Easy panda cake recipe

This easy panda cake recipe comes with a printable template, making it super easy to create an adorable little panda face on your vanilla sponge cake.

The soft vanilla sponge is really easy to whip up in a single bowl. First, you'll cream baking margarine and sugar, then whisk in eggs, milk and vanilla before folding in flour and baking powder.

Your cake batter then goes into the oven for a low and slow bake to give a perfectly risen and level sponge - ideal for decorating!

The buttercream uses a one-step method. You'll simply sift icing sugar into a bowl, add butter, vanilla and milk, whisk and you're done!

Once the cake is halved and filled with buttercream, you'll brush it all over with apricot jam and cover with white icing.

You'll then roll out black icing and use the template to cut out all of the features, placing them on top of the cake and fixing the ears in place with cocktail sticks. So simple but so effective!

Now, here's the full, detailed recipe for my easy panda cake, complete with plenty of photos to show you what to aim for at every step.

Instructions

Make the sponge

Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan, 400F)

Grease the tin and line with greaseproof paper.

Put the sugar and margarine in a large mixing bowl.

Whisk together until creamy.

Add the eggs one by one, whisking between each addition.

This helps to stop the mixture from splitting.

Add the milk and vanilla.

Whisk again.

Sift in the flour and baking powder.

Fold until the flour is all incorporated.

Spoon into the prepared tin and level off.

Bake for approximately 40 minutes until golden brown and springy in the centre.

Cool in the tin for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool upside down.

Make the buttercream filling

Put the softened butter and vanilla in a bowl and sift in the icing sugar.

Whisk until pale and creamy.

Cut the cake in half using a long, sharp serrated knife.

Spread the top half with buttercream then sandwich back together so that the flat bottom is on top. This will give a crisper final result.

Decorate the panda cake

Put the apricot jam in a small bowl with a teaspoon of water and microwave for 10-20 seconds until warmed through and thin.

Brush all over the top and sides of the cake. This will help the icing to stick.

Dust a clean work surface with cornflour and roll the white icing out so that it is wide enough to cover the top and sides of the cake.

Use the white icing to cover the cake, gently smoothing all over with your hands and trimming away any excess at the bottom with a sharp knife.

Roll out the black icing. This time, it needs to large enough to lay your template pieces on top.

Cut your template pieces out and place them on top of the black icing, then run your finger around the edges of each piece to encourage the paper to indent the icing slightly.

Remove the paper and follow the indents to cut the shapes out. You can do this with sharp scissors, or place the pieces on a board and cut them out with a sharp knife.

Finally, you'll need to cut out the pupils. For this, I used the wide end of a small piping nozzle.

Position the eyes and mouth piece on top of the cake. You can use a tiny dab of water on the back of the black pieces to fix them in place, if necessary, but do so very sparingly. If the black runs, you'll end up with grey streaks on your cake.

Press the ears on top of two cocktail sticks and leave to firm up.

Once the ears are able to hold their shape without drooping, you can push the cocktail sticks into the cake to secure the ears in place.

Your easy panda cake is now ready to slice and enjoy!

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