Ladybird Birthday Cake

My daughter loves spring time and it seemed natural to her that daffodils and ladybirds should adorn her birthday cake, especially since she had to bring daffodils into her school's nature table. Each ladybird was named and the location of every flower carefully chosen for the perfect birthday cake!



I used My Celebration Cake recipe with the addition of chocolate buttercream. If you are new to covering a cake with sugarpaste then I suggest you read Delia's Classic Christmas Cake  or more recently Mich Turner's Valentine Heart Cake post for extra instructions. I made this cake one week ahead as it will keep for up to two weeks, no refrigeration required. This cake is perfect for any age and at any time of the year.

Serves 8-10

You will need:

Round Cake board
Wide satin ribbon in white
Red narrow gross grain ribbon
Writing icing tubes
Leaf cutter
Daffodil cutter
Flower cutter
20cm Cake
1 Qty Chocolate Buttercream
1kg White sugarpaste
Black sugarpaste
Green sugarpaste
Yellow sugarpaste
Red sugarpaste

Chocolate Buttercream
300g Butter, softened
300g Icing sugar, sieved
100g Melted milk chocolate

Method
Beat the butter until pale, slowly add the icing sugar and whip until light and fluffy. Add the slightly cooled chocolate to the buttercream and mix thoroughly. Spread between the two layers of the cake and all over the cake with a pallet knife. Allow to set for a couple of hours or overnight.

Roll the white sugarpaste out and cover the cake, it is really important to leave the buttercream to set because it will prevent the chocolate from staining the white sugarpaste.

Smooth with cake smoother's or any smooth jar, trim and tie the ribbons around the base. Leave to set, meanwhile make the ladybirds and flowers for the top.

I made the larger ladybird with red and black sugarpaste and added the details with writing icing tubes that I bought from my local supermarket.

Using yellow sugarpaste I made the daffodils using the cutters and "glued" with the yellow writing icing.

The thinner the paste is the better the finish. I smoothed out these leaves with the cap of the writing icing tubes (very handy). Smooth the centre piece until it is almost twice as wide as the base. Secure with writing icing and leave to set.

The baby ladybirds were made with red sugarpaste and black writing icing for the face and spots.

We secured all the flowers onto the cake with the tubes of icing and left it to set overnight.