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Cuthbert the giant caterpillar cake

The inspiration for this was the scene in Motherland when the single mum (played by Diane Morgan) dryly told the over-anxious mum (Anna Maxwell Martin, who I find SO irritating in this), to calm down when organising a children's party: “You buy four caterpillar cakes from ASDA, put them together in one long human centipede-type caterpillar cake, then just let the kids help themselves. Don’t even bother with a knife just let them dig their creepy little fingers in.”
Her idea of games was throw a pound coin into the room and let the kids fight it out.
A caterpillar cake is basically a Swiss roll. Of course being a masochist I made all the caterpcakes from scratch. I made four to make a giant caterpillar to feed 60 guests. For a small caterpillar cake, you only need to make one Swiss roll.
Here you have a choice of cake base, either plain, or you can add flavourings such as lemon zest or spices.
The other Swiss roll recipe is a banana one.
If you are making a four roll giant caterpillar, double the quantities of the buttercream and the ganache recipes.
Course: Afternoon Tea, Birthday party
Cuisine: British
Keyword: Birthday cake, Caterpillar cake
Servings: 60

Equipment

  • Swiss roll type flat baking sheet
  • sheet non-stick parchment paper
  • paint brush or pastry brush for the gold leaf

Ingredients

For the plain cake:

  • 5 eggs
  • 175 g caster sugar
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Flavourings of your choice: a spice, or lemon zest
  • 100 g plain flour

For the banana cake alternative:

  • 130 g caster sugar
  • 2 very ripe bananas, mashed up
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp fine salt
  • 2 tsps spice of your choice: cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, clove or a combination
  • 100 g plain flour

For the chocolate buttercream:

  • 175 g salted butter, room temperature
  • 175 g icing sugar
  • 3 tbsps nutella or chocolate spread ( I used a high quality Italian buffalo chocolate spread from https://www.tenutavannulo.com/en/ )

For the white chocolate ganache:

  • 450 g good quality white chocolate
  • 250 ml double cream

For decoration:

  • Sheets edible gold leaf
  • white chocolate buttons
  • 1 box white chocolate finger biscuits
  • Colin the caterpillar head

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 180C
  • Grease and line a flat Swiss roll tin or baking tin with parchment paper . I did four cakes so did them one after the other. The parchment paper will also be used to roll up the cake, so use this rather than a silpat.

For the plain cake:

  • Whisk the eggs and sugar in a stand mixer for around 8 minutes until doubled in size, pale and frothy. When you lift the whisk, the mixture should trail like a ribbon.
  • Add the flavourings, baking powder, salt. You could replace 40g of the sugar with cocoa powder if you wanted a chocolate flavoured sponge.
  • Fold in the flour carefully, making sure it is evenly distributed.
  • Spread the mixture carefully and evenly onto the baking tin parchment
  • Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until springy to the touch
  • Remove from the oven and turn over the Swiss roll, carefully peeling off the parchment paper
  • Using the same parchment paper, roll up the Swiss roll and leave to cool

For the banana cake:

  • Beat the eggs and sugar in a stand mixer for 8 minutes until doubled in size, pale and frothy.
  • Add the flavourings such as vanilla or spices, then baking powder and salt
  • Fold the flour in carefully. It will tend to sink to the bottom so stir gently but deeply. Try not to deflate your airy cake mixture.
  • With the rubber spatula, spread it evenly over the baking tin/swiss roll tin, right up to the edges. (If the edges and corners are thinner, they tend to bake more quickly or even burn).
  • Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until springy to the touch.
  • Remove from the oven, and turn over the cake. Carefully peel off the parchment paper.
  • Using the parchment paper, carefully roll up the cake and leave to cool.

For the chocolate buttercream icing:

  • Beat all the ingredients together.
  • Once the Swiss roll has cooled, open up the cake and using a spatula, spread the chocolate buttercream all over the inside.

Adding the buttercream:

  • Then once the cake is re-rolled, cut and assembled, use the rest of the buttercream over the outside of the cake - a crumb coat- so it will be easier to pour the ganache over it.
  • Once cooled, roll it out again. You want to make the ridged back of the caterpillar so cut thick (2.5cm) strips about a third of the way through.
    Remove these strips of cake. (Some people use them to make the legs but I used chocolate finger biscuits for the legs and gave the strips to my granddaughter to eat)
  • Chill the cake in the fridge in readyness for the ganache stage.

For the white chocolate ganache:

  • Break up the chocolate into squares and place in a heat-proof bowl
  • Melt over a bain-marie or blast for 30 seconds in a micro-wave. Never go over 30 seconds. Do it a couple of times.
  • Once chocolate is melted, pour in the cream and stir.
  • If the chocolate starts to harden, give it a 5 second blast in the microwave.
  • With the help of a rubber spatula, pour over the butter creamed ,rolled up Swiss roll.

For the decoration:

  • With a paint brush or pastry brush, carefully drape the gold leaf over the body of the caterpillar cake until covered.
  • Add chocolate buttons to the top and white chocolate fingers to each side (pushing them in slightly) for the legs.
  • Finally, using the left over buttercream, wedge the Colin head in one end.