Raspberry Vanilla Cake with Baileys Chocolate Icing

Sometimes, a picture tells a thousand words.  Sometimes words help though!  This is my entry for our office Great Ground Floor Bakeoff competition.

 

Don't be put off by how fancy it looks, this is actually a pretty straightforward cake to bake, and if you've ever made one of my cakes before, you'll be well able to make this little beauty.  It's my basic Sour Cream Sponge which I used for Alicia's Double Vanilla Birthday Cake, with a swirl of pureed raspberries through the cake mix once it was poured into the tins.

 

 

 

Once the cake came out of the oven and cooled, I used the last half of the Swiss Meringue Buttercream Icing leftover from Alicia's cake which I flavoured with three tablespoons of the new, completely amazing and no I'm not sharing the rest, Baileys Chocolate Luxe.  That quantity of icing will cover two cakes with plenty to spare, so there's no problem in just halving the recipe.  Mind you, I'd just eat that icing out of the tub with a spoon as it's amazing.

 

 

The sponges were sandwiched together with a generous layer of the Baileys Chocolate icing and some really good raspberry jam.  I iced the cake with the rest of the icing, surrounded it with chocolate cigarillos (Avoca have them, so do La Rousse Foods where I usually buy mine as I use loads of them)

I know they're not in season, but fresh raspberries on the top just made it look so pretty!  I halved them with a very sharp knife to make them go further...

And there you have it.  Raspberry Vanilla Cake with Baileys Chocolate Icing. 
p.s. if you got me in the office Kris Kindle, I'll have a bottle of that Baileys Chocolate Luxe, mine is nearly empty *hic*