Amscan 9902318 Cake Pick Banner - Gold

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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. Using a small amount of blue gel food colouring, colour 1kg of fondant to cover the cake. Roll this out to a circle of about 40cm diameter and use your rolling pin to carefully lift this onto the cake. Use a cake smoother (or your hands) to smooth the fondant onto and all around the cake. Cut the excess fondant from the base of the cake with a sharp knife. To make the buttercream icing, whisk the butter well until smooth and very pale. Gradually add the icing sugar, a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and up to 1 tablespoon of water to loosen, if needed. Add the gel colouring a little at a time, mixing well until the desired shade is achieved. Cover the bowl and set aside (ideally overnight) until ready to use. The colours will continue to develop over time, so don’t panic if the colour isn’t right immediately. 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. Please make sure that there are no brands, logos or anything identifiable on the child's clothes, such as a school jumper.

To make the chocolate buttercream, beat the butter in a large bowl with an electric hand whisk or in a stand mixer. Pour in the icing sugar and cocoa powder and mix slowly on the lowest setting on your mixer until completely incorporated. Add a tablespoon of milk at a time to the mixture if you need to soften the buttercream. Sift in the rest of the flour, cocoa powder 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 baking tin, smooth the batter out with an offset palette knife and bake for 40-45 minutes. Sandwich the two layers together with buttercream and add a light crumb coat of buttercream around both cakes.Preheat the oven to 180oC / 160oC fan / gas mark 4. Take your springform cake tin, line with baking parchment and grease well. 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.

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 eggRepeat 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. Colour some of the white icing with the claret gel colouring, before cutting out a mouth shape with a sharp knife. Place this in position under the eyes. Cut two triangle shapes from the white icing and add these to the bottom of the mouth to form the teeth. You can ‘glue’ them into place with a little water. Make two cakes in the loaf tin as per the instructions above but bake for 35 minutes at 180oC / 160oC fan / gas mark 4. 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.

Using curved strips of yellow and green fondant, wrap the base of the cake to give the effect of ocean contours and the sea bed. Attach these to the sides of the cake with a little buttercream. Preheat the oven to 180degrees C / 160degrees Cfan / gas mark 4. Take your rectangular baking tin, line with baking parchment and grease well. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl using a wooden spoon until light, fluffy and pale in colour. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla extract with a fork until smooth. 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. 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.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. Preheat the oven to 180 degreesC / 160degreesC fan / gas mark 4. Take your springform cake tin, line with baking parchment and grease well. If you decorate the card with TV characters, please make sure that you only use CBeebies characters! 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.