So, I saw this cake on a blog about 6 months ago and have been looking for the opportunity to try it ever since.  As it turns out, this “opportunity” came in the form of a six-hour thunderstorm on a Bank Holiday weekend, resulting in self-imposed house arrest, combined with the happy coincidence that I had four fresh eggs in my cupboard.

It started with a set of kitchen scales, on which I weighed the mixing jug from my beloved Kitchen Aid.  Then my Kitchen Aid and I whipped up a standard four egg Victoria sponge mix, (done the traditional way by weighing the eggs and then adding the same weight in butter, sugar and self-raising flour).  Having weighed the jug again, I worked out how to divide the cake mixture absolutely equally into six bowls.  (My thanks go to Mrs Adams, who taught me subtraction in primary school.  She also gave out Gummi Bears for good work.  Bet she wouldn’t get away with that these days.  Dark times.).  Now comes the fun bit, which is mixing in the colour .  I used Wilton’s gel colourings, which are utterly brilliant.

Using two 20cm loose-bottomed tins, I baked in batches (7 minutes at 180°C), and ended up with this:

(NB the browned edges on the purple layer were caused by the butter with which I greased the tin.  I chose not to grease for subsequent layers, just using baking paper discs, which are helpful for structural integrity when removing from the tins.)

It’s worth noting at this point that the worktop space you can see is all the worktop space I have.  The next time I bake this cake, I will start by building a bigger kitchen.

Next came the frosting, for which I chose cream cheese frosting for its whiteness and – again – for the fact that I had cream cheese in my fridge.  Are you spotting a pattern here?

Please forgive the cake crumbs in the frosting.

So, of course, the deeply pleasing element of this plain white frosting is that the birthday girl/boy will have no idea what lurks mischievously beneath and, as the wonderful Holly Golightly once said, “it’s useful being top banana in the shock department”.  I’m not sure I’m entirely won over by the taste of this frosting for a plain sponge so will try something different next time.

A pleasing result for a first attempt.