Vanilla & white chocolate naked cake with blueberry buttercream

This is a truly beautiful cake, perfect for a celebration such as a wedding or engagement. The trick is to create neat blueberry buttercream layers, and to choose flowers that complement the purply blue of the frosting. Make sure that your choice of flowe

♥ Preheat the oven to 180C (fan 160C/ 350F/gas 4) and line the base of the cake tins with baking parchment. Cream together the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. You can do this for 5 minutes in a stand mixer or using a handheld electric whisk. You can also do this by hand, but it takes about 10 minutes and lots of elbow grease! ♥ Add two of the eggs with the vanilla, baking powder and half of the yoghurt, milk and flour. Beat well together, and then add the remaining eggs with the rest of the yoghurt, milk and flour, and beat well until evenly combined. Add a pinch of salt, beat for a moment and then fold in the melted chocolate. Divide the mixture evenly between the lined cake tins and smooth the tops with the back of a spoon. Bake the cakes in the oven (in batches if necessary) for 25-35 minutes, or until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre of each comes out clean. ♥ As the cakes are baking, make the vanilla syrup. Put the granulated sugar in a small pan with the water and vanilla over a low heat. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, stirring, then turn up the heat and bring to the boil. Allow this to bubble away for 2 minutes and then take it off the heat and set aside to cool a little. ♥ When the cakes are baked, remove them from the oven and brush liberally with the vanilla syrup to give the cake a beautifully moist crumb. Set the cakes aside to cool down completely. ♥ As the cakes are cooling, prepare the blueberry purée for the buttercream. Put the blueberries, caster sugar and water in a small pan and cook over a low heat for 5 minutes, until the blueberries have broken down and become mushy, stirring occasionally. Increase the heat and boil the blueberry mixture for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat and leave it to cool a little. ♥ Blitz the cooled mixture in a blender to a smooth purée and pass it through a fine sieve into a bowl. Set aside until needed. You should end up with about 5-6 tablespoons of purée. ♥ To finish the buttercream, place the butter and icing sugar in a bowl (or I like to use a stand mixer) and then beat it like mad until the mixture becomes pale and fluffy. Gently fold the blueberry purée into the buttercream until evenly combined. The buttercream needs to be nice and thick to achieve dramatic layers between the cakes. ♥ When the cakes are completely cool, remove one from the tin and put it on a serving plate or cake stand, sticking it down with a little buttercream so the cake does not move around. Spread over one-third of the blueberry buttercream in a thick, even layer and place another cake on top. Spread another third of the blueberry buttercream in a thick layer on top and finish with the final cake. Top with a final layer of buttercream and use a cake scraper or palette knife to smooth the sandwiched blueberry buttercream over the side of the cake to give a very thin coating. The cake should be ‘naked’, so you don’t want loads of buttercream on the sides but aim to end up with a very, very thin see-through layer. ♥ When you are happy with the cake and the outside looks smooth, decorate the top with a nice arrangement of fresh flowers and serve, removing the decorations before slicing.

♥ Preheat the oven to 180C (fan 160C/350F/gas 4) and sit the ice-cream cones in the holes of the cupcake tin to hold them upright. ♥ Melt the butter in a small pan over a low heat, then take the pan off the heat and add the dark chocolate. Leave the chocolate to melt. ♥ Lightly beat the eggs. Put the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, eggs and salt in a large bowl with the melted butter and chocolate mixture. ♥ Mix to just combine with the hand-held electric whisk and spoon the batter into the disposable piping bag. Snip off the end to give you a wide hole, then pipe into the ice-cream cones, filling them no more than three-quarters full or they will overflow while they are cooking. ♥ Place the tin in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre of a cupcake cone comes out clean. Once the cupcake cones are baked, remove them from the oven and leave to cool completely. ♥ While the cones are cooling, make the frosting. Put all the ingredients apart from the colouring in a large bowl and beat well with the handheld electric whisk until the mixture goes light and fluffy. You can also use a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment to do this. To colour the frosting, divide it into bowls and stir through each food colouring, as desired. ♥ Take a piping bag fitted with the 1cm straight nozzle and half-fill it with the frosting. If you have coloured your frosting, use a different bag for each colour. Pipe the frosting on to the cupcakes so that it looks like ice cream, as per the photograph. ♥ Add sprinkles to each one and, if you feel like it, stick half a chocolate flake in the top to make it look like a beloved 99! Serve. ➤

♥ Preheat the oven to 180C (fan 160C/350F/ gas 4) and use the knob of butter to lightly grease the pie dish. Tip the peaches into the prepared dish with the figs, maple syrup and cinnamon, and mix well to combine evenly. Set aside. ♥ To make the topping, melt the butter in a small pan or in the microwave and leave to cool a little. Put the flour and sugar into a bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon. Then add the melted butter and salt and stir until the mixture starts to come together. ♥ Take a small handful of the dough (about 50g) and squidge it together into a ball, then flatten it out a little and place on top of the fruit. Continue with the rest of the topping to make nine balls that sit side by side on top of the fruit. ♥ Place the pie dish in the oven and cook for 40-45 minutes, or until the topping is cooked through and golden brown and the fruit is bubbling around the edges. This cobbler is best served warm with fresh cream, ice cream or custard. TIP If you would like extra texture and crunch, scatter some chopped nuts or porridge oats on top of the cobbler just before baking it in the oven.

♥ Pop the oranges in a large pan, then cover with water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, then cover with a lid and simmer for 1 hour, then add the lemon and cook for another 45 minutes. Drain off and discard the water, leaving you with just the fruit. Allow the oranges to cool a little and then roughly chop and put them in a food processor with all of their juices. Blend them to a smooth purée and set aside until needed. ♥ Preheat the oven to 180C (fan 160C/350F/gas 4) and line the tin with baking parchment. Put the caster sugar, honey and three of the eggs in a large bowl and mix them together with a handheld electric whisk until frothy. You can also do this with a hand whisk. When the mixture is frothy, add another two of the eggs with half of the ground almonds, the baking powder, cinnamon and cloves. Mix together using a wooden spoon until well combined. The mixture won’t look great at this stage but soon all will be well. Add the remaining two eggs with the rest of the ground almonds and mix again to combine. Finally, using a spatula, quickly fold in the citrus purée until evenly mixed. ♥ Pour the cake batter into the lined tin and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the cake is firm to the touch and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. ♥ When the cake is cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool a little, then place a flat serving plate over the top of the cake tin. Holding both the cake tin and the plate, flip it over so that the cake tin is upside down. Put everything down on the worktop, release the springform tin and then lift it off. ♥ If you wish to create the dusting design, place the doily on the top as a stencil, dust it with icing sugar and carefully remove the doily. The icing sugar will soak into the cake within 15 minutes, so do this just before serving. Top with a flower and a scattering of mint leaves, if you fancy. ➤