By special request we bring you a recipe from The Australian Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake book. First published in 1980, it has been a favourite of both children and parents since then. The recipes are large, decorative without being too hard, and filled with lots of animals, toys and shapes to satisfy everyone. The infamous duck cake even features in the children’s show Bluey – a fact picked up by one of our Penn State bakers!
Butter Cake
- 125g (4oz) butter
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup castor sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ cups self raising flour
- ⅓ cup of milk
Have butter at room temperature, beat butter with vanilla until light and creamy, add sugar, beat until light and fluffy; add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in half the sifted flour with half the milk, stir until combined. Add remaining milk and flour, stir in lightly, then beat lightly until mixture is smooth. Spread into greased tin, bake as directed in individual recipes. Cooking times are the same as for packet butter cake mix.
Chocolate Vienna Cream
- 250 gram butter, at room temperature
- 3 cup icing sugar, sifted
- 4 tablespoon milk, at room temperature
- ½ cup cocoa powder
Swimming Pool
- 1 packet butter cake mix
- 100g packet lime jelly crystals
- 1 quantity chocolate Vienna Cream
- 2 x 150 g packets of chocolate biscuits sticks
- 2 musk sticks
- Licorice
- Assorted food colourings
- Assorted round sweets
- Small dolls
- Jube rings
- Green sprinkles
- Nail polish
- Jelly snakes
- Small paper umbrella
Make cake according to directions on packet, spoon evenly into grease deep 20 cm (8in) round cake in, bake in moderate oven 50 minutes or until cooked when tested. Turn cake on to wire rack to cool. Make up jelly as directed on packet:; refrigerate until it is set.
Trim top of cake so that it is flat; cut around top about 1 cm (½ in) in from edge to represent wall of swimming pool. Using small sharp knife, hollow out centre of cake, as shown to 2.5 cm (1 in) deep to form a recess for the jelly.
Spread sides and edge of cake with chocolate Vienna Cream. Arrange chocolate biscuits sticks evenly around cake, leaving an opening of about 5 cm (2in). Use musk sticks and licorice to make ladder. Mash set jelly with fork, spoon into the recess of the cake to represent water.
Paint stripes of food colouring on to small round sweets to represent beach balls. Small dolls can be pushed through the jube rings to represent children in rubber floats. Spread a little cream on heads of the dolls, dip in green sprinkles (these represent bathing caps). Bathing suits can be painted on dolls with nail polish. Rubber mattress is made from jelly snakes trimmed to about 5 cm (2 in) and joined together with a little chocolate cream. Add paper umbrella as shown.
Bakers note:
- Please feel free to substitute whatever sweets and candy you have available to you in your location! The goal is to make your own pool party and not copy exactly.
- Likewise the water doesn’t have to be green