Ella's 5th Birthday Cake!!!

So last night I decided to make a Birthday Cake for my little cousin Ella. It's her 5th Birthday today and we had a tea party for her this afternoon over in my Nana's house :) Ella's not a huge fan of chocolate but she does love fruit, so, I thought, why not make an Orange & Coconut Heart Cake? She loved it anyway, as did all of the grown-ups at the tea party :) and she had a ball :)

I used all kinds of everything to decorate Ella's cake, so you can be as creative as you like :)
I bought the flowers in a craft shop and stuck small wooden skewers into them so
that they would stick out from the cake. I also used other bits and bobs
from the craft shop to decorate - Bows, Stars & Flowers.

You will need...

FOR THE CAKE..

10oz Self Raising Flour (sieved)

8oz Caster Sugar

6oz Butter (softened)

4 Eggs

Juice of one Orange

Rind of 3 Oranges

4 tbsp Dessicated Coconut

FOR THE ORANGE BUTTERCREAM..

220g Butter (softened)

500g Icing Sugar

4tbsp Orange Juice

Use a small grater for the Orange Rind

What to do...

1) Preheat your oven to 180C/ 350F/ Gas Mark 4

2) Cream the butter and the sugar together in a mixing bowl.

3) When the mixture is nice and creamy, add in the eggs one by one, followed by the orange juice

4) Continue to mix and add in the flour, orange rind and coconut

5) When the mixture is light and fluffy, stop the mixer and leave it to one side

6) Take your 2 baking tins and grease them with melted butter. Put a piece of baking paper in the bottom of each of the tins also.

7) Pour half the mixture into each of the tins and bake for approx. 40 mins

8) When done, leave the cakes to cool on a wire rack while you make the Orange Buttercream...

For the Orange Buttercream...

1) Cream the butter and the icing sugar together with a food mixer

2) Add in the orange juice and continue to mix

3) When the mixture is really light and fluffy, stop mixing and leave it to sit for a minute

Your Buttercream should be light and fluffy 

To Assemble the Cake...

1) Spread half of the buttercream onto the top of one of the cakes - if you like, you can also add jam or marmalade

2) Sit the other cake on top and spread the remainder of the buttercream over it

3) If you like, you can sprinkle coconut over the top and sides like I did

4) You can then decorate the cake however you like :)

Ella's Tea-Party :)