GEORGIA’S OMBRE CAKE

For the cake: 250g butter 250g caster sugar 250g self raising flour 200g eggs (about 4) 1tsp vanilla extract For the buttercream: 500g icing sugar

150g softened butter 60ml milk 1 vanilla pod Pink food colouring TO DECORATE: Fresh fruit macarons Meringue kisses White chocolate shards Strawberries Flowers To make the cake, melt the butter then mix together with the caster sugar. Add the eggs and mix through, then the flour and vanilla until incorporated.

Divide equally into two six-inch cake tins and bake at 180C for 30-40 minutes, until they are cooked through. For the buttercream, beat together the icing sugar, butter and milk and add the seeds from the vanilla pod. Keep beating until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Once the cakes have cooled, cut into two layers so you have a total of four layers of cake. Put the first layer onto a cake board or plate with a little buttercream underneath so it doesn’t slip. Pipe or spread some buttercream onto the layer of cake and sandwich another on top. Repeat until you get to the last cake, being sure to turn the final layer upside down, so the top is the flat part from the cake tin.

Smother buttercream over the whole layered cake and scrape away the excess (this is called crumb coating). Refrigerate or freeze for 20 minutes until the buttercream has hardened. In a separate bowl, mix a couple of heaped tablespoons of buttercream with some food colouring to get a dark colour. Spread a thin layer of the coloured buttercream around the bottom of the cake.

Add some more white buttercream to the coloured one to make a lighter shade, and spread it on the cake just above the layer you just did. Repeat until you get to the top, where you want to spread white buttercream on the top layer and the top of the cake. Use a scraper or palate knife to go around the cake, smooth out the sides and you should achieve the ombre effect.

Even out the top of the cake so it’s flat and decorate with fruit, flowers and sweet treats/