A medieval birthday banquet (and how to build a castle cake)

On the off-chance that anyone might be planning a medieval style party and be in need of some instructions for building a castle cake, I thought I'd share how I made James' cake. You will need a couple of hours to spare though, and the cute helper is optional!

Firstly, I made a double batch of Victoria Sponge. Ideally you should make the cake the day before icing it, because then it's not so crumbly when you spread the icing on.

Then I had to colour 3lbs of white sugarpaste icing to a small piece of black and the rest to various shades of grey.

People will ask me, 'How do you get so much baking done with four boys around?'

Answer: 'the bigger ones will either help or amuse themselves, while the youngest will sit in his own special spot right beside me.' 

Now I had to assemble the cake/castle.

Sandwich the sponges together with jam and buttercream.

Add four swiss rolls to the corners to make the turrets and cover everything in buttercream cement.

Put the black icing across the front and some grey on the roofs.

Meanwhile, if you have a little helper you may find that he has started testing the buttercream for you!

Now the time consuming part.

Make lots and lots of little balls of grey icing, flatten them a little then add the bricks. 

Add the door and ramparts too.

I also dyed a little coconut green for the grass.

And there you have it.

Oh, yes, the canon on the roof too. And some canon balls!

This was the banqueting table before the knights and Lady Guinevere sat down.

And once they had sat down.

The sparkler was on the back of the canon.

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