Sponge

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C fan and line 5 or 6 (depending how many layers you wish to have) 8 inch loose base / push up cake tins with greaseproof paper. If you don’t have multiple cake tins you will have to bake the cakes separately. Just cover the unused batter with a damp tea towel until you’re ready to use it.

2. In a bowl, combine the dairy-free milk with the apple cider vinegar and whisk until fully combined. Set aside for 10 minutes to curdle. This creates a vegan ‘buttermilk’.

3. In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Mix well to combine.

4. Add the oil into the ‘buttermilk’ along with the vanilla and whisk to combine.

5. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix. Don’t over-mix!

Colouring Batter

1. Divide the batter among 5 mixing bowls. Colour each batter with food colouring to make your desired coloured batters (I opted for purple, blue, yellow, orange and pink). Pour a single colour batter into each cake tin. Make sure to tap the tins on the worktop to remove any air bubbles.

2. Pop the cakes into the centre of the preheated oven and bake for around 25-30 minutes. You will know they are done when you put a knife or cake skewer in to the centre of the cake and it comes out clean and they are springy to the touch.

3. Place the cakes on a cooling rack and allow to cool slightly before removing them from the tins. Leave the cakes to cool fully on the cooling rack. Once cool, pop them into a sealed container to keep them fresh before frosting.

Buttercream

1. In a large mixing bowl, add in the dairy-free butter, whip until light and creamy. I use a stand mixer with a balloon whisk attachment, a hand mixer will work great too.

2. Sift in the icing sugar and add in the vanilla. Whip on high speed for around 5 minutes to incorporate it. Add a splash of dairy-free milk if needed. If the frosting is too thick, add some more chunks of butter. If it’s too soft, add more icing sugar. You want it smooth, creamy and airy. If it ever looks like it’s split, add some more chunks of butter to get it to the right consistency.

3. Separate a little bit of the buttercream into a separate bowl and colour with some yellow food gel (this is for the piped flower decoration). Transfer this into a piping bag and snip off the tip.

4. Transfer 3 heaped tablespoons into a piping bag fitted with a large star tip nozzle. Set aside. 

5. Place one of the cakes on a serving plate or cake stand. Dollop or pipe some of the vanilla buttercream on top and spread out until even using an off-set spatula or pallet knife. Repeat until you have all the cakes layered on top of each other with buttercream in the middle. 

6. Apply a thin layer of buttercream to the top and outside of the cake, this is the crumb coat. Scrap with a cake scraper or smooth with a pallet knife. Place the cake into the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. This makes applying the final coat easier.

7. Apply a thicker layer of buttercream and smooth this out over the entire cake. This is your final layer.

8. Use the buttercream in the piping bag (the plain white and yellow) to pipe flowers all over the cake, sides and top. See video for reference! 

9. Use a sharp knife to cut the cake into slices, serve and enjoy!