The Blue Peter Dalek Cake

Key Ingredients: swiss role, sugar, butter, cocoa powder, sweets, salad (only joking about that last one)

As a special Blue Peter favoured edition of "HaRpi How To Cook", we decided to celebrate the broadcast of fab new episode "Dalek" by making the famous Blue Peter Dalek cake, as cobbled together by legendary lesbian Valerie Singleton back in 1965

The trick of the Dalek Cake is to get the cutting of the swiss role exactly right. Not that trying to forge four lumps of jam covered sponge into anything resembling a dome-shaped metal killing machine is ever going to produce something that looks "right", but you can try. Cut in half, then about 4cm of the end of one of the halves.

Here's Mr Rayner constructing the basic shape. The big half is sliced from a top corner to the opposite bottom corner, making the 'sloping' bit

Oh who's this now? The chocolate flavoured butter icing is prepared by putting all the ingrediants into a dish...

... and beating them until it forms a smooth paste. Then comes the tricky bit:

The butter icing must now be smothered over the Dalek, avoiding bits dropping off. We were worried it might stick in there.

Persevere, it will work eventually! And then you'll be left with a not-at-all-Dalek shaped phallic brown sponge thing.

Now the fun bit. Decorate the Dalek with sweets, using liquorice bootlaces for the edges. Eat all the left-over Smarties.

The finished article, alongside a real one! Or a real toy one, any rate. A tasty chocolate exterminator that makes an ideal after-dinner snack!

The Verdict!

This one turned out much better than HaRpi's previous offerings, including the disgusting pink one. The trick is to beat the butter cream up well (sickly bits of butter on the finished cake doth not a pleasurable eating experience make!) and not lay it on too quickly.

Health Factor: Do not eat ALL the leftover sweets, the liquorice bootlaces especially are likely to give you a sugar overdose! We were climbing the walls for 48 hours after making ours. But that might just be us.