Pixie Toadstool Cake

Ingredients
1 Extra Large Vanilla Sponge
1 quantity Buttercream
Red food colouring paste
White chocolate rainbow buttons
Red liquorice strips
Red writing icing tube
Assorted sweets and sprinkles

Equipment
1 x 1.3-litre and 1 x 1-litre pudding basin, greased and dusted with flour

Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/ 350ºF/Gas Mark 4. Make the Extra Large Vanilla Sponge mixture and spoon into the prepared basins until they are two-thirds full. Bake just under the middle shelf of the preheated oven for about 45 minutes.
Leave the cakes to cool in the basins for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire cooling racks. Use a long, serrated knife to level the bottoms of the cakes. Divide the Buttercream between two bowls and tint one bowl red with the food colouring paste and leave the other plain.
Place the smaller cake, flat side down, on a serving plate and level the top a little to make a flat surface. Cover the entire cake with the plain Buttercream, spreading evenly with a palette knife. This will be the toadstool stem. Place the larger cake on a serving plate and cover with the red Buttercream, spreading evenly with a palette knife. Stick white chocolate rainbow buttons all over in a decorative fashion.
Cut a red liquorice strip into a rectangular door shape, stick to the front of the toadstool stem and decorate the edges with red writing icing. Repeat for the toadstool stem windows.
Just before serving, carefully sit the toadstool cap on top of the stem and decorate around the plate with assorted sweets and sprinkles.

Taken from Birthday Cakes For Kids by Annie Rigg (Ryland Peters & Small, £14.99).