Okay Im brand new to this, last week I made chocolate muffins... Now I want to try a cake! I made the muffins into mummies using white icing in strips and m&ms for the eyes.

Anyway my question is, what cake can I make a couple of days in advance? I want to do a birthday cake, simple white fondant covering and I am going to use a cutters to do flowers or hearts. I have to travel with the cake and it will need to be prepared in advance... Any help much appreciated from a Newbie!

What about a nice yummy pound cake maybe?

And warm welcome to CC!!

Lovetoeatcake- welcome! Be prepared to be addicted to this site. Be prepared for every thought in your head to turn to a cake thought!

Whats a pound cake?? Honestly I have no idea. I'm in Ireland..

I've been on this site for around an hour or so now I have started gathering pictures of cakes that I would love to try... All look straight forward but Im sure I will create a mess!

It's a sturdier, denser cake that would meet the requirements you want. Has a real good shelf life.

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/category/pound-cakes

welcome! and i agree i think pound cake is a great place to start.
good luck!

This page thoroughly explains butter and pound cakes:

http://www.baking911.com/cakes/butterpound.htm

Welcome to CC. I am a newbie also there are tons of tutorial videos on youtube.com...thats where I started and search google, there are other video sites as well.

Weird, I can't get it to work, even without tagging it as a URL.

The words keep getting removed from the posting. Does CC have something against this site, I wonder?

It's baking 9 1 1 . c o m

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply. I will have a look at them links.

What about this cake?? Can anyone tell me what is shortening? Thanks

http://southernfood.about.com/od/poundcakes/r/bl30425v.htm

Shortening is vegetable fat.

Ha! I tried searching for the site name in the CC forums and no hits.

Where are you from lovetoeatcake?

Cool I have Irish roots from my Grandma- Mary Bell O'Connor. I was just wondering because you didn't know what shortening is. It is like lard only made from vegetable fat like prterrel said and is the consistency of butter but shelf stable and does not melt at room temperature. Crisco is a popular brand here in the States.

What part of the country is she from? We dont crisco here but Im sure I will be able to find a similar product.

In the Uk our equivelent for shortening is Trex. I believe it is available in Ireland too. Most supermarkets stock it.We tend to use madeira cake which is a dense cake that is especially good for carving or the Victoria sandwich recipe which is much lighter.