Jellycat Birthday Cake
An adorable version of the much loved Jellycat birthday cake, made from a classic Victoria Sponge recipe with strawberry jam. Use buttercream or sugarpaste to create the extra details such as the legs and the candle, and top with strawberries to match the soft toy.
Equipment
- Greaseproof Paper
- Small Knife
Ingredients
- 300 grams caster sugar 1 1/4 cups
- 300 grams butter, softened 1 1/4 cups
- 6 medium eggs
- 300 grams self raising flour 2 1/2 cups
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- drop vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons milk
For the Filling:
- 200 grams unsalted butter 3/4 cups and 2 tablespoons
- 400 grams icing sugar 1 1/3 cups
- drop vanilla extract
- half a jar strawberry jam
- 4 strawberries
- black food colouring
- 50 grams sugarpaste
- red food colouring
- yellow food colouring
- brown food colouring
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 190ºC (170ºC fan) / Gas 5. Grease two 6-inch sandwich tins with butter and line the bases with non-stick baking paper. If you only have one tin, half the recipe and make it twice i.e. mix up 150grams of everything and 3 eggs, then repeat.
- In a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, beat together the caster sugar and softened butter until light and fluffy. Add the beaten eggs, self-raising flour, baking powder, and milk, then mix everything until you’ve got a smooth, soft batter. Take care not to overmix though.
- Spoon the mixture evenly into the two tins (or one tin) and level the tops with a spatula or the back of a spoon. Bake for around 35–40 minutes, or until the cakes are golden and spring back when gently pressed.
- Once baked, carefully turn the cakes out onto a wire rack and leave them to cool completely.
- While the cakes are cooling, you can get creative and shape the candle and legs from sugarpaste.
- Roll a white sausage of sugarpaste and set aside. Roll a thin red sausage of sugarpaste and wrap around the white sausage. Roll them both together to get the swirl effect. I like to use a cake smoother to get an even thickness.
- Make the candle flame from some yellow sugarpaste. Roll a ball of sugarpaste in your hand and then use your index finger of the other hand to create a teardrop shape.
- Make the legs from brown sugarpaste. Roll a ball of sugarpaste then using your index finger of the other hand roll one end of the ball against the work surface to create a leg and foot. .
- To make the buttercream filling, beat the softened butter until smooth and creamy. Gradually mix in the sifted icing sugar, and add a drop of vanilla extract if using. Set aside a small spoonful of the buttercream and colour it black for the face.
- If the cakes have baked a little dark, don't worry. You can trim off the darker edges using a sharp knife. I trimmed the top and bottom of each of my cake layers too - this ensures they're nice and level before you start adding the filling.
- Place one cake layer onto a serving plate. Pipe or spread the white buttercream over the top, followed by a generous layer of strawberry jam. Gently place the second sponge on top.
- Pipe more buttercream on the top of the cake, then decorate with the sugarpaste candle and legs, and use the black buttercream to pipe the eyes and smile.
- Cut the fresh strawberries in half and place them on the top of the cake. The soft toy uses 5 halves, so have a little snack of the leftovers!
