Stashlet's birthday hedgehog cake looks a bit worst for wear (the buttercream would not cooperate) but judging by a small sample this morning (eaten purely for research purposes, you understand), it should taste fine.
If you want to make your own hedgehog cake, it's very simple:
- make a 3 egg sponge (that's 6oz butter or margarine beaten with 6oz caster sugar, then add 3 eggs (one at a time) with 6oz self-raising flour and 3 oz ground almonds)
- pour into a 9" sandwich tin and bake till a sqewer comes out clean in the middle, then allow to cool
- cut in half (so you have two half circles) then slice through the middle of each (so you have 4 half circles)
- sandwich together with jam or butter cream* (or whatever you like, really) then carve off the corners on one end to make a wedge-shaped head
- cover the whole lot in chocolate buttercream (or ganache if you're feeling fancy), and stud with halved chocolate buttons
- do a better job on it's face than I did
I used a double quantity of Pam Corbin's buttercream recipe (from the River Cottage Handbook no8: Cakes) which made just enough to stick the sponge slices together and cover the beast: beat 125g soft unsalted butter until pale and creamy, then mix in 200g icing sugar and 50g cocoa (that's the total weight) in three lots beating well after each addition. My butter was too cold and it was a total bugger to get it to stick to the cake, so be warned.
