For those of you who like to do Christmas a little differently.

Lovely pink and purple poured fondant flavoured with blackcurrant, raspberry and strawberry covering moist Devil's food cake with a layer of decadent ganache in the middle. All wrapped up nicely with royal icing detail and fondant bow or gift label brushed with edible glitter for a little extra festive sparkle.

Click the link below to see the rest of the recipe and assembly instructions.

It's best to cover these in fondant on the day you're planning to serve them, and like most sponge cakes, are best eaten within a day or two of baking.

You can also add liqueurs to the ganache for a more adult (boozy!) flavour, try Frangelica, Tia Maria or brandy.

Chopping chocolate for the ganache

Because of the size of the baking tin, the top of your cake will be quite uneven and cracked in places, don't worry about it though, once you trim the top off, you've got tasty titbits for "quality control"!

Devil's Food Cake

Ingredients

1 cup Strong Hot Coffee (brewed or instant)

1 cup Cocoa

225g Unsalted Butter, room temperature

2 2/3 cups Brown Sugar

4 Large Eggs, room temperature

3 1/3 cups Plain Flour

1 1/3 cup Buttermilk

1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted)
Line a square 10" cake tin with parchment paper
Whisk together coffee and cocoa and a small bowl, cover bowl with clingfilm and set aside
Sift together flour, bicarb and baking powder, set aside
Measure out buttermilk and mix with vanilla extract, set aside
In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar and salt
Add eggs, one at a time, beating each egg in thoroughly and scraping the side of the bowl before adding the next egg
Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix until combined
Add 1/2 of the buttermilk and mix until combined
Repeat, ending with the last of the flour mixture
Add the cocoa and coffee mixture and mix until thoroughly combined
Pour into prepared cake tin
Bake for 1hr 30mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean
Allow to cool thoroughly on wire racks before removing from baking tin

Justs give me a spoon and step away!

Ganache Filling

Ingredients

400g Good Quality Milk or Dark chocolate

400ml Double Cream

Method

Finely chop/grate the chocolate and put into a heat resistant bowl
Put the cream into a saucepan and heat until just about to boil (bubbles will appear around the edges of the pot)
Remove from heat and pour hot cream over the chocolate, using a whisk stir the cream and chocolate together making sure all the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth
Refrigerate and stir with a fork every now and then so that it's all the same consistency until thick enough to spread (about 3 - 4 hours)
Tip: The longer you allow it to cool, the thicker the ganache, cooling it in the fridge speeds up the process but make sure to stir the ganache so that it cools evenly, also, keep an eye on it because it can become too thick for spreading if left too long in the fridge. If that does happen, allow to soften up by leaving at room temperature or using a warm water bath

Assembly

10" Square Devil's Foodcake

Prepared Ganache

Fondant

Sugarpaste Decorations

Level the top of the cake
Tip: Use a sharp serrated bread knife, wire cake leveler or unflavoured dental floss
Tip: When using a wire cake leveler to remove the uneven top, set the wire at the desired height and saw back and forth across the cake, use the same swing motion when using unflavoured dental floss
Cut the cake horizontally to divide it into two layers
Tip: Use a bread knife, wire cake cutter or unflavoured dental floss
Carefully move the top layer to one side
Spread the chocolate ganache on one of the layers
Carefully place the second layer on the ganache
Cover in clingfilm and refrigerate for a couple of hours so that the ganache firms up
Using the tip of your knife, mark the top of the sponge where you intend to cut with 4 lines
Turn the cake 90 to the right and mark the top again with 4 lines
Cut along the one set of lines, turn the cake 90 to the right and cut along the other lines so that you have 25 small squares
Put cooling racks on greaseproof paper or trays
Prepare the fondant (according to instructions if using a mix, or according to recipe)
Arrange the cakes on the cooling racks
Pour the fondant over each cake, touching up bare spots with a spatula
Leave to set for about 30mins before doing the royal icing detail
Prepare the royal icing (according to instructions if using a mix, or according to recipe)
Fill a piping bag with the royal icing and attach a plain round or flat tip
Pipe a cross over the top of the cakes and optionally a vertical line on each side to make the "ribbon" on the gift
While the royal icing is still wet, stick your sugarpaste ribbons, labels or other chosen decorations on top of each cake
Leave to set
Enjoy!