Easy Digger Birthday Cake

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When my eldest son turned 3, we decided to throw him a construction-themed birthday party (more on that to come!), including a delicious, yet easy digger birthday cake fit for any budding builder. This was seriously more-ish, and so, so easy to make. It really was the centre-piece of the party! The cake recipe is adapted from the BBC Good Food website.

To make the actual cake, you will need:

225g/8oz plain flour

350g/12½oz caster sugar

85g/3oz cocoa powder

1½ tsp baking powder

1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 free-range eggs

250ml/9fl oz milk

125ml/4½fl oz vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

250ml/9fl oz boiling water

For the icing, you will need:

200g/7oz plain chocolate

200ml/7fl oz double cream

To decorate, you will need:

One or two small digger toys

Bag of Malteasers (for the ‘boulders’)

Traffic cone candles (I got mine from HERE)

Instructions for making an easy digger birthday cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease and line two 20cm/8in sandwich tins.

2. For the cake, place all of the cake ingredients, except the boiling water, into a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon, or electric whisk, beat the mixture until smooth and well combined.

3. Add the boiling water to the mixture, a little at a time, until smooth. (The cake mixture will now be very liquid.)

4. Divide the cake batter between the sandwich tins and bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes, or until the top is firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

5. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool completely, still in their tins, before icing.

6. For the chocolate icing, heat the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over a low heat until the chocolate melts. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk the mixture until smooth, glossy and thickened. Set aside to cool for 1-2 hours, or until thick enough to spread over the cake.

7. To assemble the cake, run a round-bladed knife around the inside of the cake tins to loosen the cakes. Carefully remove the cakes from the tins.

8. Spread a little chocolate icing over the top of one of the chocolate cakes, then carefully top with the other cake.

9. Transfer the cake to a serving plate and ice the cake all over with the chocolate icing, using a palette knife.

10. To start the transformation of this cake from simple chocolate one to digging delight, you first of all need to scoop away, a bit at a time, some of the cake from one side. Keep the cake you have scooped out, as you will need this in a second.

11. Arrange your digger and dump-truck on top of the cake, with the digger ‘digging’ into the newly formed cake-hole.

12. In your dump-truck, put a little of the cake mixture, as if being tipped out, and a bit more in a small pile behind it.

13. Then, artfully arrange some Malteasers, so that they are ‘falling down’ the ‘cake hole’, to create a small pile of ‘boulders’ cascading down the cake.

14. Finally, place your cone candles next to the cake on the cake board.

Et Voila!

One easy digger birthday cake!

 

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10 Comments

  1. June 11, 2014 / 9:14 pm

    That looks fab, my little boy would just love a cake with diggers on, good idea with the malteasers too!

  2. June 11, 2014 / 9:24 pm

    I absolutely love it Becky! That looks like my kind of decorating and so, so perfect for little boys too X #sharewithme

    • June 13, 2014 / 11:26 am

      Thanks you so much! Dead easy to make but looks quite impressive, which is what I always aim for, haha! x

  3. Jenny
    June 11, 2014 / 10:32 pm

    This looks brilliant. You are so creative and talented. I will have to try this for my son. He loves trucks. Looks amazing. Thank you for linking up to Share With Me. Hope to see you again soon. #sharewithme

  4. June 12, 2014 / 4:39 pm

    This looks yummy, I have Arthur’s 1st birthday in two weeks and have been looking for cake inspiration….I have just seen a link to your first birthday retro cake too gonna have a little peek now!!! Xx

    • June 13, 2014 / 11:33 am

      This one is easy to make too (not much harder than the retro one), the actual cake is quite rich though, so I’m not sure how suitable for babies, but for slightly older ones and adults it’s IMMENSE! x

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