Minecraft Birthday Cake

I've had a few cake orders from work this month mainly for children's birthdays. The first is this Minecraft Cake for Josh who turned 8 yesterday so Happy Belated Birthday! I had no idea what Minecraft was so I had to learn quickly! Essentially it's a game about making and placing blocks. You then build structures and there are different 'characters' in the game like Creeper, pig and chicken all of which I made from fondant icing. I wanted to make Steve as well but I ran out of time!  I did some research online and came up with this cake which I am pleased to announce was a huge success. Josh was really impressed with the cake and to be honest so am I! I really wasn't sure I could pull it off but I think it's not too bad for a first attempt. Just don't look too closely at the imperfections!! 

He wanted a vanilla sponge with strawberry jam so I baked 2 large square cakes (6 egg sponge x 2) and made 4 layers using strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream to sandwich the layers together. I then made some chocolate frosting by adding melted chocolate to the buttercream and used that to cover the outside of the cake. The 'crumbs' is made from crushed oreo and rich tea biscuits which actually gives it a slight pixelated effect which I was hoping for. The top is covered with a piece of green fondant covered with green buttercream and green coconut which resembles the grass. The figures are made from ready rolled icing and I shaped them by hand using pictures from the internet as a guide. 

The entire cake took 2 evenings to make. I baked the cakes and made the fondant figures on day 1 and assembled the cake on day 2. Top tips - either use a large roasting pan or place a large piece of parchment paper over your worktop before pressing the crumbs on the cake. This makes it much easier to clean up the mess after! Place the dessicated coconut in a ziplock bag, add the food colouring and seal the bag then give it a good shake to get green 'grass' - no mess and no washing up! Remember to save some vanilla buttercream to make green buttercream before adding the melted chocolate as it's quite difficult to make brown green afterwards! 

As this contains strawberry jam in the middle of the cake layers I'm sending it to Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and co hosted by Jane from The Hedgecombers. The theme this month is jams, curds and preserves. 

 weigh eggs in their shell and use the same amount of flour, butter and caster sugar for the sponge.

 I baked 2 cakes in my square tin 

 making the layers with strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream 

 This is going to be a tall cake! 

 cover with chocolate frosting on the outside but not the top 

 I drew this pattern freestyle on a piece of parchment paper - the square is the size of my cake tin and I made random blocks around the edges 

 cut out the pattern and place it on top of rolled green fondant and cut out the pattern with a sharp knife 

 ready to go on top of the cake 

 slightly wonky but it's starting to look like a minecraft block! 

 cover the fondant with green icing then cover with dessicated coconut which has been dyed green to resemble grass. 

 Place the figures on top using a toothpick to support them. I used cutters to cut out the name and age - his favourite colour is green but you can of course using contrasting colours to make it stand out more.