Angel Cake

Preheat your oven to 180°c (160°c for fan-assisted ovens, Gas Mark 4 or 350°F). Grease a 30x20cm (12x9 inches) baking tin with a little excess butter/margarine. Take a piece of greaseproof paper around 60x20cm (24x8 inches), fold it in half, measure 5cm in from the fold and create another fold at this point, then open the paper back up - these folds are where your middle sponge will be. Fold a pleat on either side of this middle section (a few centimetres high, around the depth of your tin). Place the greaseproof paper into your tin and fold the excess up the sides of your tin. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter/margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until combined before adding the next. Don’t worry if the mixture appears to curdle - this will remedy itself once the flour is added.

Stir in the vanilla and milk. Sift in the flour and baking powder, and mix until you have a smooth batter.

Evenly separate the batter into 3 bowls. Leave one bowl plain, and add a small amount of yellow and pink food colouring to the others. Mix until well combined - don’t go too dark with food colouring as the colour will intensify as it bakes.

Spoon and spread the batter into the individual sections of your prepared cake tin. Bake in your pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes, until risen and golden in colour, and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin until cool enough to touch, then remove the cakes from the tin (using the greaseproof liner to help) and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Once completely cool, prepare your buttercream.

In a bowl, cream the butter/margarine and icing sugar to create a buttercream, adding a little milk to loosen it up to a spreadable consistency, if required.

Trim the edges of the cakes so they are all an even rectangular size, and trim the top off the yellow and pink sponges so they have a level finish.

Spread half the buttercream icing on the top of the yellow cake layer, before sandwiching the pink cake layer on top. Spread the remaining buttercream on the pink cake layer, before sandwiching the plain cake layer on top.