I don’t usually decorate cakes with buttercream because honestly, it’s far more difficult than sugarpaste. However, it’s also a lot faster and, in my opinion, a lot tastier. Aonghus’ 13th birthday fell in the middle of my GCSEs, so Mum and I decided to make a quick cake for him.

We covered a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and smoothed it out as the base of the lion’s face, then we piped with some quick shop-bought fondant to create the lion’s mane. We did use fondant for the muzzle, whiskers, eyes and ears but being simple shapes they were quick to recreate. All in all this cake took us no longer than 30 minutes to create.