Children's Party Cakes Recipes - Treasure Map Cake

Ingredients

• 25cm square sponge cake

• 225g butter icing

• 45ml apricot jam, warmed and sieved

• 450g marzipan

• 675g sugar paste icing

• yellow, brown, paprika, green, black and red food coloring

• 115g royal icing

• 25 x 35cm cake board

• fine pain brush

• kitchen paper

• 4 small greaseproof paper piping bags

• No 7 shell and No 1 writing nozzles

• 6 candles and holder

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Method:

1. Split and fill the cake with butter icing, cut it into a 20 x 25cm/8 x 10in rectangle and place on the cake board. Brush with apricot jam. Cover with a layer of marzipan then with 450g/11b/3cups sugar-paste icing.

2. Color the remaining sugar-paste icing yellow and cut out with an uneven outline. Stick on to the cake with water and leave to dry overnight. Mark the island, river, lake, mountains and trees on the map.

3. With brown and paprika Colors and a fine paintbrush, paint the edges of the map to look old, smudging the Colors together with kitchen paper. Paint the island pale green and the water around the island, the river and the lake pale blue. Dry overnight before painting on the other details, otherwise the Colors will run.

4. Pipe a border of royal icing around the base of the cake with a shell nozzle. Color a little royal icing red and pipe the path to the treasure, marked With an "X". Color some icing green and pipe on grass and trees. Finally Color some icing black and pipe on a North sign with the writing nozzle.