Children's birthday cake recipes

Stuck for ideas when it comes to birthday cakes for kids? We asked gransnetters to share their best birthday cake creations and have rounded up the favourites - from Peppa Pig to princess, here's how you can pull out all the stops for your little monster.

Little monster cake

Ingredients for Madeira cake:

• 250g (9oz) soft margarine
• 250g (9oz) caster sugar
• 300g (10oz) self-raising flour
• 4 eggs
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Makes a 23cm (9 inch) deep round cake. 
• To make a chocolate cake, substitute 40g (1.5oz) cocoa powder for same weight of flour and increase baking powder to 1.5 tsp.
• The cake can be left plain or sandwiched with buttercream.

Ingredients for the decoration:

• 170g (6oz) softened butter
• 340g (12oz) icing sugar
• 5 cake pops
"I used my favourite madeira cake recipe. You could also use a Victoria Sponge or a real shortcut would be a ready-made supermarket cake."
• Orange Candy Melts
• White chocolate buttons
• Chocolate chips
• Black liquorice
• White fondant icing
• Jelly beans
• Sugared jelly

Method

1. Using an electric whisk, cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Lightly beat eggs with the milk in separate bowl. Mix flour and baking powder together and gradually beat into creamed mixture, alternating with the egg and milk mixture.
2. Line a tin with greaseproof paper covered with butter or use non-stick baking paper. Spoon the mixture in and level the surface with a palette knife.
3. Bake in a pre-heated oven 160°C/320°F/gas mark 3. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until skewer comes out cleanly.

Decorate

1. Make up a large mixture of butter cream by mixing the softened butter and icing sugar together. Any left over will keep well in the refrigerator.
   
2. Use supermarket ready-made frosting to save time. To make a green monster cake, use Sugarflair Party Green colouring paste. Mix it with the frosting until you have achieved a suitable colour. Bright vibrant colours work best.
3. The whole cake was then piped with frosting. I used a Wilton nozzle no.233.
4. For the decorations, I used five cake pops, dipped in melted orange Wilton Candy Melts and each one decorated with a white chocolate button and a small chocolate chip, which was inserted into back of cake. Supermarket-bought mini cupcakes also work well.
5. Cut the black liquorice to size for mouth and hair and cut the the white fondant icing into triangles for teeth. Roll the fondant icing into small circles and use jelly beans for nose. Strips of sugared jelly for tongue. There are many alternatives you could use instead.

Peppa Pig cake

Ingredients for the cake

• 380g (13oz) plain flour
• 360g (12oz) sugar
• 68g (2oz) cocoa
• 1.25 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 0.25 tsp baking powder
• 310ml cold water
• 100g (3.5oz) butter
• 70g (2oz) Trex (or suet)
• 2 eggs
• 1tsp vanilla
• I made two tray-bake chocolate cakes (moist and dense, just how we like it - you could use standard sponge cake instead). 
   

Ingredients for decoration

• 480g (17oz) icing sugar
• 0.25tsp salt
• 1tsp vanilla
• 65ml milk
• 85g (3oz) dark chocolate
• 1tbsp butter
   

Method

1. Throw all the ingredients together and mix well for 10 minutes with an electric whisk.
2. Bake in the oven at 180°C/356°F/gas mark 4. The length of time varies according to cake tin size/shape - start checking after about 25 minutes (ish!)
   
   

Decorate

1. For the decoration, I found a picture of Peppe Pig online, enlarged it, printed it out and cut it out to make stencils for her body, dress, wings and crown. I then used the stencils to cut out the pieces I needed, making two of each and sandwiching them together with chocolate icing.
2. Whisk the icing sugar with salt, vanilla and milk. Add the dark chocolate melted with butter.
3. I used the remaining icing to thinly cover all of the pieces (to smooth, form a crumb coat with a thin under-layer of butter icing, to help the royal icing stick!)
4. I used readymade white icing, coloured as necessary, covered the cakes and assembled.
5. Finally I made the rolled outlines, face, arms, legs and wand. I used a few layers of icing for the star on the wand, which made it thick enough to support candles.
    

Princess cake

Ingredients for the cake

• 5 eggs
• 283g (10oz) self-raising flour
• 142g (5oz) plain flour
• 283g (10oz) soft butter
• 283g (10oz) caster sugar
• You will need a doll - remove her skirt and tightly cling film her legs up to the waist. I did have cake mixture left over once I'd filled 2/3 of the bowl. I used the leftover mixture to make some cupcakes.
   

Ingredients for decoration

• 113g (4oz) butter
• 340g (12oz) icing sugar 
• 1-4 tablespoons of milk
• Ready to roll (or homemade) fondant icing
   

Method

1. Sift the self-raising flour and plain flour together. Cream butter and sugar, then add the eggs one at a time, each with a spoonful of flour and beat well. Fold in the rest of flour, then spoon the mixture into a greased bowl, making a dip in the centre. Bake for one hour and 15-30 minutes at 160°C/320°F/gas mark 3.
2. Allow the cake to cool, then turn out onto a cake board.
3. Cut this cake into three layers (two cuts through the cake). Then take a round cookie cutter and cut a circle out of the centre of all of the cake layers.
    

Decorate

1. To construct the cake you need to spread the buttercream between the layers. Make a very thin crumb coat of buttercream on the outside of the cake and place it in the fridge to harden; this helps to stop crumbs mixing through the icing which makes it hard to get a smooth finish. Then apply a slightly thicker layer of buttercream and use a strip of baking paper to smooth - stretch it out firmly and drag it up the cake.
2. Place the doll inside the hole in the middle of the cake.
3. Roll out a rectangular strip of white fondant and wrap around the base of the cake creating creases and ruffles.
4. Finally, pipe decorations onto the skirt.