Lion Cake

Photo: flickr user rossination

Ingredients

125 grams Softened margarine or butter, (4oz)

225 grams Golden caster sugar, (8oz)

2 Eggs, size 2

150 grams Natural or honey yoghurt, (5 fl oz)

1 teaspoon Vanilla essence

200 grams Self-raising flour, (7oz)

1/2 teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda

Red food colouring

25 grams Cadbury's cocoa, (1oz)

175 grams Butter, (6oz)

250 grams Icing sugar, sifted (9oz)

3 Heaped Tbs apricot jam

1 Family box Cadbury's '99' Flake

3 Cadbury's milk chocolate Buttons

125 grams Marzipan, (4oz)

Red and black food colouring

2 3 cm, (9 inch) round cake tin, greased and base lined

small A pastry brush

A glass

Preparation

Cream fat and sugar together then beat in eggs, yoghurt, essence and sifted dry ingredients. Continue beating for about 3 minutes until well mixed.

Spoon one third of the mixture into opposite sides of cake tin. Then spoon another third into a small bowl and add a few drops of red colouring.

Blend cocoa to a paste with a little boiling water then add most, but not all, to the remaining third of cake mixture. Spoon cocoa mixture into the tin in two sections, again opposite each other, and finally fill in the spaces with the pink mixture.

Swirl it round once only so that the colours stay separate, hollowing out the centre slightly.Bake at 190 C / 375 F / Gas Mark 5 for about 50 minutes until cooked through when tested with a skewer. Turn out carefully and cool on a wire tray.

Prepare the butter icing by beating the softened butter with the icing sugar until really light and fluffy.

Add a tablespoon or two of hot water to make it lighter in texture. Split the cake in half then sandwich together with the jam. Take out one spoonful of the icing then add a small amount of the reserved cocoa paste to the remainder so it becomes a beige colour. Completely cover the cake in this icing.

Now take a brush and dab strokes of the remaining cocoa paste at random over the icing to roughen it up and add texture and colour. Place the cake on a board or plate. Using a sharp knife, cut the Flakes into thin pieces, reserving any particularly long bits for the whiskers.

Arrange the Flake pieces around the edge of the cake for the lion's mane, making it as full as possible.

Place a Button in position for the nose and build up the face around it, with the whiskers and a small piece of Flake where the mouth is, so that the tongue can roll over it.

Using the plain icing, mark out two shapes with a teaspoon for the eyes, then place Buttons on top.

Roll out and cut 2 circles of marzipan for the ears, using a glass as a guide. Elongate one end, pinch it together in the centre and cut off the point so that ear shapes remain. Place in position. Colour some marzipan red to make the tongue and a small piece black for the mouth, or use cocoa and make the mouth dark brown.

Roll out the red marzipan, make a tongue shape and place it over the small piece of Flake already on the cake. To complete the cake, work a thin roll of dark marzipan for the mouth and place in position so that the lion smiles.

NOTES : It's bound to be a roaring success at the party !