Anna's Birthday Cake

Recipe and Images by Yasmin

I baked and iced this birthday cake for a very good friend of mine who loves bright colours, specifically pink. So I designed a cake that was mostly white on the top, coated with sprinkles on the sides, and when she cut the cake it was completely pink inside! It was such a pleasant surprise for her and she was very excited! She loves music, so I designed the first letter of her name to represent a treble clef, which she loved. Overall, this cake was a huge success and extremely delicious. Everyone believed it to be the highlight of the night. It is extremely simple to make, so I'm sure you will have just as much fun baking it too!

Ingredients:
For cake:
- 2 tblsp butter, melted
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup self raising flour
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- pink food colouring

For Butter icing:
- 125g butter
- 1 1/3 cups icing sugar
- 1 tblsp milk

To decorate:
- 100s and 1000s sprinkles
- purple food colouring
- 1/2 cup icing sugar
- approx. 1 tsp milk, just enough to make icing

Method:
For cake, combine all ingredients in a large bowl, adding as much pink food colouring as desired (to get the right shade of pink for you). Prepare a round cake tin and pour in cake mixture. Bake for 25-30 minutes in oven at 180'C fan-forced, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Remove from oven and place, upturned, on cake rake to cool.

For butter icing, beat butter until it is smooth. Beat in the icing sugar and milk in gradual amounts until completely combined. When the cake is cool, place it on the serving platter and begin to ice the cake (don't forget the sides as well!). When icing it helps to frequently dip the knife in a glass of water to make sure it doesn't stick to the icing and spreads well. Immediately after icing, cover the sides of the cake with sprinkles - be sure not to get any on the top of the cake!

To decorate, make the second lot of icing for the cake in a small bowl, i.e. using a knife, combine the icing sugar, milk and food colouring until smooth (make sure it isn't too runny - if it is, add more icing sugar). Cut the tip off a zip-lock bag corner to use as a piping bag. Place the purple icing in the bag and begin to decorate the top of the cake as desired for the occasion. Place the decorated cake in the fridge to set (do not cover with cling-wrap as it will ruin the icing). Serve in good company.