Giant cupcake birthday cake recipe

Impress your friends and family by making this amazing giant cupcake birthday cake. 

Perfect for kids' parties and celebrations, this huge cake is shaped and styled into a giant novelty cupcake complete with giant sprinkles and cherry on top. This giant cupcake birthday cupcake has a soft Madeira sponge. Serves 12-14.

Ingredients

For the cakes:

• 400g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 400g caster sugar
• 400g self-raising flour
• 200g plain flour
• 7 eggs, room temperature
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• Raspberry jam for spreading in the centre of the cake

For the buttercream:

• 300g icing sugar
• 250g unsalted butter
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 2tbsp milk

For the decorating:

• 700g white ready-to-roll fondant
• Red food colour
• Large silver sugar balls
• Chinese noodle or similar for the cherry stalk
• Brown food colour and a touch of white alcohol for painting the stalk.

You will also need:

• Giant cupcake tin or mould
• Palette knife
• Sharp knife or pizza cutter
• Gingham ribbon (optional)
• Cake release
• Wooden spoon
• Greaseproof paper
• Turntable (optional)

Method

1. For the cake: Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. Grease each of the two halves of the giant cupcake pan with cake release, you’ll need a fair bit to make sure the cake doesn’t stick, so don’t be shy with it. Cut 2 circles of greaseproof paper to cover the tops of the cakes.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar until pale in colour and fluffy. Add the eggs in one at a time with a touch of sifted flour to stop the mixture curdling. Add the remainder of the flour and fold onto the mixture with a large metal spoon. Add the vanilla extract and mix again.
3. Divide the mixture between the 2 sides of the tin, leave about 2cm spare at the top for the rise. Place the greaseproof circles on the tops of the batter to prevent the cakes going too dark.
4. Bake in the oven for 55 minutes. This depends on your oven, it may take up to 1 hour 10 minutes to bake, it may take less. Check the cake at 45 minutes and remove the greaseproof circles, if it springs back when you press the top it should be ready. If it still wobbles shut the door and check every 10 minutes until its ready.
5. Remove and cool in the tin for 1 hour before turning out onto a wire rack. Hold the rack over the top of the tin and then turn it over. If you have used enough cake release, the cakes will just fall out of the tin, if not, gently loosen the cake with the palette knife. Cool for a further 2 hours before decorating.
6. For the buttercream: Add all the ingredients to a large mixing bowl and beat for about 5 minutes, until smooth and shiny.
7. For the decoration: Spread a buttercream coat over your cooled cakes using a small pallet knife, making sure not to cover the ‘grooves’ too much or you lose the shape. Ice the middle after decorating or it will get stuck to the turntable.
8. Place the bottom half of the iced cake onto the turntable or board upside down. Colour 350g of fondant red; roll out (1/4 inch thick) until you have a 34cm circle. Lift and place the fondant over the top of the base and gently push the fondant down around the sides of the cake, cut off the excess with the pizza cutter, keeping the off-cuts for the sprinkles.
9. Push the fondant into the grooves with a wooden spoon handle, pushing the handle vertically into the groove, rolling each way slightly to get a good shape. To lift the cake off the turntable when it’s finished, place a cake board on the top and using a large palette knife, slide the knife under the cake and holding the board quickly flip the base over.
10. Colour 250g of fondant pink with a touch of the red colouring. Place the top of the cake onto the turntable. Roll the fondant (1/4 inch thick) and place over the top. Instead of pushing down on the top, use an upward brushing action with your fingers or the point will poke through the fondant. Smooth so you can see all the grooves and then cut the excess with the pizza cutter.
11. Roll the remaining 100g of fondant to a large circle (1/8 inch thick) and cut a wavy pattern into it with a sharp knife. Place this onto the pink fondant smoothing to get the groove shapes.
12. Add buttercream and raspberry jam to the centre of the cake and sandwich the two together. Make a cherry by rolling a ball of the red off-cuts of fondant and then paint a piece of Chinese noodle brown for the stalk by mixing a touch of the brown colour with white alcohol and then pop the stalk in the centre of the cherry. Make sprinkles by rolling thin sausages of red fondant and cutting to size.
13. Decorate the white fondant with silver sugar balls and the red sprinkles sticking them on with a brush of water. Finish with the cherry on the top.

Top tips for making a giant cupcake birthday cake

Add some lemon zest to the sponge to give it a zing of flavour, just like our classic lemon Madeira cake.

You might also like…

Easy cupcake recipe

Giant cupcake recipe

Birthday cakes for kids