This is a recipe for those kids parties when you have invited far too many people and you have no idea how you're going to feed everyone. But you'll need the patience of a saint because you have to make it twice - so give yourself plenty of time.

Ingredients

30cm x 30cm tin
500g Italian "00" baking flour
3 tsps baking powder
1 1/2 tsps bicarbonate of soda
large pinch of salt
450 mls buttermilk
2 tsps vanilla extract
250g butter
400g sugar
6 eggs

For the filling
400g non-salted butter
600g icing sugar
1 tbsp milk

Icing
400g icing sugar
boiling water to mix
various colours

sweets

Method

1.Heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2.Grease and line the large tin.

3.Cream the butter and sugar.

4.Add the eggs, mixing well in between each one.

5.Sift the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture.

6.Add the buttermilk, then vanilla extract.

7.Mix well and pour into the tin.

8.Cook for 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean in the middle.

9.Allow to cool in the tin for about ten minutes before edging out onto cake rack.

10.Make the mixture again and pour into the cooled, greased and lined tin.

11.Let both cakes cool completely before thinking about icing.

12.Make the filling by mixing butter, icing sugar and milk together. You may feel you need a little more milk if you want a slightly thinner consistency.

13.Very carefully peel the paper off each cake and pour the filling over the top of one and sandwich the other on top.

14.On a piece of baking paper, trace the outline of a dog and another of a bone in a similar size to the cakes and cut out the shape.

15.Pin the shapes to the cakes and gently cut around the edges with a large sharp knife.

15.Using cake as your canvas and icing as your paint - colour in the dog.

16.Decorate with sweets.

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