For my sons first Birthday I decided to make him a Bluey Birthday cake- over my maternity leave which lasted 13 months I didn’t want to watch or have something in the background that wouldn’t be suitable for him. He has grown to really enjoying the theme music and often dances along to it. Between Paddington, Bluey and Ms Rachel my son doesn’t have much screen time, we use it whilst we are doing housework like washing up or folding laundry.
As a first time mum I wanted a special cake for Theo’s first birthday but one that would also not cause me much stress. I decided on vanilla and vanilla buttercream as it is basic but still delicious. I decided to try working with fondant as I’ve used buttercream lots of times and I find it hard to pipe well.
Recipe
- 2 cups plain / all purpose flour (cake flour OK too, Note 1)
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (check it’s still active, Note 2)
- 1/4 tsp cooking salt (kosher salt)
- 4 large eggs (50 – 55g / 2 oz each), at room temp (Note 3)
- 1 1/2 cups caster / superfine sugar (granulated/regular ok too, Note 2)
- 115g / 1/2 cup unsalted butter , cut into 1.5cm / 1/2” cubes (or so)
- 1 cup milk , full fat (Note 5)
- 3 tsp vanilla extract , the best you can afford (Note 6)
- 3 tsp vegetable or canola oil (Note 7)
VANILLA BUTTERCREAM
- 225g / 2 sticks unsalted butter , softened
- 500g soft icing sugar
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 – 4 tbsp milk
Fondant icing to decorate!
For the birthday cake I first made the two vanilla sponge cakes, this would allow them to cool whilst I make the buttercream. The vanilla sponge cakes can last up to 4 days and are still very fresh on the 4th day.
Once the cakes have cooled thinly spread the buttercream onto the cakes and in between ensuring a smooth spread with a knife if needed. I then placed my cake in the fridge to harden the buttercream so I could work with the fondant.
At one point I was worried I was becoming a smurf with how much blue food colouring I was working with. The best thing I did is use white fondant and split it into different bowls to then out the food colouring in. work with 1 colour at a time cutting out the pieces you need then move onto the next.
I covered the cake in the darkest blue first and then laid the light blue ontop, cutting the light blue out may look better but personally, I found this easier to do. I cut out the nose and placed this next so I would know where to place the eyes. Making the eyes into almost egg shapes worked better than rounding them to me. For the ears, I held them up with cocktail sticks but you could place them further down on the cake.
