Gingerbread and caramel drizzle cake

Method

• 1
  Preheat oven to 160C/140C fan forced. Lightly grease the base and side of 2 round 20cm (base measurement) cake pans. Line the bases with baking paper.
• 2
  Stir butter, golden syrup and treacle in a large saucepan over low heat for 5 minutes or until butter has melted. Remove from heat. Set aside to cool slightly. Quickly stir in eggs and milk. Sift in plain flour, self-raising flour, brown sugar, bicarbonate of soda, ground ginger, mixed spice and ground cinnamon. Stir until mixture is well combined.
• 3
  Pour into pans. Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes until a skewer inserted into each cake comes out clean. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Turn onto rack. Cool completely.
• 4
  For buttercream, place chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Heat cream over medium- high heat until almost boiling. Pour over chocolate. Stir until melted. Set aside to set. Use electric beaters to beat butter, icing sugar, vanilla and ginger in bowl until creamy. Add chocolate mixture, beating well to combine.
• 5
  For caramel, stir sugar, cream and syrup in pan over medium heat for 5 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Simmer for 3 minutes until thickened. Remove from heat. Add butter and stir until dissolved. Cool to room temperature. 6 Slice cakes in half horizontally. Spread buttercream over each layer and sandwich together. Coat top and side with remaining buttercream. Drizzle with caramel sauce and sprinkle with crystallised ginger. Top with edible ginger flower, if desired.