Simple butter cake, boyish birthdays and partying dinosaurs!

Who knew that dinosaurs liked to get festive? Or that they suited party hats so perfectly? After this weekend’s birthday party shoot, I want to top every cake henceforth with dinosaurs in festive hats.

My favourite was the Brontosaurus, who struck a mean pose.

I have wanted to do a themed birthday party for a long time now. When I was given some adorable cupcake wrappers by Illume Design, I knew what my theme would be – DINOSAURS!! The milo cupcake recipe accompanying this cake will be up later in the week. (Illume Design also supplied the gorgeous chevron party plates.)

I very rarely do manly posts. Without even thinking, I drift towards florals and polka dots and tea pots. Browsing through previous blog posts, one might suggest that I don’t actually own anything monochrome or beige.

I promise that I do!

In an effort to counter this slightly, I styled a dinosaur themed birthday party (which any boy OR girl would gleefully attend.)

I loved arranging the brightly-coloured dinosaurs  to roam (delicious) volcanic landscapes. The dinosaurs aren’t edible, so please make sure you let little party-goers know this.  The cake, however, definitely is edible – it is a perfect, plain butter cake recipe, one that can be dressed up or down for any occasion. It is great cake to add to your baking repertoire.

I decorated my purposely lumpy icing with logs (chocolate flake bits) and prehistoric boulders (peanut M&Ms) and some dinosaurs in party hats – feel free to add whatever edible primordial  decorations you can get your hands on.

Simple butter cake

• 125g butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarb
• Pinch salt
• 2 eggs
• ¾ cup milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla paste (or 1 tsp extract)

Best ever chocolate icing:

• 400g chocolate
• ½ cup icing sugar
• 4 tbsp thickened cream

Preheat your oven to 180°C and grease a 20cm cake tin. You may also wish to line the base with a circle of baking paper, just to make sure your cake comes out easily.

Cream together your butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add in the flour, baking powder and salt, followed by the eggs. Add the milk and vanilla, then mix until everything is combined. The batter should be slightly thick. (I used my amazing Heilala Vanilla, which I discovered at the Cake Bake and Sweets Show. It is so delicious and vanilla-y!)

If it looks like your mixture has air bubbles, pick it up and lightly tap the base of the tin on your worktop a few times.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan and pop into the oven for 40 minutes.

Your cake is done when the top has started to brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

When the cake is completely cooled, start on your icing. Try to avoid making this icing too much in advance, because it will set hard, and then you’ll have to thaw it (or just eat it and leave the cake un-iced.)

Put your icing sugar in a large bowl. Melt your chocolate and pour it in onto the icing sugar, mixing as you go. The mixture will become thick at this point, so add in your thickened cream and mix until you have a thick, creamy icing. Slather on your cake in whatever fashion you like – my approach was pile it all on top and make it look sort of prehistoric and lumpy.

If you follow me on Instagram (which I’d definitely recommend), you would have seen  Norman eyeing off a bit of this cake. He gave it his seal of approval.