To assemble the cake, put a blob of buttercream on a 25cm cake board or serving plate. Place one of the sponges on the plate, and spread a layer of buttercream and half the jam on top. Repeat with the second sponge. Put the third sponge on top and cover the top and sides of the cake with the remaining buttercream, smoothing with a palette knife. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Make two cakes in the loaf tin as per the instructions above but bake for 35 minutes at 180oC / 160oC fan / gas mark 4. I wrapped coat hanger wire in fondant for the antenna – if you do this keep an eye on your kids (or grown-ups) to make sure they don’t try and bite into this! I usually avoid using any non edible materials in cakes but here it was unavoidable. To make the buttercream icing, whisk the butter well until smooth and very pale. Gradually add the icing sugar, a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and up to 1 tablespoon of water to loosen, if needed. Add the gel colouring a little at a time, mixing well until the desired shade is achieved. Cover the bowl and set aside (ideally overnight) until ready to use. The colours will continue to develop over time, so don’t panic if the colour isn’t right immediately.

Sift in the rest of the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and fold them in. Be gentle but make sure the mixture is fully combined, including any flour at the bottom of the bowl. Put this into the baking tin, smooth the batter out with an offset palette knife and bake for 40-45 minutes. Colour some of the white icing with the claret gel colouring, before cutting out a mouth shape with a sharp knife. Place this in position under the eyes. Cut two triangle shapes from the white icing and add these to the bottom of the mouth to form the teeth. You can ‘glue’ them into place with a little water. To make the buttercream, beat the butter with an electric whisk or table-top mixer until soft. Sieve in the icing sugar, then beat for 10 minutes until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla, orange extract (if using) and milk, and beat briefly to combine. This cake is made from two large sponges cut into two layers each, so there are four layers inside the cake. Make each sponge cake one at a time with 4 large eggs, 225g unsalted butter, 225g caster sugar, 225g plain flour, 2½ tsp baking powder and the zest of 2 lemons (plus the juice of 1) in each cake. You might want to make the sponges in advance, in which case wrap them well in cling film to prevent them drying out.Preheat the oven to 180 degreesC / 160degreesC fan / gas mark 4. Take your springform cake tin, line with baking parchment and grease well. Warning: this is a big cake! It’s made of four separate chocolate sponge cakes. Make each sponge cake one at a time with 4 large eggs, 225g unsalted butter, 225g caster sugar, 175g plain flour, 50g cocoa powder and 2½ tsp baking powder. You might want to make the sponges over a few days, in which case wrap them well in cling film to prevent them from drying out. Using curved strips of yellow and green fondant, wrap the base of the cake to give the effect of ocean contours and the sea bed. Attach these to the sides of the cake with a little buttercream. This cake is made from two large sponges cut into two layers each, so there are four layers inside the cake. Make the sponge cakes one at a time with 4 large eggs, 225g unsalted butter, 225g caster sugar, 225g plain flour and 2½ tsp baking powder in each cake. You might want to make the sponges in advance, in which case wrap them well in cling film to prevent them drying out.

Cut a small heart shape out of the baby blue ready-to-roll icing, brushing the cut edges with your finger to soften these. Place the heart into position. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line three 20cm sandwich tins. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then briefly beat in the vanilla. Slowly add the egg, beating between each addition. Fold in the buttermilk, then sift and fold in the flour in three amounts. Fold in the milk. Divide the batter equally between the sandwich tins. Using a small amount of green gel food colouring, colour 1kg of fondant to cover the cake. Roll this out to a circle of about 40cm diameter and use your rolling pin to carefully lift this onto the cake. Use a cake smoother (or your hands) to smooth the fondant onto and all around the cake. Cut the excess fondant from the base of the cake with a sharp knife. Try to take the photo as good quality, in focus and well-lit as you can. Daylight is often the best. Use a serrated knife to slice any doming from the tops of the sponges. Invert one of the cakes and place it upside-down on top of the other. Cut the cake into the shape of Love Monster’s body (look at the recipe image for reference). Keep all the carved pieces of cake, as you will use them for the arms and ears. Soften the square edges with a serrated knife, trimming around the top of the cake.

Inspiration Gallery

Colour small amounts of fondant icing with all the colours you will need and wrap each ball in cling film to prevent it from hardening or drying out. Using a small amount of blue gel food colouring, colour 1kg of fondant to cover the cake. Roll this out to a circle of about 40cm diameter and use your rolling pin to carefully lift this onto the cake. Use a cake smoother (or your hands) to smooth the fondant onto and all around the cake. Cut the excess fondant from the base of the cake with a sharp knife. Preheat the oven to 180degrees C / 160degrees Cfan / gas mark 4. Take your rectangular baking tin, line with baking parchment and grease well. When the cakes have cooled, use your cake cutting wire (or a sharp bread knife if you don’t have a cutting wire) to level the tops of the sponges and to cut them through the middle to turn your two large sponges into four thinner layers. Using an offset palette knife, spread the chocolate buttercream onto the base sponge around its top edge, up to 4cm in from each side.

This is a really good template for any sort of character cake. Once you have an iced base, you can decorate with any kind of design you like – just do a Google image search for your favourite characters. Please make sure that there are no brands, logos or anything identifiable on the child's clothes, such as a school jumper. Sandwich the two layers together with buttercream and add a light crumb coat of buttercream around both cakes. Add the lemon zest and juice, sift in the rest of the flour and baking powder and fold them in. Be gentle but make sure the mixture is fully combined, including any flour at the bottom of the bowl. Put this into the cake tin, smooth the batter out with an offset palette knife and bake for 45-50 minutes.Fill the hollow with the coloured sweets. With my version, I separated out all of the yellow sweets to put these at the top to look more like treasure. Put gold coins on top of these. To make the buttercream, beat the butter in a large bowl with an electric hand whisk or in a stand mixer. Pour in the icing sugar, add the vanilla paste and mix slowly on the lowest setting on your mixer until completely incorporated. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk or in a stand mixer until light and creamy. Thoroughly beat in each egg, one by one.