CANDLE CAKES

Heat the oven to 180C/Gas4; grease and line a 21cm square baking tin with baking paper; beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy; then beat in the eggs a little at a time, beating well after addition; add the vanilla with the final bit of beaten egg; add the flour and beat briefly to combine

Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 40-45 minutes, until risen, golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean, leave to cool completely in the tin

To make the butter cream, whisk the butter until it is soft, then add the icing sugar bit by bit along with the vanilla, until it is completely mixed; keep cool but don’t let it set

Remove the cool cake from the tin and trim the top to make a flat level surface; using a 6cm straight sided round cutter; carefully cut out 8-9 rounds of cake; arrange the cakes into 3 sets; one of 4-5 cakes, one of 3 cakes and one solo cake; carve the top of each candle to create indents

Sandwich the cakes together with a thin layer of the buttercream and press a chopstick or skewer into the centre to help them stay together; gently smooth a thin layer of buttercream over all the cakes, then chill for 30 minutes

Once the candles are cool and firm, cover them all over in a thicker layer of buttercream; chill once more for another 30 minutes at least

For the drizzle, put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl; heat the cream in a small pan until bubbles form at the edge and it is hot, pour over the white chocolate and stir until it is melted; leave the mixture to cool and firm up, it needs to be thick yet runny, so that it doesn’t slide off the cakes

Arrange the candles on a serving plate and remove the chopsticks; press a white birthday cake candle into the hole that the chopstick has left, leaving the wick and about ½ cm of the wax poking out of the cakes; using a spoon, spoon the drizzle over the tops of the cakes, easing it down the sides; the cakes can be chilled and extra drizzle applied to build up the layers of melted wax, if you like; light the candles to serve