Easter Bakewell Cake

Ingredients

FOR THE ALMOND CAKE LAYERS

• 325 g plain flour
• 25 g cornflour
• 4½ tsp baking powder
• 225 g butter , at room temperature
• 400 g golden caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp almond extract
• 5 medium egg whites , lightly beaten
• 300ml whole milk

FOR THE RASPBERRY CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

• 300g butter , at room temperature
• 625g icing sugar
• 450g full-fat cream cheese
• 300g seedless raspberry jam
• red paste food colouring 

HOW TO PREPARE:

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease 3 x 20cm round cake tins and line the bases with baking parchment, greasing the parchment, too.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cornflour, baking powder and ½ tsp salt, then set aside. Put the butter in a large bowl and beat for about 3 min until smooth and creamy. Add the caster sugar and beat for about 5 min until light and fluffy. Add the extracts and mix to combine.
3. Add the egg white a little at a time, beating until fully combined. Sift in the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the milk, but starting and finishing with the flour.
4. Divide the mixture equally between the prepared tins, gently take out. Bake for 25-30 min, or until the cake springs back when lightly touched. Allow the cakes to cool in the tins for 10 min before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely. The sponge is quite delicate, so take care when working with the cooled cake.
5. For the frosting, beat the butter for about 3 min until light and creamy. Add the icing sugar, a little bit at a time, until fully combined. Beat the frosting until light and smooth, then add the cream cheese and half the jam. Mix until just smooth - don't over mix as it will get thinner the more you stir.
6. Put the first cake on a serving plate and spread a layer of the frosting over the top. Then spread half the remaining jam evenly over the frosting. Repeat with the second cake and finally place the third cake on top. Cover the outside of the whole cake with a thin layer of frosting using a palette knife, and put it in the fridge while you prepare the frosting for the decoration.
7. Divide the remaining frosting between 3 small bowls. Add about ½ tsp of red paste coloring to one of the bowls and about 1 tsp coloring to another bowl, leaving the third bowl as it is. You want to have three bowls of frosting with clearly different colors.
8. To decorate the cakes, put each frosting into a piping bag fitted with a small round piping tip. Pipe 6 dots of frosting up the cake, 2 of each color, with the darkest at the base of the cake. Use a teaspoon or small palette knife to smear the frosting to the right. Repeat the piping process, moving the dots up one so that as you pipe around the cake the color will graduate in a swirl. For the top, pipe 2 rings of the darker pink dots around the outside, spreading the frosting in the same fashion, followed by 2 rings of the medium pink dots, and finish with the lighter frosting in the middle. Will keep for up to 3 days, chilled.