Amscan 9902318 Cake Pick Banner - Gold

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Colour small amounts of fondant icing with all the colours you will need and wrap each ball in cling film to prevent it from hardening or drying out. Cut two arms and two ears from the reserved pieces of carved cake, then push these into place against the cake. Apply a little buttercream to these pieces to seal in any crumbs. Chill in the fridge for around 20 minutes to allow the buttercream to form a crust. Sift in the rest of the flour and baking powder and fold them in. Be gentle but make sure the mixture is fully combined, including any flour at the bottom of the bowl. Put this into the cake tin, smooth the batter out with an offset palette knife and bake for 45-50 minutes. This cake is made from two large sponges cut into two layers each, so there are four layers inside the cake. Make the sponge cakes one at a time with 4 large eggs, 225g unsalted butter, 225g caster sugar, 225g plain flour and 2½ tsp baking powder in each cake. You might want to make the sponges in advance, in which case wrap them well in cling film to prevent them drying out.

Fill the hollow with the coloured sweets. With my version, I separated out all of the yellow sweets to put these at the top to look more like treasure. Put gold coins on top of these. I wrapped coat hanger wire in fondant for the antenna – if you do this keep an eye on your kids (or grown-ups) to make sure they don’t try and bite into this! I usually avoid using any non edible materials in cakes but here it was unavoidable. The submarine is made from two pieces of cake. I searched online for ‘Octonauts Gup-A’ and there were loads of images to guide the shape. The bottom cake should be carved carefully with a serrated bread knife into a teardrop shape with a slight curve on the underside. The top cake should be carved into a triangular shape with a slight curve to the top.Try to take the photo as good quality, in focus and well-lit as you can. Daylight is often the best.

Take the first layer of cake and put onto your cake board. Spread a thin layer of buttercream onto the bottom cake and smooth with an offset spatula. Add a thin layer of jam (around 2tsps smoothed out) on top of the buttercream. Spread a thin layer of buttercream onto the bottom of the next cake layer and lay the next sponge on top of the cake. Repeat until it is a four layer sponge cake (sponge, buttercream, jam, buttercream, sponge, etc.). Coat the entire cake in a thin layer of buttercream and smooth with an offset palette knife. Preheat the oven to 180degrees C / 160degrees Cfan / gas mark 4. Take your rectangular baking tin, line with baking parchment and grease well. Sandwich the two layers together with buttercream and add a light crumb coat of buttercream around both cakes. Put the butter, sugar and vanilla paste into a bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk until light and creamy. Thoroughly beat in the egg

Divide the mixture between the two prepared tins and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk or in a stand mixer until light and creamy. Thoroughly beat in each egg, one by one. The smaller sponges for the submarine have the same ingredients as the cakes above but baked in a loaf tin, greased and lined with baking parchment. Each cake takes a mix of 2 large eggs, 112g unsalted butter, 112g caster sugar, 112g plain flour, 1½ tsp baking powder and the zest of 1 lemon (plus the juice of half a lemon) in each cake.

Use a serrated knife to slice any doming from the tops of the sponges. Invert one of the cakes and place it upside-down on top of the other. Cut the cake into the shape of Love Monster’s body (look at the recipe image for reference). Keep all the carved pieces of cake, as you will use them for the arms and ears. Soften the square edges with a serrated knife, trimming around the top of the cake.

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Make two cakes in the loaf tin as per the instructions above but bake for 35 minutes at 180oC / 160oC fan / gas mark 4. To make the buttercream, beat the butter with an electric whisk or table-top mixer until soft. Sieve in the icing sugar, then beat for 10 minutes until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla, orange extract (if using) and milk, and beat briefly to combine.