Birthday Custard Sponge

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200g plain flour
3 tbsp Bird's custard powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
225g soft butter
200g caster sugar
2-3 tbsp milk

Mak sure everything you need is at room temperature before you start. Preheat the oven to 180C and butter and line to 20cm sandwich tins (I used a springform pan).

Put all of the above ingredients except milk into a food processor. Process to a smooth batter, and then add the milk a dtablespoon at a time to make a soft dropping consistency. Or, do it the usual way: cream butter and sugar, eggs, dry stuff then add the milk after. Divid between the two cake tins and bake for 20 minutes. The cakes will have risen and feel spookily puffy; this is because of the cornflour in the custard power. Let the tins sit on a cooling rack for 5 minutes and then turn them out onto the rack, peeling away the paper.

Buttercream filling:

125g icing sugar
4 tsp Bird's custard powder
75g soft unsalted butter
1.5 tsp boiling water

Process the icing sugar and custard powder to get rid of any lumps, and then add the butter, processing again to make the buttercream come together. Feed teh boiling water down the funnel with the motor running to make the filling easier to spread. Then sandwich the cooled sponges together with the custardy buttercream.

Chocolate icing:
60 ml water
2 tbsp golden syrup
125g caster sugar, or 50g if using milk chocolate
175g dark chocolate
sprinkles

Combine the water, syrup and sugar in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve over a low heat. Let it come to the boil and then take it off the heat.
Break up the chocolate into small pieces if you are not using chocolate buttons and then add to the pan, swirling it around to cover in the hot liquid. Leave to melt for a few minutes, and the whisk the icing to make it smooth and shiny. Pour over the buttercream filled cake, letting it driop down the sides, and then sprinkel generously with the sprikles before the icing sets.

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