Nostalgic home-made birthday cakes are making a comeback, and we are totally here for it! They’re more affordable and, in our opinion, much more fun than the store-bought variety. Here’s how to make two sporty cakes from scratch using a sheet tray or two round cakes. It’s a hole-in-one, if you ask us.   

S-SHAPE DIRTBAKE CAKE 

BAKE

Ingredients: 

1 (800g) chocolate box cake mix
2 cups (500g) butter, at room temperature
8 cups (1kg) icing sugar, sifted
3-4 Tbsp (45-60ml) milk
Yellow, blue and green food colouring
2 cups (170g) desiccated coconut

For the cake bushes: 

2 Tbsp (30ml) sugar
2 Tbsp (30ml) melted butter
1 egg, whisked
½ tsp vanilla essence
⅓ cup (50g) flour
¼ tsp (1.5ml) baking powder
2 Tbsp (30ml) milk

For decorating: 

½ packet (100g) chocolate sandwich cookies, roughly chopped
1 packet (60g) chocolate-covered raisins
Star piping nozzle, piping bag and a toy dirt bike, to decorate

Method: 

1. Grease the base and sides of two round 20cm cake tins. Line the bases with baking paper. 
2. Prepare and bake cakes according to packet instructions, adding any extra ingredients called for. Cool completely. 
3. Add butter to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat for 30 seconds, until light. 
4. Add icing sugar and beat on low until the mixture forms crumbs. Increase speed and beat into a fluffy, light buttercream for about 3 minutes. (Scrape the sides of the bowl down occasionally.)  
5. Add milk and beat through to achieve a smooth, pipeable consistency. Then add drops of yellow and blue food colouring to achieve a dark green colour. Set aside. 
6. Add coconut and a generous drop of green food colouring to a bowl. Rub coconut together to saturate it with colour. 
7. For the cake bushes, whisk together the sugar and butter in a bowl for 1 minute. Add egg and vanilla and whisk through to combine. Add the flour and baking powder and stir through, then whisk through the milk. 
8. Colour the batter a light green, using yellow and blue food colouring to achieve the shade. 
9. Microwave for 60-80 seconds, until cooked and risen. Set aside to cool completely. Tear into rough chunks to make the bushes. Set aside.  

SHAPE 

Step 1  

 Align the two cakes vertically on a tray or serving platter, positioning one directly above the other. Use a 5cm round cookie cutter (or use a cooldrink glass if you don’t have a cutter) to cut out a ring from the centre of each cake.  

Step 2  

Using a knife, cut out about quarters slice out of each cake. Set aside the off-cut cake. 

Step 3  

Arrange rings together on a serving platter to form an ‘S’, turning the cakes carefully as needed. (You may need to cut away a little excess to make it fit perfectly.)  

DECORATE 

Method: 

1. Cover the entire cake with the green buttercream, saving a portion for the piped trees. 
2. Crumble the cake cutouts into small crumbs and sprinkle along the shape of the cake to create a bike ‘track’.
3. Place cake ‘bushes’, crushed cookies and chocolate-covered raisins along the side of the bike track. 
4. Scoop the remaining buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe trees along the cake. Pipe three blobs on top of each other, ranging from biggest to smallest, to make a tree.
5. Scatter green coconut ‘grass’ around the cake to finish. 
6. As an optional final touch, put a dirt bike toy next to the cake – ready to hit the track! 

 NUMBER 4 GOLF COURSE CAKE 

 BAKE 

Ingredients: 

 1 (800g) vanilla box cake mix
2 cups (500g) butter, at room temperature
8 cups (1kg) icing sugar, sifted
3-4 Tbsp (45-60ml) milk
Yellow, blue and green food colouring
½ packet (100g) Eet-Sum-More biscuits
Ateco piping nozzle 234 (for the grass) and piping bag (optional)
Blue paper, white plastic lolly stick and red paper, to decorate

Method: 

1. Grease and line a 20x30cm sheet tray.
2. Prepare and bake cake according to packet instructions, adding any extra ingredients the recipe calls for. Cool completely.
3. Add butter to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat for 30 seconds or until light.
4. Add icing sugar and beat on low until the mixture forms crumbs. Increase speed and beat into a fluffy, light buttercream, about 3 minutes. (Scrape down the sides of the bowl down occasionally.) Add milk and beat through to achieve a smooth, pipeable consistency.
5. Scoop ¾ cup icing into a separate bowl and use yellow and blue food colouring to create a light green colour, adding a small drop of each at a time and mixing until the desired colour is reached.
6. Colour the remaining buttercream a dark green, combining the blue, yellow and green colours until the desired shade is reached.

 SHAPE 

Step 1  

Place the cake on a tray or serving platter, with the short side facing you. Slice into three equally rectangles, cutting down vertically.  

Step 2   

 Cut out two squares and a smaller rectangle from the second rectangle.  

Step 3: 

 For the final slice, cut both short ends off diagonally last rectangle looking like a pyramid. 

Step 4: 

To assemble: 

Transfer the long rectangle (A) to your serving platter.  

Place the smaller rectangle (B) on the inner side of the large rectangle.  

Place square (C) on the bottom right-hand side of large rectangle to create the outside edge of the four-shape.  

Place pyramid shape (D) diagonally across to connect the four-shape together. Fill up any gaps with cake offcuts. 

DECORATE 

Method:

1. Use scissors to cut out a shape from the blue paper for the water hazard. Arrange on the cake.
2. Add the lighter green buttercream to three different spots on cake, shaping into funky rounds to create the golf course. Use a spatula to smooth out the surface.
3. Using the crumbled biscuits, add some ‘sand’ to the sides of the light green patches.
4. Scoop the dark green icing into a piping bag fitted with the grass nozzle. Squeeze icing through the nozzle, swirling, blotting and dolloping to make the ‘grass’, covering the remainder of the cake.
5. Cut out a small triangle from red paper and secure to a lolly stick using sticky tape. Insert your ‘flag’ somewhere in a light green section on the cake. 
6. Add a white round sprinkle for the golf ball and you’re all set. Tee off with candles and serve.

Recipes & Styling: Sjaan van der Ploeg
Photographs: Zhann Solomons

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