Festive Christmas Layer Cake

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C.
2. Beat the oil and castor sugar together.
3. Add the eggs one at a time.
4. Sift the dry ingredients together.
5. Mix the maas and vanilla essence together.
6. Using a mixer with a whisk attachment, alternately add the flour and maas mixtures to the egg mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
7. Remove from the mixer and mix further by hand until there are no lumps visible.
8. Split the batter into 2 equal amounts. Colour the one half green and the other half red.
9. Divide each of the coloured mixtures into 3 equal parts, roughly 300- 350 g each.
10. Pour into 6 greased and lined cake pans 15cm in diameter.
11. Bake for 20 minutes or until a cake skewer comes out clean.
12. Remove from the tins and place on a cooling rack.
13. Allow to cool completely.
14. Once cooled, use a knife to shave the sides of the cake gently removing the golden colour off the edges to reveal the green or red cake. Be careful not to take too much off the sides and alter the circular shape of each cake.
15. For the icing:
16. Place the butter in a mixer with a paddle attachment.
17. Beat until smooth and fluffy.
18. Add the icing slowly while mixing.
19. Add the vanilla essence, lemon juice and milk, and beat on high for 3-5 minutes until the icing is light and fluffy.
20. Colour one third of the mixture green.
21. Place the green icing in a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and set aside.
22. The remaining two thirds of the white icing will be used to stack and ice the cakes. First, place a tablespoon of this icing on the serving plate to secure the cake.
23. Next, place a green or red cake layer on top of the icing and then place a couple of tablespoons of icing on top of the sponge. Using a spatula spread the icing over the sponge evenly.
24. Repeat step 8 until you have used all of the sponge layers. With each addition, check that the cake is keeping level.
25. Place the cake in the refrigerator and leave for an hour to allow the icing to firm up.
26. Finally, pipe swirls of green icing around the top of the cake and decorate with the coloured sprinkles.