Isla Atkins creates a cake ideal as a sweet treat.

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Lightly grease and line two 17-20cm cake tins with baking paper.
2. For the cake, cream together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten eggs – if the mixture looks a little split add a tbsp of flour.
3. Sieve the flour, salt and baking powder and mix together with the crushed cardamom seeds then fold in half along with half of the buttermilk. Once combined fold in the remaining flour and buttermilk as well as the rose water.
4. Divide the mixture between the two prepared tins and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
5. Prick the cakes a few times and drizzle over the syrup, letting it sink in. Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tins on a wire rack then remove from the tins and leave to cool completely.
6. Once cool cut the two sponges in half so you have four sponges. If the cake has domed on top you can trim some off so they will sit neatly on top of each other.
7. For the buttercream, beat the butter for a few minutes until quite pale. Add in half of the icing sugar and beat for another few minutes. Repeat with the rest of the icing sugar, followed by the milk, until you have a thick, pale smooth buttercream. Now mix in the melted white chocolate until combined.
8. Take out a third of the buttercream and put to one side. With the remaining buttercream add in the pink food colouring and mix until you achieve the colour you want.
9. To assemble the cake put a teaspoon of the pink buttercream on the plate or cake stand to stick the first layer to it. Spoon some of the buttercream onto the cake and spread evenly, place the second cake on top. Repeat with the remaining two layers and cover the top making sure you have a third of the pink icing left over.
10. Using half the plain coloured buttercream, start to cover the cake all over with a thin layer. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect as this is just to disguise any gaps and hold the crumbs down. Chill for 20 minutes.
11. With the left-over pink buttercream, start to spread some small patches around the cake to randomly fill in the gaps with the plain icing. Now using a palette knife, start smoothing out the buttercream so that the pink and plain icing blend together to create a watercolour effect.
12. Time to decorate! Arrange your chosen decorations on the cake however you like and finish with a sprinkle of glitter!

For the decoration

(This cake is beautiful with just the buttercream, but adding some fruit, rose petals and sprinkles creates a real wow factor perfect for Valentine’s Day.)

• rose petals
• handful of raspberries
• handful of blueberries
• dried rose petals (found online or in Waitrose)
• pink sprinkles
• edible glitter