Smartie Birthday Cake 5

It has become something of a tradition that Maxi always has a chocolate smartie cake for his birthday.  This year I decided to try and do something a little more eye catching.  I love baking, but find icing larger cakes something of a chore.  So this cake is very forgiving.

Cake Ingredients 

• 6 oz of butter or marg
• 6 oz caster sugar
• 5 oz of self raising flour
• 1 oz of coco powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 eggs
• half teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons of milk

Method. 

Cream together the marg/butter and sugar.  Then add the rest of the ingredients in and mix well!

Put in two 7 inch cake tins (I line the tins with parchment and grease) and place in to a preheated oven of 180 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.  You can tell if the cakes are cooked if when you press the top it gives slightly but springs back.

Remove from oven and leave for 2 minutes before removing from tins and placing on to a wire rack to cool.

Icing Ingredients:

• 1 block of butter (250gm of 10 oz)
• 450 grams icing sugar
• 50 gms of coco powder
• half teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons of milk

Method

Soften the butter in a mixer before adding the other ingredients.  Make sure you start mixing very slowly so you do not get icing sugar everywhere.  If your mixer does not have a splatter guard then cover with a tea towel.

Assembling the cake

Sandwich together your two cakes with icing and then apply the remaining icing around and on top of the cake.  You are going to use the using around the cake to stick the chocolate fingers to the cake, so make sure you have enough at the sides.

I applied the fingers and then refrigerated the cake overnight, before covering the top with smarties the following day.