Spotty Pudsey Cake Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4, butter and line the base of two 20cm spring-form cake tins with baking parchment.
• Using an electric whisk, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Crack the eggs in one at a time and whisk well, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the lemon zest, vanilla, flour, milk and a pinch of salt. Whisk until just combined then divide the mixture between the two tins.
• Bake in the centre of the oven for 25-30 mins until a skewer inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean. After 10 mins remove the cakes from their tins and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
• While the cakes cool, stir together the icing sugar, butter and milk for the filling. Once roughly mixed switch to using electric beaters until smooth and pale. When the cake is cold spread one third of the buttercream over one of the sponges and top with the jam. Smooth it over evenly then top with the other sponge. Spread the buttercream all over the outside of the sandwiched cake in an even thin layer and chill in the fridge until needed.
• Dust your work surface with icing sugar and roll out 250g white fondant so that it is big enough to cover the cake. Lay it over the chilled cake, smooth down the surface and trim off any excess. Now roll out the black sugar paste so it's approx. 5mm thick then cut into the shape of Pudsey's head (it's easier to do this if you draw a template first then draw around it). Use a little buttercream or water to stick this on top of the cake. Roll out the yellow sugar paste and cut a slightly smaller version of Pudsey's head to stick on top in the same way so that the black sugar paste becomes the outline.
• Roll out the remaining fondant to make the eyepatch, nose, mouth and eye and eyebrow and stick all the pieces on with a little bit of water. Use coloured sugar paste or writing icing to create polka dots on the eye patch. Use a clean paintbrush dipped in water to remove any excess icing sugar from your design. Will keep covered for 2-3 days in a cool place.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease a 20 x 30cm tin, then line with baking parchment. Beat the butter, flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, yogurt, milk and vanilla until lump-free. Stir in the chopped chocolate. Spoon into tin; bake for 25-30 mins until golden and risen and a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin.
• Melt the rest of the chocolate. Stir icing sugar into soft cheese, then the chocolate until smooth. Chill, spread over the cake, then cut into squares and decorate.

Steps:

• In a large bowl, beat eggs, milk, oil, poppy seeds, extracts and flavoring. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; add to egg mixture until blended., Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 350° for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely., In a small bowl, combine glaze ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over cake.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Put the butter in a bowl and beat it with electric beaters until soft and creamy. Beat in the sugar, then the egg and vanilla, and finally the flour to make a dough. If the dough feels a bit sticky, add a little bit more flour and knead it in.
• Roll the dough out so it's about the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut out shapes using a Pudsey bear cutter or cut around a template you have made. Re-roll off-cuts and repeat.
• Transfer the biscuits to the baking sheet and bake for 8-10 mins or until the edges are just brown. Leave to cool completely.
• To decorate the biscuits: Mix the icing sugar with enough water to make a stiff paste then roll the white fondant out to 5mm thick and cut into strips to make Pudsey's eye bandage. Stick it on with the white icing. Decorate with polka dots using coloured icing pens. Make his eye, nose and mouth with the black sugar paste and add a little dot of white icing to the eye. Stick the features down with more icing. Repeat the process with most of the biscuits and decorate the rest with icing simply sprinkled with hundreds and thousands. Will keep for three days in a biscuit tin.