Question: What do you get when you cross a Coffee and Walnut cake with a Battenburg cake?

 Answer:  An owl 

Why would I think about doing such a thing?  Well it was for a 21st birthday cake for my eldest son's girlfriend. So a few finishing touches and...

 

Made from a coffee sponge baked in a traybake tin then sliced through horizontally.  I was a little worried that it might fall apart when I lifted the top off but actually it was fine.  The filling was a coffee buttercream, chopped walnuts and... well you will never guess... it was Rhubarb jam!  I made some in the summer using a recipe by Vanessa Kimbell in her book, 'Prepped' and being slightly sharper than most jams it balanced the sweetness of the buttercream perfectly.  A thin coating of marzipan over the top, and then a little fondant icing used for eyes and beak.  A quick paint job of bronze pearl lustre and food colouring with walnuts for his front and one owl ready for the celebrations.

 I don't know why he is sideways but having had several attempts at rotating him, despite the fact that he is the right way round on my stored images, I have had to give up.  Anyway the unusual combination worked very well and was appreciated by the birthday girl who had not been able to decide whether she would prefer Coffee and Walnut cake or a Battenburg!

What would you have made?

Happy Birthday Jo