Vroomster Celebration Cake

Hop into the Vroomster and enjoy this delicious decorated cake!

Recipe by April Carter

INGREDIENTS

For the cake:

• 340g unsalted butter, softened
• 450g caster sugar
• 6 medium eggs
• 500g plain flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 180ml milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

For the buttercream:

• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 250g icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the decoration:

• 750g white fondant
• 500g blue fondant
• small amount of blue, light blue, red, purple, orange, green and black fondant
• 25cm cake board
• rainbow sprinkles for the base (optional)

mETHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas mark 4 and grease and line two 20cm-square cake tins.
2. Whisk together the flour and baking powder and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until just combined. Add the vanilla and milk, continuing to beat, and then add the remaining flour mixture, beating until just combined.
4. Divide between the prepared tins and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean.
5. To make the buttercream, beat the butter, icing sugar and milk until pale and creamy.
6. Once the cakes have cooled, level each cake and sandwich together with a thin layer of buttercream. Cut a 5cm strip off the cake to create a rectangle and use a round 4cm cutter to cut two engines from the leftover strip. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
7. Carve a round cockpit shape from the top of the Vroomster and create the curved, rounded shape with a serrated knife. Cover the body and engines with the remaining buttercream and chill in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
8. Use some extra buttercream to fix the cake to a 25cm cake board.
9. To decorate the Vroomster, roll out the white fondant to a 5mm thickness and cover the cake, smoothing down the sides, trimming and tucking under the sponge. Cut an x in the cockpit to smooth down inside.
10. Use some greaseproof paper to create a template for the blue sides of the cake and roll out the blue fondant. Cut out the shapes using your template and cover the sides and engines, sticking onto the white base with a damp paintbrush if needed.
11. Cut out a blue circle and orange star for the front of the Vroomster. Roll out some grey fondant and cut out a large circle to line the cockpit. Add orange, blue and green details to the engines and front of the Vroomster in the same way.
12. To make the fondant characters, knead the blue, light blue, red and purple fondant briefly and shape into four body shapes with small sausage shapes to create arms for each character. Set aside to firm up.
13. For details like Foz and Xuli’s yellow stripes, Kyan’s orange suit and Lar’s white helmet, roll out the fondant and cut out shapes to cover the bodies. Stick down with a damp paint brush and wrap around.
14. Use a small star cutter to cut out the orange badges and fix to small blue circles. Use a small round cutter to cut out the characters’ faces and squash into oval shapes. Use small amounts of black fondant to create their eyes, mouths and eyebrows. Sit the characters in the cockpit and cover the board with sprinkles if you like.

Note: the fondant decoration can be made up to a week in advance and the cakes can be baked the day before decoration.