"Bug's" Birthday Cake

I had SOOO much fun making this cake.  I made each of the ladybirds, bumble bees and wormies by hand - it was like being in Kindergarten again!  The colours are so nice and bright and cheerful - really good for the soul.  Here are some pics... and a recipe. I made a marble cake with white chocolate ganache.  This recipe is sufficient for a 25 cm sponge (square or round) with a height of 10 cm.

For the Vanilla Sponge
400 g butter
400g castor sugar
8 eggs
400 g self-raising flour

Cream the butter until soft.  Gradually add the sugar and cream until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time and mix until combined.  Sift the flour over and mix until just combined. Set aside.

For the Chocolate Sponge
400g butter
400g castor sugar
8 eggs
340 g self-raising flour
60 g cocoa powder

Cream the butter until soft.  Gradually add the sugar and cream until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time and mix until combined.  Sift the flour and cocoa over and mix until just combined.

In a 25 cm square baking tin, lined with baking paper, 1st layer half of the chocolate batter.  

* i put chocolate at the bottom to avoid that brown colour that the vanilla sponge gets when it is baked at the bottom of the tin.

Then layer half the vanilla butter, followed by a layer of chocolate and a layer of vanilla.  To create the marble effect, drag your spoon through the mixture in a wave-like motion: up and down, up and down from the bottom of the tin to the top .  Make sense?  The mixture of the two different colours should like ocean waves when you are done with this step!  Then use a truffle dipping fork (or just an ordinary one) and pull it through the batter in one direction and then the opposite, in lines from one side of the cake tin to the other.

Bake in an oven pre-heated to 180 ˚C for 75 minutes.

For the icing, i used 1 kg of white chocolate ganache.  To make: heat 400 ml of cream in the microwave for 2 minutes.  Pour over 600 g of white chocolate and stir until combined. Set aside until the desirable spreading consistency is achieved.

Happy 2nd Birthday Nina!!

And some cupcakes too!