Preheat the oven to 170ºc/150ºfan and line two deep 8" cake tins with parchment paper
Add the unsalted butter and caster sugar to a bowl and beat until combined
Add the eggs, red food colour, and vanilla and beat again
Add the cocoa powder, buttermilk, plain flour, bicarbonate of soda and white wine vinegar and mix again.
Split the mixture between the two tins and bake the cakes for 50-60 minutes until baked.
Leave to cool in the tins.
Once cooled, split the cakes into two layers each so you have four in total. Time off the tops slightly if needed to level them off and use the crumbs for decoration later on.
Filling
Add the unsalted butter to a bowl and beat until smooth
Add the icing sugar and beat again.
Add the full-fat soft cheese and beat until you have a thick creamy frosting, and then add the vanilla and mix through.
Layer the sponges with the cream cheese frosting and then create a crumb coat with the leftover. Chill the cake for 30 minutes.
Buttercream
Add the unsalted butter to a bowl and beat until smooth
Add the icing sugar and vanilla beat again.
If you want to, add white food colouring and beat until you reach your desired colour.
Spread the frosting around the sides and top of the chilled cake and smooth with a large metal scraper
Chill the cake for 30 minutes
Drip
Add the white chocolate and double cream to a jug
Heat in the microwave until melted and smooth
Colour with extra strong red food colouring
Pour into a piping bag and snip off the end - carefully drip down the sides of the cake and fill in the top
Pipe on any spare buttercream in swirls, and sprinkle on cake crumbs for decoration.
Notes
As mentioned above, you can use my red velvet cake recipe for a two-layer cake, or you can halve the sponge recipe on this post. This cake lasts for 3+ days in the fridge (because of the cream cheese frosting!). If you use just vanilla buttercream, it can last 4 days at room temp. You can make your own buttermilk by using 500ml whole milk and 2 tbsp lemon juice. Leave the mix to sit 5 mins before using.For this recipe I used