Preheat your oven to 180°C [350°F] or 160°C fan.

Very generously grease your 20 cm hemisphere cake tin(s) with butter. Leave to the side.

Weigh out your eggs in their shells and get as close as you can to 500g, allowing for around 20g either way. Measure the rest of your ingredients out to the exact weight that you settle on.

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 fully incorporated.

Spoon in the vanilla and beat in.

Sieve the flour over your mixture and mix in just until the flour is no longer visible. Try not to overmix here.

If using one tin, divide the mixture evenly between the tin and a bowl. If using two tins, divide the mixture evenly between the two greased tins.

Sit the tin into a small bowl to keep it stable. Do this for both tins if using two. Place the bowls with the tins sitting in them onto a baking tray.

Slide the tray onto the middle shelf of your oven and bake the sponge(s) for at least 45 - 50 minutes. The cake(s) will likely not quite be ready by this point, so cover with a sheet of tin foil to prevent the surface from burning.

Your sponge(s) will be ready when they are golden in colour; a skewer comes out clean when tested, the surface bounces back when gently pressed on, and you hear little to no crackling/bubbling sound when you listen to it/them.

Leave the sponge(s) to cool for at least 15 minutes in the tin(s) before tipping out and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. You may need to use your skewer to ease the sponge(s) out of the tin.

If only using one tin, repeat steps 8 to 11 to bake the second sponge.

While your sponges are cooling, prepare your buttercream.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter until loosened.

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

Add the other half of the sugar and the vanilla and beat in until slightly softened and fluffy. If needed, add a small splash of milk and beat in to loosen the mixture slightly. Your sponges will be soft so keep this in mind.

Spoon around 5 heaped tbsp of buttercream into a small bowl. This is for your visor.

Spoon another 3 heaped tbsp of buttercream into another bowl, then repeat once more so that you have 3 small bowls of buttercream.

Add the navy food colouring to the large bowl of buttercream and beat in until an even colour is achieved.

Add the grey/a small amount of black food colouring to the bowl with 5 tbsp of buttercream and beat in well.

In one of the small bowls with 3 tbsp in, beat in the red food colouring.

In the last small bowl, beat in the white food colouring.

Once your sponges are completely cool, begin building your cake. Glue any broken sponge back together using some of the navy buttercream, then smudge some buttercream on a cake board/plate/stand.

Place the first sponge over the smudge with the flat side facing up.

Spread a generous amount of navy buttercream over the sponge.

Top with the last sponge, putting both flat sides together.

Cover the entire cake sphere with the remaining navy coloured buttercream. A good tip here is to dip your palette knife into boiling hot water and smooth this over the buttercream. Be sure to tap any excess water off the knife first!

Once covered, chill the entire cake in the fridge for around 15 minutes, just until firm.

Fill a piping bag or sandwich bag with the grey buttercream.

Retrieve your cake from the fridge.

Pipe on the visor. Do the outline first, then pipe the remaining grey buttercream to fill in it.

Dip a cutlery knife into boiling hot water - tap the excess water off - and use this to smooth the grey buttercream around so that the visor has a smoother appearance.

Fill a piping bag or sandwich bag with a leaf piping tip attached with the red buttercream.

Pipe the red detailing on the top of your cake, leaving a gap for the name.

Use a cocktail stick to push and lift the red buttercream to tidy it up.

Fill a piping bag or sandwich bag with the white buttercream.

Pipe the white detailing next to the red buttercream.

Pipe ‘Maverick’ or your chosen name in the gap using the white buttercream.

Finally, using white and black food colouring or food paint and a thin paintbrush, paint the planes - or your chosen scene - onto the visor.

Leave to set fully in the fridge.