Extremely chocolatey cake

1. Preheat your oven to Gas Mk 4 and grease and line 2 round cake tins. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and add the vanilla. To the butter and sugar, add half the flour and half the beaten eggs. Mix, then add the remainder of flour and eggs, making sure there are no lumps. Then add the cocoa powder and combine again.

3. Divide between 2 lined cake tins evenly; these make up the two halves of the 'sandwich'. Bake for 20-30 mins, using a skewer in the centre to check that it is cooked the whole way through. (When it comes out clean it should be cooked)

4. While the cakes are baking, make the chocolate buttercream. Sift the icing sugar onto the softened butter and mix. (Either leave butter at room temperature or microwave for 10 seconds). Once combined add the cocoa powder and mix again. Make sure the consistency is pipe-able, if not; add a tsp of milk to loosen the mixture.

5. Take the cakes out, turn out of their tins and leave to cool. Once cool pipe with the chocolate buttercream on one side and sandwich together both halves. Smooth the edges so that the sides of the cake are even.

6. To make the ganache, heat the cream to just before boiling point (it will be bubbling very gently). Break the chocolate into pieces into a bowl. Take the cream off the hob and leave for about 30 seconds before pouring on top of the chocolate. Mix the chocolate and cream very quickly to prevent the chocolate from burning and splitting into a grainy mixture. Don't be too alarmed by the initial appearance of the mixture, once the cream and chocolate are combined it should create a shiny chocolaty mixture! Leave the ganache for 2-3 minutes to set up a little.

7. Pour onto the cake's centre, until it overflows and covers all the sides. Leave to set for 10 minutes. Decorate with raspberries and you're done!