Been lockdown baking, anyone? Yeah, me too.

This is the ideal baking project for lockdown as it kills a lot of time, is fun to make and you have cake at the end of it.  Yes, I did buy a spherical cake tin just to make this.

And yes, I know that my decoration isn’t neat. It’s a skill that continues to allude me. 

• 750 g self-raising flour
• 1 1/2 tsps bicarbonate of soda
• 750 g caster sugar
• 360 g butter (melted and cooled)
• 450 ml buttermilk
• 6 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
• Food colouring gel in pink
• Food colouring gel in red
• 75 g plain chocolate chips

FOR THE DECORATION

• 650 g butter
• 1 .3 kg icing sugar
• Food colouring gel in green
• Food colouring gel in black
• 1 giant chocolate button

1. Heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.
2. Sift the bicarbonate of soda into a bowl then add all of the cake ingredients (apart from the colourings and chocolate chips) and beat with an electric hand whisk until combined and smooth. Add enough pink and red food colouring to get a bright watermelon flesh-colour to the vanilla sponge mixture. Stir through the chocolate chips.
3. Pour 1.2kg of the cake mixture into the prepared Pyrex bowl. Bring a double layer of baking paper up and around the outside of the bowl, securing in place With kitchen string.
4. Divide the remaining mixture between the prepared cake pans. Cover with a clean, damp kitchen towel and set aside. Bake the cake in the Pyrex bowl for 1hr 20-25mins until an inserted skewer comes out Clean (after 45mins cover the top with a double layer of kitchen foil, and add the cake pans to the oven and bake for 35-40 mins).
5. Leave the cakes to cool in their pans for 10mins, then turn out and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Allow the cake in the bowl to cool for 30mins. Loosen the sides with a palette knife and invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Trim the tops of the flat cakes to make level. Stack the cakes so the domed cake is on the top. If necessary,trim the sides of the base cakes so they are flush with the domed cake.
7. To make the buttercream, beat the butter until light and creamy, Add 2tbsps water and gradually whisk in the icing sugar in manageable batches, until sm0oth and spreadable. Add another 1 tbsp water if necessary
8. Colour 400g of the buttercream the same watermelon flesh-colour as the cakes using the pink and red food Colourings and use to sandwich the Cakes together.
9. Crumb-coat the cake using 500g of the uncoloured buttercream. A flexible buttercream scraper will help to smooth the icing over the rounded dome. Place in the freezer to harden for 15mins. With damp hands smooth down the buttercream a little more. Repeat using 450g more of the uncoloured buttercream. Smooth down again with damp hands and return to the freezer for 15mins.
10. Colour the remaining 600g of buttercream a light green shade. Use the same technique to coat the cake using 500g of the green buttercream. Return to the freezer for 15mins.
11. Add more green colouring and a little black colouring to get a mid-dark green shade to the remaining 100g of buttercream. Use the tip oft a knife to apply the darker green buttercream smearing it downwards in small motions to create vertical stripes around the cake. Place in the freezer for 15mins. Smooth down again with damp hands, then top with a giant Chocolate button and serve.