Chocolate chip sponge and M&M Birthday cake

Yesterday was my Godson’s birthday! Like all children, he’s growing up fast and his tastes and interests have changed along the way.

For his 2nd birthday I made a Mickey Mouse birthday cake and he loved it! He was obsessed with that Mickey Mouse Club House tv show….

I can’t put my hand on his 3rd birthday cake photos, but I vividly remember making a monkey cake- he was going through an animal phase!

His 4th birthday cake was all set to be a Spiderman cake, until I spoke to him the morning of his birthday…. when he asked “are you bringing me a dinosaur cake”? I nearly died! What could I say? I frantically remoulded the sponge and painted some fondant icing green!

He loved it! Phew…..

So yesterday, I played it safe and decided to make a sweetie covered cake……

I knew it would need to be a slightly heavier sponge then normal, as it would need to hold all the decorations. So I decided to use a basic sponge recipe with yummy chocolate chips through it.

For the cake:
200g caster sugar
200g softened butter
4 eggs, beaten
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp milk
3-4 drops of blue food colouring
125g bag chocolate chips

Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5, I turned the rayburn off! Butter two 20cm tins and then line with non-stick baking paper.

In a bowl, mix all the cake ingredients together until you have a smooth, soft blue chocolate chip batter.

Divide the mixture between the two tins, smooth the surface with a spatula, then bake for about 20 minutes until golden and the cake springs back when pressed.

Turn onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.

Sandwich the cakes together with chocolate butter icing and then covered it with blue buttercream.

Chocolate buttercream filling:
110g butter, softened
170g icing sugar
50g cocoa powder, sifted
1-2 tbsp milk

Blue buttercream:
140g butter, softened
280g icing sugar
1-2 tbsp milk
few drops food colouring

For both buttercreams, mix all the ingredients in a bowl, adding more milk if needed to get a smooth texture.

All that was left to do was cover the WHOLE cake with M&M’s!

It took about an hour to cover it, but it was well worth it. I’m sure it would work just as well with any other sort sweetie or chocolate.

Just a candle to finish it off….

Who knows what I’ll be making next year???

Melissa xx