A few weeks back my bestie Rhianne got married and I can't remember if I offered or if she asked me to make their wedding cake but I did it as our gift to them. I had seen naked wedding cakes for a while now but had yet to make one and when I suggested it to Rhianne she loved the idea. I knew it would fit their theme perfectly and it's so much nicer to make a cake that doesn't involve messing about with sugarpaste and all that jazz. If I'm honest I would have loved something similar for my wedding cake but considering we got married in another country, a fruit cake was a much more practical option.

We debated about flavours for a while - what was sturdy, what was yummy, what would give us a nice ombre effect without using icing and in the end decided on chocolate, ginger and a good old victoria sponge. The chocolate tier was used making my favourite chocolate cake recipe, sandwiched with chocolate buttercream and dark chocolate chips. The ginger tier was sandwiched with caramel buttercream and caramel sauce and the victoria sponge was sandwiched with vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam.

A few interesting facts on this cake:

1. The ginger tier sunk and I had to remake it. I didn't tell Rhianne about this til after she had seen the finished cake for fear of sending her over the edge (she was a wee bit stressed out!) I did text my other bestie Georgie saying "there's a problem but don't tell Rhianne!"

2. The chocolate sponge is the same sponge recipe I have used to make Rhainne's birthday cakes in the past.

3. The jam in the victoria sponge came from a volunteer from a guide dog charity (I can't remember the name). Mr T works with a guy who's wife has sight problems and a week before the wedding they were helping out at a fundraising stall for the charity. Rhianne would love a dog so when I saw the jam for sale I felt it was a nice touch and would give that layer of cake a special meaning.

I'm so pleased with how this cake turned out. With the help of Georgie we stacked it on the morning of the wedding, garnished it in fresh fruit and dusted it in icing sugar.

I think this cake is up there with my favourites. Congratulations Rhianne and Thomas!!!