The Numberjacks are on their way!!

So, it came to the time every mum worries about - asking their child what birthday cake they would like. Will they pick something too fancy? Something impossible to make?
On this occasion I was (kind of) lucky as my son decided he wanted a Numberjacks cake for his party. I breathed a sigh of relief though it wasn't as simple as I had initially thought.
The result though was well received and I was very chuffed with my efforts.

Near where we live we have a fabulous little shop that rents out the number tins for a small amount called Finishing Touches. The shop owner also gave me lining paper to use in the tin that was pretty much the right size - all for £2! If you are anywhere near Thornbury she has brilliant supplies (as you can see on her website).
So I had the ingredients and the tin, now for the fun part of making it....

I followed a pretty standard recipe to make the cake, opting for a madeira sponge as it is a firm texture so good for shaping.

I have a fan oven which I preheated to 160ºc - gas and non fan oven temperatures will vary. I greased and lined the tin well as there is nothing worse than leaving chunks of your cake in the tin!

Sift 115g (14oz) plain flour and 225g (8oz) self raising flour into the mixing bowl and add 225g (8oz) butter (room temperature) and 225g (8oz) caster sugar. Beat everything together. I have previously beat the butter and sugar together but throwing everything in together was much easier. Beat until pale and smooth then add 4 eggs. Spoon into the tin and put in to the oven for just over an hour. Because the tin is not a standard shape I reduced the recommended time from 1 hour 15 minutes. Once a skewer comes out clean the cake is done and it is worth checking after about 55 minutes. 

Remove and leave to cool.

I wrapped the cake in cling film and left it overnight so there wouldn't be any issues with icing melting!!

I bought yellow sugar paste, again from Finishing Touches and used buttercream as the adhesive. The buttercream recipe is another throw everything in together one which I am a fan off.

I had 110g (4oz) butter at room temperature that I added 30ml of milk and 350g (12oz) icing sugar to and beat it all together.  I also put in some vanilla extract for a nice flavour. This made enough to cover the cake and stick various extra parts on.

Once I had covered the cake I realised that it wasn't going to be a straightforward case of rolling the icing out and covering the cake because of the shape of it. I took a small bit of icing to be the nose of the numberjack and then covered the small circle with icing to make the job a bit easier.

Next job was to cover the rest of the cake. I rolled the icing out and placed it over the top. If I did the cake again I would have extra icing around the "leg" of the 6, like an overlap of icing to make sure there was enough to completely cover it. I had to add some extra icing after the main part to cover up small gaps and then smooth them over.

All that was left to do then was the fun part of decorating it and bring the 6 to life. I used gel colouring to colour white sugar paste the right shade for the eyes and used a skewer to shape his eyebrows and smile.

Finally I coloured and shaped some more white icing to make the other numbers.  I stuck them to the board with a bit of the buttercream.

My son was very happy with the finished result and the children seemed to enjoy eating it in their drinks break at his golf party. I just hope my other son has simple taste when it's his turn to choose a cake!!