Preheat your oven to 180°C [350°F] or 160°C fan. Grease and line three 20 cm (8 inch) round cake tins with greaseproof paper/baking parchment. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs on at a time, beating in between until fully incorporated.

Sieve in the flour and add the ginger if using. Mix in just until you can no longer see any flour.

Split the cake mix evenly into the 3 tins.

Bake your sponges for 25 - 30 minutes or until golden and risen.

Your sponges will be ready when a cocktail stick/skewer comes out clean when tested; the sponges bounce back when gently pressed on, and you hear little to no bubbling/crackling when you listen to them.

Once baked, allow your sponges to cool in the tins for around 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

While your base sponges are cooling, make your top tier cake sponges.

Turn the oven down to 160°C [320°F] or 140°C fan. Grease and line three deep 6 inch cake tins with greaseproof paper/baking parchment. Set aside.

Either over a bain marie [bowl set over a pan of simmering hot water] or in the microwave in a microwavable safe bowl in 30 second bursts, melt the dark chocolate and butter together.

Once melted, leave the chocolate and butter mix to cool for now.

Mix together the coffee (if using) and the boiling water from a freshly boiled kettle in a mug. Set aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, sieve in the flour. Add the cocoa powder, both sugars, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Mix together with a spoon until evenly distributed.

Pour the coffee water into the chocolate and butter mix. Fold in until completely incorporated.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and buttermilk until pale and frothy using an electric whisk.

Combine the flour mix with the chocolate mix until well combined. It will seem very stiff and odd at first.

Pour in the whisked eggs and buttermilk and fold in gently until completely incorporated. This will take some time so be gentle and be patient!

Once smooth, distribute the cake mix evenly into the deep 6 inch tins.

Bake for 35 - 40 minutes. This will depend on how hot your oven runs. Mine took nearer 45 minutes to bake.

Your chocolate fudge sponges will be ready when a cocktail stick/skewer comes out clean when tested; the sponges bounce back when gently pressed on, and you hear little to no bubbling/crackling when you listen to them.

Once baked, leave your chocolate fudge cakes to cool in the tins for around 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

While your chocolate fudge sponges are cooling, start building and decorating your base cake!

Beat the butter for your buttercream in a large mixing bowl to loosen it slightly.

Add in half the icing sugar and beat in until fluffy.

Add the other half of your icing sugar and beat in until light and fluffy.

Spoon in the treacle and beat in.

Take around 2 tbsp of buttercream from the large bowl and spoon it into a small bowl. Do this twice so that you have two small bowls of buttercream.

Mix some green food colouring into one of the small bowls.

Mix some red food colouring into the other small bowl of buttercream.

Drop some black food colouring into the large bowl of buttercream and beat in until an even colour is achieved. Adjust here if necessary, adding more if needed.

Beat in a splash of milk to loosen the large amount of buttercream to make it more spreadable if required.

Spread a smudge of black buttercream onto a cake stand (rotating one is ideal)/cake board/plate and lay your first treacle sponge on top.

Dollop a generous amount of black buttercream onto the cake layer. Lay the next cake layer over the top and repeat this until all 3 layers are stacked.

Cover the treacle cake in the remaining black food colouring and smooth round with a palette knife. This doesn’t need to be perfect!

Allow to dry for a few minutes.

Using a small palette knife or paintbrush, paint on the spells so that each one is curving around the cake. Bring the two ends together in the centre of the front of your cake.

Spray the gold edible glitter in and around the centre of the colliding magic.

In a microwavable safe bowl, melt together the chocolate and cream in 20 second bursts, stirring in between until a shiny and smooth ganache is achieved.

Leave to cool for around 15 minutes.

Once cooled, whip the ganache using an electric whisk until it can just about hold its shape.

On another plate or board (I used a chopping board) place the first layer of your chocolate fudge cake on it.

Spread a generous amount of ganache over the top and lay the next sponge on the top.

Repeat until all 3 layers are stacked.

Spread the remaining ganache over the entire cake using a palette knife. Create a pattern using your palette knife if desired.

Leave to set for a few minutes.

Once the ganache has hardened a little, paint on the Hogwarts and shield detailing using the orange and black food colourings and a small paintbrush.

Spray on some gold edible glitter as desired.

Leave to dry.

Push 3 dowels into the centre of the base cake, leaving about 2 inches of each dowel poking out of the top.

Carefully lift the chocolate fudge cake from its board and sit it over the base cake. Make sure that the cake slides onto the dowels as evenly as possible.

Lastly, make your caramel shards or spun sugar to top the cake off. If doing spun sugar, use the recipe by A Beautiful Plate as noted above.

Pour the sugar and water into a heavy based saucepan and bring up to a medium heat. Stir regularly until the sugar has dissolved.

Once the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat up high and leave to bubble away.

Do not stir and do not take your eyes off it. It can go from ready to burnt very quickly!

Once the mixture has turned a wonderful amber colour, take it off the heat immediately and submerge the base of the pan into cold water to stop the cooking process.

Pour the caramel onto a sheet of greaseproof paper/baking parchment either in blobs or as one large one that you can break into shards. Leave to cool and harden. This will take moments.

Once cool and solid, arrange the blobs on the top of the cake or shatter the single piece of caramel with a rolling pin and arrange the pieces on the top of the cake.

Serve immediately.