You will need:

Ingredients for a 15cm (6in) Cake:

Equipment:

• 225g butter
• 225g sugar
• 4 eggs
• 310g self raising flour
• 2 large tbsp cocoa

• 2D star piping tip, or similar (JEM)
• a handful of whole raspberries
• red or pink heart sprinkles
• dark coloured chocolate biscuits e.g. Oreos
• piping bags
• angled spatula
• metal side-scraper

For the Buttercreams:

For the Royal Icing:

• For the Chocolate Buttercream
• 250g butter
• 500g icing sugar
• 2-3 tsp good quality cocoa powder
• A little cooled boiled water
• For the Raspberry Buttercream
• 100g butter
• 200g icing sugar
• small handful of fresh raspberries
• burgundy and/ or pink food colouring

• sachet/5g egg white powder
• 35ml water
• 200g sifted icing sugar
• burgundy and/ or pink food colouring

1

For the Cake: Preheat the oven to 160°C/140C fan/gas mark 3.

2

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.

3

Sieve the flour and cocoa into a bowl.

4

Add the eggs, two at a time. If the mixture breaks add a spoon or two of the flour to bring it back together. Fold in the rest of flour. If using a mixer, keep the speed as low as possible.

5

Split into two 15cm (6in) round tins: one third of the mixture in one tin and the remaining two thirds in the other. This will allow us to cut three layers of equal height.

6

Bake at 160°C for approximately thirty minutes when the smaller cake should be ready and can be removed from the oven. Bake for a further twenty minutes to finish the deeper cake. You will know they are done when the top is springy to the touch and an inserted skewer comes out clean.

7

For the Chocolate Buttercream: Cream the butter until soft with no lumps.Add the icing sugar little by little and continue to mix until fully blended.

8

Add cocoa to taste, usually a couple of teaspoons. If the buttercream become too stiff because of the cocoa you can add a little cooled boiled water to thin it.

9

For the Raspberry Buttercream: Cream the butter until soft with no lumps. Add the icing sugar little by little and continue to mix until fully blended.

10

Add the raspberries to the buttercream and mix so that they are broken up and give colour to the mixture.

11

If desired, add some food colouring to make the buttercream a darker richer pink. The raspberries will make the buttercream a little soft and sloppy - not a problem!

12

For the Royal Icing: Dissolve the egg white powder in the water. Give it a good mix and wait a few minutes for the egg white to dissolve. If it's lumpy, pass it through a sieve before using to remove the lumps.

13

Add the icing sugar and mix on a medium speed for between five and ten minutes. I find it easiest to start with medium/stiff peaks and add more water to get the desired consistency.

14

Transfer about half the royal icing to another bowl and add the food colouring. Add water very slowly, drop-by-drop, to thin the icing to the right consistency. You want it to drip, but not to run away too quickly. It's much easier to thin royal icing than thicken it back up, so go easy adding the water. If you do add too much, mix in some more fresh royal icing. This will make it paler so you may need some more colouring, but will be far easier and more successful than trying to add more icing sugar.

15

Cut the cake into three equal layers. If baked as above you will get one layer from the smaller cake and two for the taller cake. Pipe a ring of stiff chocolate buttercream around the edge and fill with the raspberry buttercream. The dam will stop the raspberry buttercream from squidging out. Repeat for the next layer of cake.

16

Once stacked, use your scraper to check that the layers are stacked straight. Adjust if necessary so that the sides are vertical and even.

17

To ice the sides of the cake use an angled spatula to apply more rather than less buttercream.

18

Use the side scraper to remove the excess. As we are going for a slightly rustic look, it's okay if the buttercream is not even or if a bit of cake peeks through. Do not worry too much about the top edge just yet.

19

Buttercream the top of the cake. It's best to put a large spoonful of buttercream onto the centre of the cake to spread out than it is to add buttercream using the spatula as you do not want to use the cake to scrape buttercream off the spatula as the cake will be damaged. Allow an overhang to develop at the edge.

20

Use your side scraper to even up the top of the sides - hold it at an angle so the buttercream is pushed onto the cake whilst the excess is scraped off.

21

Use the angled spatula to even up the top of the cake. Moving from the outside of the cake towards the centre, remove the excess and create a straight and even edge around the top of the cake.

22

Having removed the filling, crush some of the biscuits and mix with the hearts or other sprinkles you choose.

23

Use your hands and the spatula to press the mixture onto the side of the cake in a band about 2.5 -3.8cm (1-1.5in) high.

24

Fill a piping bag with the thinned royal icing and cut the tip for a fairly small opening. Working right on the edge of the cake, begin to squeeze the icing out as you move round the cake - the more you squeeze on to one spot the further the icing will drip.

25

Fill in the top of the cake with the rest of the royal icing and spread it out with the spatula. It only needs to dry for ten minutes before you can proceed with the next step.

26

Sprinkle some crushed biscuit over the top of the cake.

27

Use the 2D piping tip and chocolate buttercream to pipe evenly spaced mini-swirls around the edge of the cake.

28

To finish, add a fresh raspberry to each piped swirl. Transfer to a cake stand or plate and add a final flourish. I have added some more of the biscuit and heart mixture around the bottom and a couple more raspberries and buttercream swirls to the base of the cake.