Ingredients
Equipment
Butter cake (15cm deep)
Butter cake (20cm deep)
Butter cream
Decorations
Method
Lots of love butter cakes
1.Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line base and sides of 15 cm deep round and 20cm deep round cake pans with baking paper. Baking paper should extend 5cm above sides.
2.Make batter for each size cake: Beat butter, extract and sugar in bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
3.Transfer mixtures to larger bowls; stir in sifted flour and milk, in two batches. Spread mixtures into 15cm deep and 20cm deep pans.
4.Bake 15cm cake for 40 minutes and 20cm cake for 1 hour. Cover cakes with foil halfway through baking if cake is over-browning.
5.Test cakes by inserting a skewer into the centre. If cooked, skewer will be clean. If there is cake mixture on the skewer, bake cake a further 10 minutes before testing again.
6.Stand cakes in pans for 10 to 30 minutes, depending on size of the cake, before turning top-side down, onto wire rack to cool.
7.Make butter cream.
Butter cream
8.Beat the butter in a small narrow bowl with an electric mixer until the butter is as white as possible.
9.Gradually beat in half the sifted icing sugar, then the milk, then the remaining sifted icing sugar.
10.Beat until the buttercream is smooth and spreadable. Keep scraping down the side of the bowl during beating.
11.Reserve 1 cup of butter cream. Tint remaining butter cream pale blue.
12.Divide remaining butter cream into two small bowls. Swirl one with green colouring and swirl the other with blue colouring to make a little darker (don’t mix the colour in too much).
Ready-made icing
13.Divide white icing into three equal portions. Tint one portion dusty pink with pink and yellow colouring. Tint another portion light pink and tint remaining portion aqua with yellow, blue and black colouring.
14.Roll each portion into a 3mm thickness. Using heart cutter, cut hearts from icing.
Assembling and decorating cake
15.Trim cakes. Secure largest cake to largest board with a little butter cream and small cake to small board with a little butter cream.
16.Push 3 trimmed skewers into the centre area of large cake to support the small cake tier.
17.Secure small cake to large cake with a little butter cream. Cover cake with pale blue butter cream.
18.Spread small amounts of green and darker blue icing onto cake and blend into the pale blue in a sweeping motion.
19.Sprinkle cake with hearts.
Cake will keep well for 2 days in an airtight container, or can be frozen for 3 months. Use some extra coloured butter cream to layer the cakes. Hearts can be made at least a week ahead.
Note
