Preheat oven to 170 °Celsius.

Beat butter and sugar till soft and creamy for about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold in the sifted ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with milk, starting and ending with flour.

Finally, add in vanilla essence and combine well. Pour batter into two greased and floured cake pans (6 inches by 10 inches rectangle pans) and bake for 45 to 50 minutes until the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed. The cakes are done when a skewer inserted in the center of the cakes comes out without any wet batter.

Remove cakes from oven and let them cool completely before icing and decorating.

Trace your preferred Manchester United logo onto a parchment paper. Make sure the logo is fitting to the size of the cake.

Next, roll some white fondant and cut out the outline of the logo onto the fondant using a sugar craft knife. Once the outline is done, trace the details onto the fondant cut out. I did the tracing by cutting through my paper template onto the fondant underneath, but I made sure I did not cut through the fondant, but rather just cut its surface to mark the design. The idea was to transfer all the outlines on the fondant so that I can paint it following the outlines.

Cut each letter in the phrase “Manchester United” separately in fondant using the alphabet cutters. Adjust the letters so that the font is as close as possible to the ones on the logo.

Let the logo and the letters to set and firm up overnight. It is easier to paint and work with fondant when it’s a little firm.

Once the logo and the letters are set, paint them with the red and yellow food coloring. Dilute the food colors with a little water before painting. Use an actual MU logo as a guide. Once all the painting iss done, attach the letters “Manchester United” on the logo with a damp brush.

As for the cakes, once baked and cooled, level the tops. Attach both cakes using some buttercream on the sides. This is a single layer cake, and the reason you need to attach the cakes on the side is to make it into a larger sheet cake. After that, cover the whole cake with a thin layer of buttercream (crumb coat).

Next, using the grass tip and green buttercream icing, pipe the ‘grass’ on the cake. For the sides, use a star tip and pipe long vertical rows of icing. Finish off the buttercream piping with a border for the cake using the grass tip in a darker shade of green buttercream.

After that, using white buttercream, pipe the lines on the football field cake. And then place the plastic goalposts on each end of the football field cake and slowly transfer the MU logo onto the cake. In doing that make sure to reserve sufficient space for the birthday message to go on the cake after placing the logo.