Checkerboard Lambeth cake

Preheat the oven to 180°C (convection oven 160°C) and grease the baking pans with baking spray.

Prepare the FunCakes Mix for Sponge Cake Deluxe using 250 g mix, 4 eggs and 25 ml water per batch, as indicated on the packaging. Colour three batches with the FunCakes Food Colour Gel Pink, with each batch having a noticeably darker shade than the previous one. Don’t colour one batch. Bake the 4 sponge cakes for 30-35 minutes until fully baked. Turn the cake onto a cooling rack and allow it to completely.

Prepare 400 g FunCakes Mix for Buttercream as indicated on the packaging. Remove two small portions of buttercream from the bowl. Colour one portion green and the other a very pale pink. Colour the remaining buttercream a deep dark pink.

Using a cake leveller, cut each sponge cake into three even layers. For this cake, you will only use the middle layers from all four sponge cakes.

Cut 3 rings and 1 centre from each sponge cake layer using cutters or cake rings of different sizes. Then mix and match the colored rings to create new sponge cake layers, placing a different colour ring inside each larger ring. Repeat for all layers. You should now have 4 multi-colored sponge cake layers with a different pattern in each layer.

Spread a very thin layer of strawberry jam onto one sponge layer and place the next layer on top. Make sure that when stacking the layers, you do not place two identical colours on top of each other. Spread a thin layer of jam between each layer.

Cover the entire cake with a thin layer of pink buttercream. You should still be able to see the cake through it. This is your crumb coat. Allow it to firm up in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Then apply a second coat of buttercream and chill again until firm.

Place the pale pink buttercream into a decorating bag fitted with a coupler and tip #018. Pipe small rosettes onto a sheet of baking parchment and place them in the freezer until completely firm.

Fill a decorating bag fitted with tip #104 with some of the dark pink buttercream. Pipe a ruffled border around the bottom edge of the cake. Hold the wider side of the tip against the cake and use a gentle up-and-down motion. Pipe a shell border above it using tip #022.

Using tip #018, pipe garlands around the cake. Above these, pipe small stars using the same tip (#018). Pipe another ruffled border underneath the garlands with tip #104. Use tip #003 to add small dots beneath the garlands. Pipe a shell where the garlands meet using tip #4B.

Use tip #104 to pipe a ruffled border around the top edge of the cake and finish it with a shell border using tip #4B. Place the cake in the refrigerator and allow it to firm up completely.

Once the small rosettes are frozen solid, carefully remove them from the baking parchment. Attach them underneath the large shell that connects the garlands using a little buttercream. Pipe small leaves around the rosettes using the green buttercream and tip #352.

Store the cake in the refrigerator and remove it about 30 minutes before serving.