Baking

Ladybird birthday cake

Made famous in our ever popular Women's Weekly Birthday Cake book, the ladybird birthday cake is surprisingly easy to decorate, and looks marvellous.
Lazy ladybird
10
35M

Ingredients

Method

1.Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease one hole of 12-hole (¹/³-cup/80ml) muffin pan and 1.25-litre (5 cup) pudding steamer.
2.Make cake according to directions on packet; pour ¼ cup of mixture into muffin hole and remaining mixture into pudding steamer. Bake muffin about 20 minutes and steamer cake about 35 minutes. Stand cakes in pans 5 minutes; turn muffin, top-side up, onto wire rack to cool, leave steamer cake top-side down to cool. Using serrated knife, level steamer cake top.
3.Using serrated knife, cut segment from muffin so muffins sits snugly against the ladybird’s body; trim bottom of steamer cake to make a more rounded body. Place cake on board, top-side down.
4.Tint ¼ cup of butter cream with black colouring and remaining butter cream with red colouring. Spread red butter cream all over body of ladybird.
5.Position muffin against body for head, secure with a little butter cream; spread all over with black butter cream. Pull an outside strip of licorice from the strap; position along centre of body. Position freckles on body.
6.Curl one end of each chenille stick; position on cake for antennae. Position Smarties on cake for eyes.

Using a serrated knife, trim the bottom of the steamer cake to make more rounded. Using a large palette knife, spread the red butter cream all over the ladybird’s body. Position the muffin against the ladybird’s body, for head, then spread with black butter cream.

Note

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