Preheat oven to 150º C.

Line a 20 cm / 23 cm cake tin with baking paper.

Sift flour and add sugar and salt.

Mix boiling water, vegetable oil and vanilla essence.

Separate the eggs and add the yolks to the oil mixture. Beat well.

Fold the flour through the mixture.

Add the food colouring at this stage, making sure that you increase the amount gradually with each layer of the cake.

Keep one layer free of food colouring to bake a plain vanilla cake. Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold through the batter.

Spoon the batter into the cake tin and bake for 10 minutes, then raise heat to 170º C and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a test pen comes out clean. Leave to cool.

Repeat until you have 4 cakes.

Using a sharp knife, slice the tops of the cake to make them even; the cakes should be flat. Keep the red cut-offs that are darkest and crumble for decoration.

Starting with the vanilla cake, add layers one at a time with icing between each layer. Finish with a generous spread of icing.

Crumble the dark red cake cut-offs and sprinkle around the side of the cake.

Whip the butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence until smooth.

Fold through the cream cheese.

Set aside until needed.