Amscan 9902318 Cake Pick Banner - Gold

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Preheat the oven to 180 degreesC / 160degreesC fan / gas mark 4. Take your springform cake tin, line with baking parchment and grease well.

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. 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. If you decorate the card with TV characters, please make sure that you only use CBeebies characters! 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.

With the base cake and the submarine covered in fondant now is your time to get creative with fondant decorations!

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. Try to take the photo as good quality, in focus and well-lit as you can. Daylight is often the best. 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. 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. Make two cakes in the loaf tin as per the instructions above but bake for 35 minutes at 180oC / 160oC fan / gas mark 4.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. 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. Sandwich the two layers together with buttercream and add a light crumb coat of buttercream around both cakes. Using an offset palette knife, spread the chocolate buttercream onto the base sponge around its top edge, up to 4cm in from each side.

When the cakes have cooled, use your cake cutting wire (or a sharp bread knife if you don’t have a cutting wire) to level the tops of the sponges and to cut them through the middle to turn your two large sponges into four thinner layers. 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. Take the next two sponges and cut holes in the middle of the cakes, 4cm from each edge. With my cakes, this was a rectangle of 18 x 13 cm and I used a ruler and a sharp knife to make sure the holes were precise. Put the cut-out sponges to one side. Preheat the oven to 180oC / 160oC fan / gas mark 4. Take your springform cake tin, line with baking parchment and grease well.

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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. To assemble the cake, put a blob of buttercream on a 25cm cake board or serving plate. Place one of the sponges on the plate, and spread a layer of buttercream and half the jam on top. Repeat with the second sponge. Put the third sponge on top and cover the top and sides of the cake with the remaining buttercream, smoothing with a palette knife. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. To make the buttercream, beat the butter in a large bowl with an electric hand whisk or in a stand mixer. Pour in the icing sugar, add the vanilla paste and mix slowly on the lowest setting on your mixer until completely incorporated.