Vroomster party cake

Try your hand at making this special Go Jetters cake for a child’s party. Don’t worry if you aren’t super-confident in the kitchen – follow these step-by-step instructions.

Recipe by April Carter

Ingredients

For the cake

• 340g unsalted butter, softened
• 450g caster sugar
• 6 medium eggs
• 500g plain flour
• 4tsp baking powder
• 180ml milk
• 1tsp vanilla

For the decoration

• 750g white fondant icing
• 500g blue fondant icing
• Small amount of fondant icing in blue, light blue, red, purple, orange, green and black
• 25cm cake board
• Rainbow sprinkles for the base (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and grease and line two 20cm square cake tins.
2. Whisk together the flour and baking powder and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until just combined. Add the vanilla and milk, continuing to beat, and then add the remaining flour mixture, beating until just combined.
4. Divide between the prepared tins and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean.
5. To make the buttercream, beat the butter, icing sugar and milk together until pale and creamy.
6. Once the cakes have cooled, level each one and sandwich together with a thin layer of buttercream. Cut a 5cm strip off the cake to create a rectangle and use a round 4cm cutter to cut two engines from the leftover strip. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
7. Carve a round cockpit shape from the top of the Vroomster and create the curved, rounded shape with a serrated knife. Cover the body and engines with the remaining buttercream and chill in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
8. Use some extra buttercream to fix the cake to a 25cm cake board.
9. To decorate the Vroomster, roll out the white fondant icing until it is 5mm thick and cover the cake with it, smoothing down the sides, trimming and tucking under the sponge. Cut an X in the cockpit to smooth the icing inside.
10. Create a template for the blue sides of the cake using greaseproof paper. Roll out the blue fondant and use the template to cut out the shapes. Cover the sides and engines, sticking the icing on to the white base with a damp paintbrush if needed.
11. Cut out a blue circle and orange star for the front of the Vroomster. Roll out some grey fondant and cut out a large circle to line the cockpit. Add orange, blue and green details to the engines and the front of the Vroomster in the same way.
12. To make the fondant characters, knead the blue, light blue, red and purple fondant icing briefly. Shape into four body shapes with small sausage shapes to create arms for each character. Set aside to firm up.
13. For details such as Foz and Xuli’s yellow stripes, Kyan’s orange suit and Lar’s white helmet, roll out the fondant and cut out shapes to cover the bodies. Stick down with a damp paintbrush and wrap around.
14. Use a small star cutter to cut out the orange badges and fix to small blue circles. Use a small round cutter to cut out the characters’ faces and squash into oval shapes. Use small amounts of black fondant to create the eyes, mouths and eyebrows. Sit the characters in the cockpit and cover the board with sprinkles if you like.

Note: the fondant decoration can be made up to a week in advance and the cakes can be baked the day before decoration.