Ingredients

For the sponges:

• 200g golden caster sugar
• 200g very soft butter
• 4 medium eggs
• 200g self-raising flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• Large pinch of salt
• 1tsp vanilla extract or bean paste

• 250g very soft unsalted butter
• 500g sifted icing sugar
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract or bean paste
• and your chosen colours – I’ve used strong gel food colours
• (red extra and royal blue)

Tools

• Stand mixer with paddle attachment
• Small lightweight piping bags x 3
• Large plastic piping bag x 1
• Large star nozzle
• Cupcake tin and cases of your choice

Method

To make the sponges:

1. Preheat the oven to 170c fan and line the cupcake tins.
2. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla bean paste until really fluffy, soft and pale.
3. Add eggs one at a time until all are mixed in.
4. Dry whisk the flour with the baking powder and salt, then add flour slowly until all mixed in.
5. Bake for 12-15 mins until golden, risen and cooked through. Allow to cool while getting the buttercream ready.

1. Beat the butter with 1/3 of the sugar and vanilla until very fluffy and pale, continue adding the sugar until you have a lovely, soft fluffy buttercream.
2. Divide into 3 and tint one bowl red and one bowl blue.
3. Load into the small piping bags, snip a hole of about 5-6mm in each one, then place these into the larger bag, making sure the tips of each bag are nestled into the star nozzle so that you can achieve the three-tone effect.
4. Begin squeezing, to start with, you might only get one or two colours, but the colours will all come through as you continue to pipe in swirls over each cake. If the colours don’t all come out, sometimes you might need to have a jiggle and make sure they are all properly loaded into the large nozzle.
5. Serve on a cake plate or stand.