NEW BABY CAKE

The new year has welcomed in a new baby for some friends of ours. The January diet has meant no cake making for me this month so what a perfect excuse to get out the scales and get baking.
The cake is a basic sponge recipe
200g butter
200g caster sugar
200g self raising flour, sieved
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract.

Make sure the butter is soft and cream together with the caster sugar. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating each one in well. Once the eggs are incorporated you can start to add the flour. Make sure that it is mixed in well without overbeating the mixture. Add the vanilla extract and pour into a 20cm cake tin lined with baking parchment. Bake for approx 50mins (although mine took a little longer today) or until a skewer comes out clean and the cake is golden.
Another good tip is to wrap some brown paper around the tins and tie with string so the outside of the cake doesnt become too overcooked and crispy.

I cut the cake in half and put buttercream and strawberry jam inbetween the two layers. The cake was then covered with some seedless jam to help the icing stick.
The cake was then iced with fondant icing in white and decorated with a teddy bear using the template from Simply Party Cakes.

The buttons were made using a small round cutter, then a second cutter slightly smaller than the first was gently pushed in to leave a circle imprint. Two make the button holes I used a cocktail stick and then joined these up with royal icing and left to set.

I hope the new parents enjoy the cake!