Makes a 3 tier cake using 3 20cm round cake tins
preheated oven – 170°C or 160°C in a fan oven

What you need:

120 g Stork spread
300g caster sugar
2 large or 3 medium eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
20g cocoal powder
1 bottle red food colouring (38ml)
300g plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
240ml buttermilk
1 tablespoon white wine or cider vinegar
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Tip: To get the very bright red colour make sure you do NOT use ‘natural red’ – it will end up looking much more chocolately.  Be warned though, the red gets everywhere and can stain!

What you do:

First:Mix together the Stork and sugar until light and fluffy and then add the eggs and mix for a good few minutes and until the mixture lightens in colour.

Second: Mix the vanilla, cocoa powder and food colouring together in a small (not stainable) bowl to form a paste and add to the main mixture.  Mix until thoroughly mixed.  Don’t forget to scrape around the edges and bottom.

Third: Add half the flour and salt and mix slowly until fully incorporated, then add half the buttermilk. Repeat until all the flour and buttermilk is thoroughly mixed in.

Fourth: Add the vinegar and bicarbonate of soda on separate sides of the bowl to each other and mix on medium-high for a two minutes.

Fifth: Grease (with a small amount of Stork) and line the tins with greaseproof paper, making sure the edges are smooth.  Fill the three tins equally.

Sixth:  Pop into the centre of the pre-heated oven and bake (without opening the door) for 20-25 minutes and until the cakes are firm and springy too touch.  When they are ready remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes in the tray before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely and ice.

Once completely cool you can level the cakes using a leveller tool and cut the cakes to size.

Icing suggestion: cream cheese butter icing.