Gift-shaped birthday cake

Method
Prep:30min  ›  Cook:45min  ›  Extra time:1hr setting  ›  Ready in:2hr15min 

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas 4.
2. To make plain cake layers, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form; set aside.
3. Beat together the 125g caster sugar and egg yolks until light. Stir in melted butter, then 50g of the flour. Gently fold in half of the egg white mixture, then remaining 50g flour and finally the remaining egg whites.
4. Line a baking tray with baking parchment. Pour cake mixture into tray, keeping thickness (about 1cm) as even as possible. Bake in preheated oven for about 7 minutes; remove cake from oven and invert immediately onto a damp cloth.
5. Cut into 3 sections horizontally and in half lengthways (vertically) so that you have 6 squares of approximately equal size; set aside.
6. Follow same steps for chocolate layers, this time adding the cocoa to the sugar and egg yolks before beating together. You will end up with 12 cake squares, 6 plain and 6 chocolate.
7. Use 6 cake squares (3 plain, 3 chocolate) for each cake. Begin layering squares, alternating plain and chocolate, spreading a bit of Nutella® between each layer. Once you have a stack of the 6 alternating cake squares, cut edges as necessary to trim and make edges even.

Icing:

8. Melt chocolate and a knob of butter in the microwave, mix together and spread icing over finished cake.
9. Decorate with a ribbon or toppings (see picture). You can easily fashion a ribbon out of shop-bought fondant icing.