What a mouthful – literately. I’ve been enjoying the spoils of our own bake off at work since the recent series of the Great British Bake Off began, and this week was my turn. I’ve tasted some amazing bakes in the run up, and the competition was looking tough. I spent weeks deliberating over what sort of cake I would like to make, and since we’d had so many chocolate cakes I decided to try something a little different. Introducing the monster that is the Vanilla, Caramel, Hazelnut and White Chocolate Ombre Layer Cake!

I adapted a recipe from Lakeland, but had to change the amounts as I was using a rather large 20cm cake tins!

Hazelnut sponge
300g butter
300g caster sugar
300g self-rasing flour
3tsp baking powder
6 eggs (beaten)
30 drops of Lakeland Hazelnut Flavour
125g roasted, chopped hazelnuts
1 tbs Mayonnaise

Caramel sponge
300g butter
300g caster sugar
300g self-rasing flour
3tsp baking powder
6 eggs (beaten)
30 drops of Lakeland Naturak Buttery Caramel Flavour

Vanilla sponge
300g butter
300g caster sugar
300g self-rasing flour
3tsp baking powder
6 eggs (beaten)
3tsp vanilla essence

White chocolate ganache
600g white chocolate 275ml double cream

Spun sugar
100g caster sugar
2tbp water

Decorations
300g plain chocolate chips
300g milk chocolate chips
400g white chocolate chips

Salted Caramel Macarons
200g icing sugar
100g ground almonds
Egg whites from 3 eggs
40g caster sugarPinch of salt
Filling
75g brown sugar
50g unsalted butter
100ml double cream
1/2 tsp flaked salt
100g icing sugar