Amateur baker saves more than $150 by making a Coles cake

For her son’s first birthday, this Brisbane mum wanted to go big – but didn’t have the budget. Instead she whipped up a huge cake using a Coles trick.

An amateur baker has left hundreds in awe over her impressive no-bake Coles cake.

Louise Griffiths, from Brisbane, took to a popular Facebook group to reveal how she made a no-bake lettered cake for her son’s first birthday.

While just one part of the cake was made from scratch, she still managed to make the entire dessert look professional, with a price tag that would normally cost about $200.

Ms Griffiths, 30, explained the letter ‘O’ was an allergen-free handmade sponge, with the rest an already bought $5 Coles unfilled sponge cake.

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Louise Griffiths, 30, pictured with her husband and son, managed to save more than $150 by making her own cake for her son’s first birthday. Picture: Supplied

“The ‘N E’ was (three) Coles sponge cakes cut to shape with jam, whipped cream and maple syrup,” she said.

“Maple syrup gave it a delicious flavour without feeling sickly sweet like butter cream.”

For the topping, Ms Griffiths used the supermarket’s Loco dairy free thickened cream ($3) which she whipped into the maple syrup.

“But my tip is you need to whip in small volumes to actually turn it into whipped cream,” she told news.com.au.

To decorate it she used Arnott’s Mini Milk Arrowroot Letters ($4) along with Coles’ gel pens ($5) found in the baking section.

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She used Coles ingredients to make the no-bake lettered cake. Picture: Supplied

“I have made a three-tier Coles mud cake for a baby shower before, but this was my first attempt at a letter cake,” she told news.com.au. “I didn’t have time for a trial run and just went from my own ideas and seeing posts from the group.

“I would have saved at least $150 considering it was a full ONE I wanted to create.”

She had a young boy with dairy allergies at the party and didn’t want him missing out so she decided to make the letter ‘O’ allergy-free.

“I thought if it was my son I would want him to be able to be included. I made it from a health food shop Allergen free ‘Well Good Vanilla muffin mix’ and just backed it in two cake pans which I could then cut into the O shape,” Ms Griffiths said.

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The letter ‘O’ she made from scratch but the remaining two letters were made from Coles pre-made sponge cakes. Picture: Supplied

She stacked the three sponge cakes on top of one another before using a stencil to cut the shape. Picture: Supplied

To create the shape of the letters she used a template of ‘ONE’ she printed from a Google search to be the size of a A4 paper.

“I used rectangular cake boards and cut them to the shape of the template with a Stanley knife but they was just my preference for presentation,” she explained.

“I froze the sponge cakes before cutting to reduce crumbs and made it easier to get straight lines.”

Ms Griffiths said the cake, which cost her roughly $35 including decorations was for her son’s ‘Wild One’ themed birthday last week.

She shared posts of her impressive cake online with many commending the other-of-one on her skills. Picture: Supplied

“I wanted a cake I could use for a cake smash (the tall cake surround by flakes) but needed a cake for guests at his party. We had a large number attend which prompted me to do the full ONE and not just the number 1.”

Meanwhile, the smash cake was made using two Coles rainbow cakes stacked on top of each other with 36 Flakes around the outside.

She also made this smash cake using Coles’ rainbow sponge and 36 Flakes stuck to the sides. Picture: Supplied

“The best thing about this hack is it doesn’t matter what cake you use as long as you have some sort of buttercream around it for the Flakes to stick to,” she said.

As for the decorations, they were from Kmart.

Ms Griffiths then shared her impressive creations in the group Woolies/Coles Mudcake Hacks which attracted almost 200 ‘likes’ and comments.

“Looks so good!!!!!!” one person wrote.

Most importantly, her son loved it. Picture: Supplied

Amazing!” said another, while a third added, “So clever using the letter cookies. What a great idea!”

The mother-of-one said she was “very appreciative” of all the support, adding the guests at the party said it “tasted great”.

“Some letter and number cakes cost over $200 just for a single number 1. Much cheaper and easy hack plus fun when you accomplish something with minimal effort but looks great.”