Login Sign Up

Follow Nigella on: Facebook Twitter Vimeo Pinterest

BIRTHDAY CUSTARD SPONGE

BIRTHDAY CUSTARD SPONGE

Related Nigella Recipes

Related Community Recipes

Makes: up to 12 slices

Print
  • Nigella Recipe
  • Vegetarian

I always used to make an elaborate cake for my children's birthdays but they've since got much more demanding - the car from Grease, James Bond, that sort of thing - so I graciously pay up and allow Jane Asher to make one for me. Still, a very basic and heartlifting birthday cake is necessary in your repertoire: and this is beautiful and delicious and the one, incidentally, I make for adults who are less keen on sugarcraft.

Recipe posted by

Join in and share one of your own recipes

Add a Recipe

Ingredients

Switch to Cup Measures

for the sponge

  • 200 grams plain flour
  • 3 tablespoons custard powder
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 4 large eggs
  • 225 grams soft butter
  • 200 grams caster sugar
  • 2 - 3 tablespoons milk

for the buttercream filling

  • 125 grams icing sugar
  • 4 teaspoons custard powder
  • 75 grams soft unsalted butter
  • 1 ½ teaspoons boiling water (from recently boiled kettle)

for the chocolate icing

  • 60 ml water
  • 2 tablespoons golden syrup
  • 125 grams caster sugar (or use 50g if using milk chocolate)
  • 175 grams dark chocolate
  • 1 packet hundreds and thousands
FEAST

As featured in

FEAST

Method

For the cake:

  1. Make sure everything you need is at room temperature before you start. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF, and butter and line two 20cm / 8 inch sandwich tins.
  2. Put all of the above ingredients except the milk, into a food processor. Process to a smooth batter, and then add the milk a tablespoon at a time to make a soft dropping consistency. Divide 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 powder.
  3. Let the tins sit on a cooling rack for 5 minutes and then turn them out on to the rack, peeling away the paper.

For the buttercream icing:

  1. 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.
  2. Feed the boiling water down the funnel with the motor running to make the filling easier to spread.
  3. Then sandwich the cooled sponges together with the custardy buttercream.

For the chocolate icing:

  1. Combine the water, syrup and sugar in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve over a low heat.
  2. Let it come to the boil and then take it off the heat.
  3. Break up the chocolate into small pieces if you are not using chocolate buttons (as I do for cooking, but good quality not confectionary standard), and then add to the pan, swirling it around to cover in the hot liquid. Leave to melt for a few minutes, and then whisk the icing to make it smooth and shiny. Pour over the buttercream filled cake, letting it drip down the sides, and then sprinkle generously with the hundreds and thousands before the icing sets.
  4. Prong with candles, light them and sing.

Tried this recipe?

Why not leave a comment or a suggestion?

Please note, questions and queries for the nigella.com
team cannot be answered here - please instead submit
any questions as "Kitchen Queries".

Add Comment

  • Hi Nigella. Baked the cake and it's delicious! Thanks. Is there anything that I can add on to the icing as the icing seems to melt non-stop until I can see the surface of the cake.I made the cake and had it outdoor. The weather here is humid and hot. Like to make it again for my son's birthday this 22 June. Thanks

    Posted by kelatae on 14th Jun 2011 at 7.46

  • I'm 13 and I made this for my fathers 50th birthday! It was really tasty and my whole family loved it. It was quick and easy and I didn't have any trouble making it. Now I have been commissioned to make more cakes!

    Posted by Harriet :) on 5th Aug 2011 at 9.01

  • Hi Nigella. I'm from Brazil and I follow your wonderful receipes. But I can't find some ingredients in here such as Bird's custard powder. I also have no idea of what is "1 pot hundreds and thousands". Do you know if there is anything I can use to replace those itens and make this birthday cake for my son's birthday? Thanks!

    Posted by Camila Miori on 15th Dec 2011 at 11.30

  • With the Bird's custard in the centre, it sounds almost like the cake equivalent of a Nanaimo Bar - dangerously decadent! Bookmarking for when I've got a bit more room in my belt...

    Posted by rubymoukli on 15th Dec 2011 at 12.42

  • I have made this lovely cake several times for family birthdays and it always goes down a treat. It is one of my nine year old son's favourite cakes. Would highly recommend.

    Posted by vtemple on 6th May 2012 at 19.15

  • Thanks for the birthdaycake. Today is my birthday. Greetings from Belgium.

    Posted by Lucje on 28th Jun 2012 at 13.06

  • The cake is easy to make and everyone really enjoys it. It looks good with hundreds and thousands but I have also used writing icing to write a birthday message. The chocolate icing sets quickly.

    Posted by jlh22 on 24th Feb 2013 at 19.01

  • Hi! Have tried this earlier and it's delicious. But now I'm wondering if I could use this with fondant. Pls let me know. Tks.

    Posted by AshBaker on 13th Mar 2013 at 3.40