When it comes to designing a birthday cake or your child’s birthday many people will take inspiration from their hobbies such as dancing, reading or perhaps football. You can then create a cake that is based on the many areas within your child’s hobby that you can think of.
If your child is a football fan you could look at creating a cake that is based on their favorite team’s kits, their own teams Junior Football Kits, that you may be able to find from stockists such as www.kitking.co.uk or perhaps a football itself.
Before you start
Prepare a template for the shirt or the football using examples found online, and get a square cake tin for the shirt or round tin for the football big enough for you to be able to decorate.
The cake
Madeira cake is best as it is firm enough to take the decorations. Chose any size as long as it is square.
The template will show you how to cut away sections of the cake to create sleeves and a neck for your shirt cake. Cut the remaining part of the cake in half through the middle and spread with jam and buttercream before sandwiching it back together. Trim any obvious excess and make sure the cake is flat before putting a thin layer of buttercream over the whole cake and smoothing with a knife.
**If the sleeves are the same color as the shirt, you can put them in place now. If not, leave them until the main icing has been added.
The icing
Roll out your icing no thinner than 5mm or it will tear when lifted. You can use a piece of string to compare the size of the cake to the icing to be certain it will cover it all. Lifting the icing onto the cake can be tricky, so you may need to use a rolling pin and organize an extra pair of hands. Once placed, smooth down all edges and secure to the cake board with some royal icing.
Cover and add the sleeves now if they are a different color using the damp sponge to help the icing stick, and then add any logos or extra details.
If you are creating a football cake you will use the natural circular shape of the cake and either uses black and white royal icing or pipe icing into the shapes needed to create the outer look of the football.
The decoration
Double check the details and logos on the shirt you have used for inspiration as tricky images may need to be printed onto sugar paper at a cake decorating shop. Finally, cut out the age and letters needed from sugar paste and leave to dry for around ten minutes before placing on the cake, using the damp sponge to help them stick.
For your football cake why not pipe some green butter icing around the base of the cake to make it look like the football is placed on the grass.
