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

Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat in until fully incorporated.

In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, extra strong red food colouring, milk and vanilla until a paste has formed (this allows the colour to develop properly!).

Beat this cocoa powder mix into the butter, sugar and eggs.

Add half of the flour with half of the buttermilk into your batter and mix well. Add the other halves of the flour and buttermilk and mix in until you see no lumps of flour.

In a small bowl, add the bicarbonate of soda and white wine vinegar and watch the two fizz together.

Pour the bicarbonate of soda and white wine vinegar into the cake batter and mix in until fully incorporated.

Split the batter evenly into the 3 lined tins and bake for 50 – 60 minutes. This will depend on how hot your oven runs. Check after 50 minutes. Do not open the oven door before 50 minutes.

Your cakes will be ready when a skewer/cocktail stick comes out clean and you hear very little to no bubbling or crackling sound when you listen to the cakes.

Once baked, leave to cool in the tins for 10 or so minutes, then transfer upside down to a wire rack to cool completely.

Unwrap (if need be) your boiled sweets and lay them on the lined baking tray. Make sure there are small gaps between each sweet so that they have room to melt and spread.

Bake in the oven for around 5 – 8 minutes or until melted together in one slab.

Once melted together, leave to cool and harden slightly.

When cooled and hard, gently lift the slab and peel from the paper so that it’s released. Either lift the slab a little and drop so that it shatters, or use the end of a rolling pin to tap the centre of the slab so that it breaks into pieces.

Set the baking tray of shards aside for now.

Make your cream cheese frosting.

Beat together the butter and icing sugar until smooth. Spoon in the cream cheese and beat well. You may have a few lumps but they should dissipate after you’ve beaten the mixture for a while.

Add the vanilla whilst beating.

Add in the navy food colouring and beat in. Do this a little at a time and add more as you go if need be.

Once your cakes are cool, begin building your cake.

Place the first layer on a plate/cake board/cake stand and smother a generous amount of the frosting over the top.

Lay the next sponge on the top and repeat. Repeat with the last sponge.

Smother the entire cake in the cream cheese frosting, using a palette knife to create a pattern if desired. I created my pattern by pulling the tip of my palette knife up in lines around the cake.

Set in the fridge for the time being.

Whilst your cake is chilling, make your ganache.

Put the white chocolate and double cream into a microwave safe bowl. Melt together in 20 second bursts in the microwave, stirring in between.

Once the chocolate is melted and has fully incorporated into the cream, stir in the red food colouring until you get a blood red colour.

Retrieve your cake from the fridge. Place your shards in and around the cake.

Drip the ganache over the shards and cake.

If wanting a ‘blood splatter’, drip a brush in the ganache and hold the brush a short distance from your cake. Pull the brush ends back with your finger so that they spring back at your cake.

Using a small paint brush, gently dab on the yellow food colouring in the shape of window panes.

Using another paintbrush and the white food colouring, gently paint on the window frames, steps and the character silhouettes. Cream cheese frosting is very soft so you need to do this in short strokes and with a gentle amount of pressure.

Chill your cake once finished!