I found me some treasure Capt'n

As you know, yesterday was Aled's 4th birthday.  Currently he is really into Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so with this in mind, I decided to make him a pirate themed cake.  After doing a bit of a Google search, I came across this video of how to make a treasure chest cake.  Perfect.

First things first, I needed a 13x9" cake tin.  All I have are some standard sized round tins, so off to Amazon I go and end up with this one made by Wilton.  It was only when it turned up that I realised just how big a 13x9" cake was going to be!  My usual sponge cake recipe wasn't going to work for that!

So off to Google I go again, looking for recipes suitable for the size of the tin.  The only receipes that I can find are american ones, so in the end I settle for this Yellow Cake recipe.  What I loved about this recipe is measuring in cups.  It's so easy!  Why don't us Brits measure in cups instead of faffing about with the weighing scales?

I did have to trim off the edges, as they were slightly overcooked, but all in all I was pleased with the way the cake turned out.

One thing that I decided to do differently to the video was to use Chocolate Ready to Roll icing as opposed to butter icing.  I cut the cake into three and gave it a crumb coating using chocolate buttercream.  I then covered the base cake with a layer of the ready to roll icing.  I cut the small section into a wedge and placed that on top of the bottom layer using buttercream to attach it and covered that with a small bit of ready to roll.  Lastly I crumb coat the lid and cover that with the roll out icing.  I then cut out two strips of ready to roll in yellow and place that on the lid to look like straps and a small piece to look like the lock.

I used a thin layer of buttercream on the bottom and stuff a load of sweets in there.  As it's the wrong time of year to find chocolate coins in the supermarkets, I ended up using Quality Street & Roses sweets and Hershey's Kisses as the 'treasure'.  I then put another layer of buttercream on top of the wedge and put the lid on top.  I make sure that the middle is well and truly stuffed and hoped for the best!  I honestly couldn't believe that it worked! lol.

Aled loved his treasure chest cake and I was really pleased with how it turned out.

Jackie. x