If your kids love going to feed the ducks in the park then this duck birthday cake will really make them smile. It's a simple vanilla sponge cake sandwiched with buttercream, covered in cream and decorated with yellow fondant ducks. If you're looking for an original and eye-catching cake that looks great but is not difficult to make then do try it!
Grease and line a deep 20cm cake tin. Heat the oven to 140°C.
In a food mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until they are light in colour. Beat in the eggs, one at a time then the vanilla extract.
Sift the flour and baking powder and fold into the mixture. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for about 1.5 hours.
Test the cake with a skewer to see if it's ready. If the skewer comes out clean it is ready. If not then bake for another 10 minutes and then test it again.
Remove the cake from the tin after 5 minutes and leave it to cool completely on a wire rack.
How to Make all the Elements to Decorate the Cake
Make the jelly according to the pack instructions and put in the fridge to set.
Make the buttercream by beating together the butter, icing sugar and vanilla.
Whisk the cream until it hold stiff peaks and then beat in the icing sugar. Note: I added some green food colour but I think this is what caused the cream to go runny again so I would omit it in future.
Using a fork and your fingers, mix the green food colour into the desiccated coconut.
Dust a work surface with a little icing sugar and then roll out the yellow fondant icing till it is about 7mm thick. Cut out duck shapes using a cutter or just a knife. Use a little black fondant to make the eyes. Press the ducks onto cake pop sticks and leave them somewhere flat to dry out and go hard.
Using a garlic press, fill it with a ball of green fondant icing and push it through the holes to make the bits of grass. Leave them to dry and go hard.
Using a rolling pin, flatten the marshmallows and then using some scissors, snip them about five times around the edges so they look a little like petals.
How to Assemble the Duck Birthday Cake
Using a bread knife, slice the cake into 3 layers. Spread the buttercream on the bottom and middle layer and stack the layers back together again.
Spread the cream over the top and sides of the cake.
Cover the sides of the cake and the outside of the top of the cake (going about 3-4cm in) with the green desiccated coconut.
Spoon some of the green jelly into the middle of the cake.
Put some of the fondant grass on the desiccated coconut, around the edge of the green jelly.
Stick the ducks into the cake.
Put some marshmallow flowers around the bottom of the cake.
Notes
Nutritional information is approximate and a guideline only.