Make your shortbread biscuit first if doing so.

Prepare a baking tray by lining it with greaseproof paper/baking parchment. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.

Sieve in the flour and mix together with a spoon until a dough is formed.

On a clean and lightly floured surface, tip out your biscuit dough and roll with a rolling pin until about ½ cm in thickness.

Using a sharp knife, cut out your desired elements: the surfboard, seaweed, underwater animals, the sandwich for Pudge the fish etc.

Place your biscuit shapes onto the lined baking tray and chill in the fridge while you make your cakes.

Weigh out your eggs in their shells. Get as close to 300g as possible, allowing 20g either way. Make a note of the exact weight and be sure to weigh out your remaining ingredients to that exact number.

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

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating in between until completely incorporated.

Add the vanilla and blue food colouring if using and beat again.

Sieve in the flour and mix in just until you can no longer see any flour.

Split the cake mix into the 3 lined tins evenly.

Bake in the oven for 30 - 40 minutes. This will depend on how hot your oven runs. Check after 30 minutes.

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

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

While your cakes are cooling, bake your shortbread biscuits.

Retrieve your tray of biscuits from the fridge and bake at the same temperature as the cakes for around 10 minutes. This will depend on the size and thickness of your biscuits.

They will be ready when they are golden and look ever so slightly dry on the surface.

Once baked, allow your biscuits to cool on the tray.

While your cakes are cooling, mould your Stitch figure if doing so.

Mould his body - arms, legs and tail - from one large portion of the designated fondant icing. Use the rest to mould his head and ears separately.

Make indents for his eyes and attach his nose separately.

To attach his head, secure a cocktail stick into his body with one end poking out. Then, sit his head on the top of the body and the end of the cocktail stick.

To secure his ears, do the same thing with a cocktail stick by pushing it through his ears and head at the same time. Use 2 cocktail sticks here if needed - just be sure to make sure there is no evidence of the cocktail sticks showing.

Paint his features using the different colours of food colouring/paint and a couple of small paint brushes.

Set Stitch aside to dry.

Make your buttercream.

Beat together the butter and icing sugar until fluffy.

Add the pineapple juice and beat in - this should help loosen it slightly. If it is still quite stiff, add a splash of water and beat in.

Beat in the blue food colouring. I went for a pale blue as the base.

When your sponges are completely cool, begin to decorate your cake.

Place the first sponge on a cake stand/cake board/plate and spread the top generously with buttercream.

Lay the next sponge over the base one and spread on a generous amount of buttercream.

Place your last sponge upside down on the top.

Spoon some buttercream into two separate smaller bowls. These bowlfuls will make your waves. Set aside.

Using the remaining buttercream, create a crumb coat all over your cake.

Chill in the fridge while you prepare the fondant icing.

Lightly dust a clean surface with icing sugar.

Knead your remaining blue fondant icing to make it malleable.

Roll it out into a long rectangle, roughly the height of your cake and the length equal to the circumference of your cake.

Retrieve your cake from the fridge.

Using the rolling pin, carefully lift and roll the fondant loosely around the rolling pin.

Lift it up against the side of the cake and carefully spin the cake and unroll the fondant as you go. Make sure to press it to the buttercream on the cake as you unroll.

Trim any excess around the bottom and top with a sharp knife.

Press any rough edges around the top down onto the surface of the cake. Make sure there is a good amount of buttercream still exposed.

Sprinkle the crushed biscuits on one half of the surface of the cake to create the ‘sand’.

Do the same with the crushed biscuit around the base of the cake if desired.

Carefully push 2 cocktail sticks into the bottom of Stitch, leaving at least half of each one sticking out.

Lift and gently sit Stitch into one side of the sand. Make sure he is secure - he is surprisingly heavy!

Using a few small paint brushes and the appropriate food colourings/paints, paint your biscuit elements.

Roll out and trim the white fondant in the shape of the surfboard, only slightly smaller. Attach it to the surfboard biscuit using a little leftover buttercream and paint your desired design.

Attach the biscuit elements using a dab of buttercream on each one.

Paint any other design elements straight onto the fondant i.e. bubbles, the jam around Pudge’s sandwich and underwater creatures.

Use a sharp knife to cut a deep indent into the top of the cake where the surfboard will go. This will reduce chances of breakage.

Gently sit your biscuit surfboard into the cake and press it into the cake to secure it.

Finish your cake with the ocean waves.

Add a little more food colouring into one of the bowls of buttercream to achieve a darker blue.

Add this to a piping bag or sandwich bag with the end cut off and your chosen piping tip.

Add the pale blue to the bag and pipe this buttercream on to create the froth that is crashing onto the sand.

Marvel at your Stitch cake!