Percy Pig Marble Cake

Pre heat the oven to 180°C  (fan 160°C, Gas Mark 4). Butter the sides and line the base of your 3 x 20cm round cake tins with baking parchment.

Beat together the butter, caster sugar and vanilla extract, preferably using an electric mixer, until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Sieve together the two flours and the baking powder and fold through the mixture until it is smooth.

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each egg is added.  If the mixture starts to curdle add a spoonful of flour. The mixture should drop off the spoon easily.  If it doesn't, stir in one or two tablespoons of milk.

Spoon half of the mixture into a separate bowl and add 1/2 teaspoon of pink food colouring, as well as the strawberry flavoring. Gently fold in for an even colour.

Drop alternating spoonful's of the two mixtures into the three tins. Draw a skewer through the mix swirling them into marbled patterns. Bake for 35-40minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.  

Turn out onto a cooling rack and leave to cool.

When cool, trim the top of the marble cake to create a flat surface on each of them.

Prepare your buttercream by beating the butter together with the icing sugar, adding little by little until the buttercream becomes fluffy and light. We recommend using an electric whisk or stand mixer.

Split the buttercream equally into 4 bowls. Keeping two portions white, and adding a drop of pink colouring to the remaining 2 portions to create a light and deeper shade of pink. This will help you to create your ombré effect.

Layer the three sponges with a light spread of jam and white buttercream. 

To decorate, pipe a thick ring of each shade of pink buttercream onto the cake, darkest at the bottom then up to white. 

Swipe through the images at the top for an idea of how this should look.

Once you're happy with the buttercream rings, smooth with a icing scraper or spatula to blend the layers together and create the ombré effect. Using a turntable on this step makes it super easy!

Once you've finished the buttercream layers, use remaining buttercream with various nozzles to pipe patterns on top - not forgetting to scatter with the all important Percy Pig faces.