Raspberry and Caramel ombré cake

This cake is a real show stopper, it does take time but it's great for impressing your friends and tastes delishous too! This recipe was initially from the Good Food magazine, but I have adapted it slightly.

Ingredients:

400g butter

400g light soft brown sugar

5 large eggs

400g self raising flour

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp milk

200g raspberries

Icing ingredients:

A 397g can of caramel

300g full fat cream cheese

140g butter

300g golden icing sugar

100g raspberries

Pink food colouring 

Method:

1) preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcius and Greece and line two deep 20cm cake tins. Firstly, beat the butter and sugar well until light and fluffy, add a pinch of salt and beat again. Gradually add the eggs, mixing after each addition to avoid the mixture curdling. 

2) add the flour, mixing until just incorporated and then add the milk and vanilla extract and mix. Add the raspberries and gently fold them in, you want to try and avoid them breaking! Divide your mixture between the two tins and bake for about 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. 

3) remove the cakes from the oven and leave them to cool in their tins for about 15 minutes, because they are quite soft, if you remove them from the tins too soon they may crumble and break. Once cooled slightly, you can then transfer them to cool out of the tins on a wire cooling rack.

4) to make the icing, put 2 tbsp of caramel, the cream cheese, butter and icing sugar into a bowl and beat until smooth. Careful not to over mix or the cream cheese may cause it to go runny.

5) slice both of your cakes in half horizontally, and begin to sandwich them together with a layer of caramel and halved raspberries.

6) using about a third of the icing, roughly cover the cake with a thin layer, this will stop the cake crumbling and give it a smoother finish. Put the cake in the fridge for about 20 minutes. Halve the remaining icing between two bowls and use a little pink food colouring to dye one batch. 

7) remove the cake from the fridge and spread the golden icing over the top of the cake and about half way down the sides. Cover the bottom of the cake with the pink icing. Clean your knife and gradually swipe it upwards through the pink icing and into the golden, blending the colors together to create an ombré effect. Do this all around the cake and smooth the edges with a clean knife.

Enjoy!