g sugar
4 eggs
225g self-raising flour with 1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
For the filling:
Jar of jam (strawberry, raspberry – whatever you fancy)
225g butter (room temperature/soft)
500g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
Toppings:
Shop-bought large lollipops, long mallows (cut to size), brightly coloured candy of your choice to fill top
Method
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees (fan oven)
- Grease and line 2 x sponge tins
- Put butter and sugar in food processor, mix until smooth
- Crack eggs into a bowl and mix: then add about a quarter to the sugar/butter mix
- Add two tablespoons of flour, then more egg, then flour etc, until all added
- Add vanilla essence
- Split mixture between the two sponge tins, smooth into corners and level
- Place in oven for 30-35 mins. Use a skewer to test when cooked (will come out clean)
- Leave to cool
- Make buttercream by whisking the butter, vanilla essence and icing sugar. Keep adding the icing sugar until you get a smooth, thick consistency
- Spread jam over the bottom sponge
- Add a later of buttercream, and place top sponge on top
- Smooth buttercream around the sides
- Cut the long mallow sticks so that they are about 1cm taller than the cake. Stick them all the way around the edge (the buttercream acts as the glue)
- Place lollipops in position and then flood the top of the cake with your selection of sweets!
