1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Grease bottom and sides of 3 , 6 -inch round cake tins and line bottom with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of stand mixer beat butter, sugar and almond extract until light and fluffy about 6 minutes.
3. Sift together flour, salt and baking powder, set aside.
4. Beat eggs whites until stiff , set aside.
5. With mixer on low, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
6. Fold in egg whites in gently. Be careful not to overmix.
7. Divide batter evenly between cake tins.
8. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until tooth pick inserted in centre comes out clean. Leave to cool tin on wire racks for 10 minutes, then invert onto rack gently, discard parchment paper and cool completely.
9. Wrap cakes in cling film and chill in the fridge for 1- 3 hours.

For Strawberry Compote

1. Place strawberries and sugar in a saucepan and stir to coat all berries with sugar.
2. Cook strawberries over high heat, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in lemon juice.
4. Mix water and cornstarch in bowl until combined. Add mixture a little at a time whisking frequently until sauce has thickened.
5. Remove from heat and let sauce cool to room temperature. Chill in fridge.

Strawberry Buttercream

1. In bowl of stand mixer beat butter and vegetable shortening until light and creamy , about 5 minutes.
2. Add icing sugar a cup at a time and beat well until combined. As frosting thickens add the strawberry compote and then cream and beat until frosting is light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and drops of pink gel colour and beat until evenly incorporated.

Assembly

1. Place the first layer of sponge on a 8 inch thin cake board, flat size down. Fit a 1/2 inch round nozzle into a piping bag. Fill the piping bag with strawberry buttercream.
2. Pipe a dam of buttercream around the cake for clean even layers of frosting. Fill the dam with strawberry compote and use an off set spatula to spread the compote carefully. Pipe buttercream over the strawberry compote filling.
3. Repeat with remaining 3 layers of vanilla cake, until all three layers of cake are stacked.
4. Wrap cake with plastic cling film and chill for 1-3 hours.
5. Remove cake from fridge. Spread a thin layer of strawberrt buttercream on the sides and then top of cake. It helps to use a turntable when frosting a cake. Hold a scraper flat against the side of the cake and then turn the turntable and scraper to make a nice, smooth coat of icing. Smooth the top of cake with scraper, drawing the peaks o the top edges of cake into the centre.
6. Chill crumb coated cake in fridge for 30 minutes until buttercream is nice and firm.
7. Once cake is chilled, cover evenly with buttercream using an off set spatula and then use a scraper to smooth the edges.
8. Transfer some of the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large open star tip. Pipe swirls around the top edge of the cake. Top swirls with chocolate dipped strawberries.