BIRTHDAY CAKE

This cake recipe is worth sharing. We've made it for 12 children's birthday parties, and every time it all gets eaten - even by the children, who often only eat icing on some cakes.

Every time we decorate it slightly differently, though. One time we created a large star on top out of chocolate sprinkles. Another time we made the shape of a cat's face from liquorice and a pink marshmallow nose.

For our most recent birthday party, for our four-year-old, we created a star out of raspberries and decorated the plate with flower petals.

The butter cake recipe is by Donna Hay, and in the Donna Hay Modern Classics Book 2.

INGREDIENTS
125g (4 oz) butter, very well softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup caster (superfine) sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), sifted
1/2 cup (4 fl oz) milk

1. Preheat oven to 150ºC (300ºF). Place the butter, vanilla, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and milk in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on a low speed until combined.
2. Increase the speed to high and beat the mixture until it is just smooth.
3. Grease a 20cm (8 in) round cake tin and line with non-stick baking paper. Spoon in the mixture and bake for 1 hour 5 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Allow to cool for 5 minutes then turn onto a wire rack. Serve plain or spread with basic icing or butter cream frosting, below. Serves 8

Butter cream frosting
Place 250g (8 oz) softened butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Add 1 cup sifted icing (confectioner's) sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and beat until well combined. Spread over a completely cooled cake and refrigerate until set.

image the indigo crew