Billy the plane

1.Preheat oven to moderate, grease and line deep 19cm-square cake pan. Make cake according to directions on packets, pour into pan, bake in moderate oven about 1 hour. Stand cake in pan 5 minutes, turn onto wire rack to cool.

2.Turn cake upside down, using a skewer, mark shape of plane on surface of cake, as shown. Cut cake into plane shape.

3.Cut cake on an angle from the tail end to the front so plane sits back, giving the impression it is taking off.

4.Using small serrated knife, trim cake to make more rounded, trim under wings. Trim a piece of leftover cake to make a tail fin, position on cake with a toothpick.

5.Place cake on prepared board, discard remaining cake pieces.

6.To make buttercream, Beat the butter and red colouring in a small bowl with an electric beater until the butter is as white as possible. (This will result in a whiter buttercream which will give you better results if colouring it). Gradually beat in half of the sifted icing sugar, then the milk, then the remaining sifted icing sugar.Beat until the butter cream is smooth and spreadable. Keep scraping down the side of the bowl during beating. Spread all over plane.

7.Cut two 25cm pieces from licorice strap, roll tightly to make wheels, position under wings. Cut remaining licorice into thin strips for eyebrows and mouth.

8.Position mints for eyes; secure two brown M&M’s on mints with a little black decorating gel.

9.Position green M&M for nose and jube halves for propeller. Position yellow M&M on tail.

10.Place plastic lid onto cake. Fill with remaining M&M’s.

11.Pipe child’s name on back of plane with black decorating gel, if desired.