I refer to my children here on the blog by their age, Mr 3 turned Mr 4 last week. He is one ‘big boy’ now that is enjoying Kindergarten (he will be in Prep next year), loves Lego, Dinosaurs, all things Animal and knows what he wants.
This year was a small celebration at home with family and then on the following weekend we had a birthday party at a local play centre so he can celebrate with his friends. We went with the play centre option this year as we are smack bang in the middle of painting the house and replacing the carpet which means we have ‘things’ EVERY WHERE.
Each year he has looked through the original version of The Australian Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake book. This year he picked the Easy Zoo Cake. This cake can also be made in the variation of a Farmyard or Cowboys and Indians. It really is a great versatile base cake that you could adapt to suit any small plastic toys your children love. Think dinosaurs, sea animals (change the coconut to blue) etc.
Since the book doesn’t show any step by step photos I took some while putting the cake together.
THE CAKE
Instead of using a packet mix I used this recipe for Never fail vanilla cake which I made in my Bellini Supercook but you could also make in a food processor or stand mixer. I did however halve the amount of sugar that the recipe asked for and it turned out perfect.
I used a 20cm wide springform pan and it made a very high cake. This cake will easily serve 16 people.
THE ICING
I simply whipped thickened cream (300ml) with 1/4 cup Icing Sugar and 2 Tablespoons of cocoa until it held its shape. I then iced the top and sides of the cake.
DECORATIONS
I used the Woolworths brand of chocolate biscuit fingers. They are $1.99 a packet and you will need 2 packets. These are simply placed one after the other around the side of the cake.
The coconut is coloured by simply placing the coconut – 1 cup into a bowl, adding 3 drops of green food colouring and rubbing it through the coconut with your fingers until evenly coloured. Sprinkle the coconut on top of the cake, leaving a space in the centre. In here you will place a cut out oval shaped blue piece of paper. Then sprinkle some coconut over the edge of the paper to hide the edges.
Chocolate coated peanuts were used as rocks.
Plastic zoo animals which we already had were placed on top.
This was such an easy cake to put together and Mr 4 loved it – which is the most important part.
What is your favourite cake from this book? I remember my Mum making the butterfly for my 5th Birthday, I loved that cake so much and is still memorable to me.
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