I love making birthday cakes for my boys on their birthdays, they are a real labour of love because they usually do take a long time to make from start to finish. I am not complaining about this, because I enjoy seeing my idea come to life and I especially enjoy seeing the look on Burton and Jenson’s faces when they are presented with their new birthday cake each year.
However, for busy Mum’s (and Dad’s even!) who do not have as much time as they would like to make and decorate their children’s birthday cakes, Stork have created a range of birthday cake recipes and designs that can be made and decorated in under an hour,!! Thus removing the stress that planning, organising and hosting a party can cause.
I was asked to recreate Stork’s Birthday Boat Cake, and you can see their version here, which does look beautiful I have to admit. Still, true to their claim, my cake did take me very little time to decorate – probably under 1 hour actually (which will explain why my boat decoration does not look as ermmm ‘pretty’ as maybe it could have done!).
Here is my version of their recipe:
- 250g Stork with Butter
- 250g caster sugar
- 4 eggs, large
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- 250g self-raising flour
- 1 tbsp cream cheese
- 2 tbsp chocolate spread
- 250g pack of blue ready to roll icing
- 1 kebab skewer
- blue paper
- sellotape
- Preheat the oven to 160c (fan)/180c/Gas Mark 4.
- Grease 2 x 8” sandwich cake tins
- Place all the cake ingredients in a large bowl and beat together until the cake mixture is even and well combined.
- Divide the mixture between the tins and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until golden and springy to the touch.
- Place the cakes onto a wire rack and to cool fully.
- Using 1 tbsp of the chocolate spread and the cream cheese - beat together to make your frosting
- Sandwich the cakes with the chocolate frosting
- Spread the remaining chocolate spread onto the top of the cake.
- Roll out a circle of light blue ready to roll icing on the work surface very lightly dusted with icing sugar – slightly larger than the top of the cake. Lift it into position on the top of the cake. Allow the extra to hang over the side of the cake and shape it into ripples gently with your fingertips.
- Cut out simple shapes for the boat and sails from the blue paper and secure to a skewer with sellotape
- Insert into the centre of the cake.
- Serve. Mmmmm
This cake was a real pleasure to make, very easy to follow and the sponge was as light as a feather!!! This is such a simple birthday cake design, and yet it works and would make a perfect addition to the birthday boy or girl’s birthday tea. I admit that my birthday cake designs are probably too elaborate, and yes they do make me feel a little stressed sometimes when I am panicking that I may not have time to complete them! I think a simple but elegant design such as this Boat Cake, is the way forward!!
Hmmmm – watch this birthday cake space lol!
In collaboration with Stork. I was compensated for the ingredients used to make this cake.
That is such a lovely idea. I really enjoy making cakes for my children’s birthdays but am not very good at the decorating! Something like this would be perfect!