Popcorn Cake

Preparing the cake, cut your 8" square in half so you have two rectangles of cake. Proceed to prepare the buttercream by creaming together the icing sugar and butter.

Sandwich the two halves’ together using buttercream on one half and jam on the other half. You then place these two coated sides together and then position this on to the cake board. I positioned mine diagonally on a square board. You could taper the cake slightly towards the bottom, however this is optional. Then proceed to crumb coat the remainder of the cake with buttercream and then place into the fridge.

To decorate the cake, remove the white Renshaw ready to roll icing from its packet and toughly knead. Once it is smooth and pliable you can then roll it out to 5mm thick. Lift the icing over the cake and smooth the sides and top with a cake smoother and leave to set.

Remove the Renshaw ruby red icing from the packet and knead until smooth and pliable, then roll out to a point where it is approximately 8 inches in length. Using a pizza cutter and a straight edge, cut thin strips out of this that are approximately 3 mm wide. Then using a small amount of water, stick the ruby red stripes onto the cake positioned equally apart and parallel to the sides and top.

With the remainder of the ruby red icing, use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes to add an age, or name to the popcorn box cake.

Push the popcorn into the icing at the top of the cake and scatter some around the board.

This was a 13th birthday cake for my movie fanatic son so with left over icing I rolled a sausage shape to put in some candles, trimmed at either side and positioned on the board with a little water.