Recipe: Swimming Pool Cake by Bennelong’s Catherine Taylor

This story appears in our July 2025 Nostalgia issue, presented by Up, where we asked 13 professional bakers to recreate cakes from the iconic The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book.

This nostalgic and whimsical pool cake is a retro throwback made modern with a light vanilla sponge and rich chocolate ganache buttercream. It’s playful, summery, and surprisingly simple to make. The decorations are where the fun really begins: imagine duckies, sour peach rings and jelly rippling across a ganache-slicked “pool”.

Vanilla sponge ingredients

190g caster sugar
150g plain flour
40g cornflour
12.5g baking powder
190g whole eggs (approx 3–4 eggs)
75g canola oil
65g milk
1 tsp vanilla paste or extract (or seeds from 1 vanilla pod)
110g unsalted butter, melted

Vanilla sponge method

Preheat oven to 170°C fan-forced. Grease a 20cm cake tin, line the base with baking paper and lightly spray with oil.

In a large bowl, sift together sugar, flour, cornflour and baking powder. Whisk to combine and set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, milk and vanilla until smooth and fully emulsified.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until no lumps remain. Fold in the melted butter and stir gently until fully incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (about 30–35 minutes).

Cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.

Chocolate ganache buttercream ingredients

250g icing sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
125g unsalted butter, softened
2 tbsp milk
200g dark chocolate, chopped
100g pure cream

Chocolate ganache buttercream method

To make the chocolate ganache, place chocolate in a heatproof bowl.

In a saucepan, bring cream to a gentle boil, then pour it over the chocolate. Let sit for 1 minute before whisking gently to emulsify into a smooth ganache. Avoid overheating to prevent splitting. Allow ganache to cool to room temperature before using.

For the buttercream, sift icing sugar and cocoa powder into a large bowl. (Add a pinch of salt if desired.) Add softened butter and beat on low speed with a paddle attachment until smooth and creamy.

Add milk and the cooled ganache gradually, beating until light, fluffy and fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Assembling the cake

Using the recipes above, bake the sponge and prepare both the ganache and buttercream. Once the cake has cooled, layer and frost it generously with the ganache buttercream.

To create the “pool” centre, spoon set blueberry jelly (prepared according to packet directions) into a shallow cavity on the top of the cake, smoothing it to mimic water.

Build your edible scene as follows:
• Black liquorice twists for the pool ladder
• Pink musk sticks for pool edging or floaties
• Cadbury Fingers for diving boards or fencing
• Teevee sticks as pool toys or decking
• Sour peach rings as floating pool rings
• Mint gum pellets stacked to look like a poolside pillow
• 3 duckies swimming in the jelly
• Small baby doll or Lego figure lounging or floating
• 2 small paper umbrellas for summery flair

The swimming pool cake recipe first appeared in the The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book, published in 1980.