We love making this custard cake, and there is never a crumb leftover!
My husband, Adam, celebrated his birthday this week, and I thought it would be nice for the boys to do something special for him to have when he arrived home from work, so once we had finished morning preschool and nursery, we decided to to bake a cake!
Adam loves custard, and always has, so when I found this recipe years ago, it became a favourite, plus it’s such an easy cake recipe to follow (especially with kids!)! This cake is usually so tasty and is perfect for a birthday celebration, plus it keeps really well so if you have friends or family coming over a day or two after the birthday then the cake will still be just as tasty and won’t have dried out. The cake has a really unique flavour which makes it mega tasty if you are a fan of custard, you can just taste it coming through. I think it was originally a Nigella Lawson recipe, although I have made it so many times I can’t remember where the recipe came from other than the deep, dark recesses of my cake making mind!
So here is how we made Daddy’s Happy Birthday Cake!
For the sponge:
- 200g plain flour
- 3 tablespoons custard powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 4 large eggs
- 225g soft butter
- 200g caster sugar
- 2 – 3 tablespoons milk
for the buttercream filling
- 125 grams icing sugar
- 4 teaspoons custard powder
- 75 grams soft unsalted butter
- 1 ½ teaspoons boiling water (from recently boiled kettle)
for the chocolate icing
- 60 ml water
- 2 tablespoons golden syrup
- 125g caster sugar (or use 50g if using milk chocolate)
- 175g dark chocolate
- 1 packet hundreds and thousands
Preheat your oven to GM4/180C/350F, and line two medium size cake tins (about 8 inch I think!)
So, for the sponge, put everything in a mixer apart from the milk, and blend to a batter. Add the milk one tablespoon at a time until the mixture drops off the spoon, but isn’t runny. Divide between your two tins and bake for 20mins. Thanks to the cornflour in the custard powder the cakes will be super pouffy and bouncy. Yum.
Make the buttercream custard icing by mixing the two powders with the butter. That’s it! Once the two sponges have cooled, spread this mix between the two!
Make the chocolate icing by combining the sugar, syrup and water in a saucepan over a low-medium heat until dissolved. Add the chocolate and allow to cool before drizzling over the cake.
Voila! Cake in a hurry, and super tasty too! – I told you it was an unthinkably easy cake recipe, the perfect cake for young children to help you with!
Harriet x
