Tractor cake - Free Cakes for Kids Sheffield

It's my turn again to bake a cake for Free Cakes for Kids Sheffield. Well, we don't take it in turns, we volunteer for cakes we can do so volunteers don't have to volunteer for every cake. Unless they want to and can of course! More information about Free Cakes for Kids can be found in my xbox cake tutorial (http://mahhattersteaparty.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/xbox-themed-cake.html?m=1) and at www.freecakesforkidssheffield.com

I was asked to bake a chocolate cake for a little boy who's turning 2 who likes tractors and In The Night Garden. I plumped for tractors as I could then make a really chocolatey cake. 

Now I have to state here, that time was short and with my husband away this weekend I had my hands full with my two small children so I did cheat. Me, cheat? Oh my! Yes yes, I hate to admit it but Betty Crocker do an amazing fudge frosting so I plumped for that rather than making my own. Me bad! But it is lovely tasting. However, if I'd had more time I'd have used my devils cake topping.

I made a basic 8" chocolate sponge as follows (I always make my basic sponge in ounces):

8oz caster sugar

8oz margarine

6.5oz self raising flour

1.5oz cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

Splash of milk

Cream the butter and sugar together then add two eggs and half the dry ingredients and mix. Add the last two eggs and the rest of the dry ingredients with a splash of milk until you have a mixed batter. Spoon into 2 x 8" round cake tims and bake at 170 fan for 20 minutes. I cool mine in the tins 

Decoration:

I cut out the name and age in fondant and used the same colours to make a tractor. I didn't take any photos as I made it I'm afraid but I used a small rectangle of green fondant for a base then added a large block of fondant to make the body of the tractor and a smaller block to make the cab. Using small round cutters, I cut out 4 black tyres and 4 smaller circles for the wheels and using a rounding tool I attached them with water and made a small round inside each one. I used a small rectangle of grey fondant to make the grill and used an icing tool to make indents in the grill. 3 squares of white fondant made the windows. To make the funnel exhaust I used a small piece of spaghetti and stuck it into the tractor hood then moulded black fondant round it and used a balling tool to create and indent in the top.

Mine was rather rushed I'm afraid as it was tea time and both my children were simultaneously being fed, watching me and wanting to eat the fondant.

To assemble the cake:

One pot of Betty Crocker Fudge Frosting

(If you do want to make your own try this one http://mahhattersteaparty.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/hen-do-goodness.html?m=1)

Small quantity of green buttercream

19 double fingered kit kats

Place one cake on the cake board and fill with some of the fudge frosting. Place the second cake on top and cover the sides with more frosting. 

Cover half the top of the cake with more fudge frosting then cover the other half with green buttercream and drag a knife through it to make it look more "fieldy". 

Break the kit kat fingers in two and add round the outside of the cake. The frosting will keep them attached. 

Then add your name, age and tractor. 

You could always forget the green buttercream and make a digger cake in a muddy field instead. Or you could cover all the top in green buttercream.

Xbox themed cake - Free Cakes for Kids Sheffield

A while back I was on Twitter when I saw a retweet from someone about Free Cakes for Kids Sheffield. So I started following them on Twitter just because it sounded interesting and was local, but then I started reading more into it. The more I read, the more I wanted to help so I decided to become a volunteer baker. There's nothing I love more than being able to celebrate my boys' birthdays than with a party and of course.......cake!

Everyone deserves a cake on their birthday. Yet many don't get one for many many reasons, but Free Cakes for Kids uses volunteer bakers to provide a birthday cake for those who ordinarily wouldn't receive one.

It's not quite as simple as asking them for a free cake, there's a referral process involved with your local group, then a baker is matched with the recipient, the cake is baked (normally there's a requested theme, the age and name are provided and flavour) and then delivered to the recipient's school/public place.

If you'd like more information, then pop over to www.freecakesforkids.org.uk and the Sheffield site is www.freecakesforkidssheffield.com. You don't even have be able to bake to get involved with the project.

My turn came around to make a cake (there's never pressure to bake one and you don't have to volunteer for every cake) and I was told that the cake would be for a boy called Adam who was turning 15 and if possible could it be Xbox themed. Decisions decisions. Do I go for an actual Xbox, there's been so many different ones, which to go for? Then black or white as most are black now. In the end I decided to do a white Xbox controller. My good old friend Google gave me a few handy hints and tips and I printed off a picture of a controller to the size I wanted to use as a template.

I baked two square 12" Victoria sponge cakes and filled them with strawberry jam and buttercream, then placed the template on top and cut round the shape. Lots of wastage but that's never an issue is it?!

The cake was then crumb coated with buttercream, before I covered the whole cake with white fondant icing. I'd pre made the two joystick pads the day before so they could harden up a bit and used the same colour grey fondant to make the rest of the joystick pads and the directional pad. I have a set of ring cutters and using the template I matched up the correct sized ring cutters with the joystick and directional pads. For the directional pad, I lightly pressed in the smooth side of a small cutter to create the same look. For the joysticks, I added a grey pad on the bottom then a small ring of fondant on top, then placed the top pad on top of that to create the real 3D effect.

I used a larger size cutter for each of these buttons to cut out the white rings which go round the pads and a green one for the Xbox button.
I then coloured small bits of fondant yellow, red, blue and green to make the coloured buttons and used a very small ring cutter to cut them out. 

For the central Xbox button I squished white fondant into my tablespoon measuring spoon to create the dome shape, sliced an X into it and squished green fondant into it to create the X shape. Round the outside of the button, I drew on numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 with a black icing pen.

I then added two small oval shaped buttons for the Back and Start buttons and using an icing tool, I drew triangles in them. Then at the back of the cake I added two strips of white fondant to create the bumper buttons.

Almost done! Like the controller, there's a grey section of plastic at the bottom, so I decided to add this to the controller too. I rolled out some grey fondant then freehand cut a shape into it then moulded it to the cake. Admittedly I winged this bit but I think it worked out well in the end.

All the decorations were attached using water - just lightly dampen the back of the fondant and add to the cake, then as it dries it sets like glue.

It's always a nice touch to have your age and name on your birthday cake so I added these in green, the age on the cake and the name on the cake board. All finished!

I'll never meet Adam and he'll probably never know who I am, but just knowing I've made something for him on his special day puts a real smile on my face. And I hope it put a smile on his face too. Happy Birthday Adam!