This means the sponge was over baked! You can use cocoa powder if you want, but either recipe if over baked can create a dry sponge x

Made this for my daughter’s birthday, it was so tasty! Just one small thing, for the chocolate layer, I added the 100g melted dark chocolate to the sponge mix and it was quite dry to eat, any reason why you didn’t use cocoa powder in this recipe? Thanks.

I was wondering how the jam turned out? Pondering whether to make the coulis or just buy jam.

Hello, yes it is worth a go xx

It may just need a little boiling water added to it to soften it slightly – or a bit more beating! x

Made this twice and both times the buttercream is like a rock. It broke my bags (first time I figured it was a fluke but it happened again).

Any ideas why? I’ve made it in both summer and winter so the butter shouldn’t have been cold. I followed the recipe exactly but I just have to plop it on rather than icing it on (although I’m not great at that either 😔😂)

Thanks for any help 🙂

Adding any liquid can definitely soften and slacken buttercreams so you don’t want to add much – It’s probably best to only add 1tbsp of each at a time and beat really well so you don’t add too much (but the flavours may not come through that strongly) x

Made this once before and it was lush. I am thinking about making it boozy (adding flavoured vodka/baileys etc) to just the buttercreams. Do you have any idea how much should be added?

Don’t want to knock anyone out! Thanks 😀