1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Grease bottom and sides of 3 , 6 -inch round cake tins and line bottom with parchment paper. Line a cupcake pan with 6 paper cases.
2. In the bowl of stand mixer beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy about 6 minutes.
3. Sift together flour, salt and baking powder, set aside.
4. Add egg whites a little at a time,beating well after each addition Add vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract and beat until combined.
5. With mixer on low, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
6. Fill the cupcake cases with batter, only 2/3 full.
7. Divide batter evenly between cake tin. (I used a measuring cup and a scale)
8. Bake the cupcakes for 15 – 20 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in centre comes out clean.
9. Bake for the cakes for 20 – 25 minutes or until a 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.
10. Wrap cakes in cling film and chill in the fridge for 1- 3 hours.

Champagne Syrup

1. Stir champagne and sugar in a saucepan over a low heat until sugar has completely dissolved. Bring champagne syrup to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely before using.

White Chocolate Buttercream

1. Place white chocolate and whipping cream in a heat proof bowl. Melt in microwave at 30 second bursts stirring with a whisk after each time, until completed melted. Leave to cool.
2. In bowl of mixer cream butter and shortening until light and creamy, about 5 minutes.
3. Add icing sugar a cup at a time and beat well until combined. As frosting thickens add melted chocolate.
4. Beat in vanilla extract and beat until frosting is light and fluffy.

Assembling Cake

1. Place the first layer of sponge on a 8 inch thin cake board, flat size down. Brush the cake with champagne syrup using a pastry brush (repeat this process with remaining layers of cake). Fit a 1/2 inch round nozzle into a piping bag.
2. Pipe a dam of buttercream around the cake for clean even layers of frosting. Fill the dam with frosting and use an off set spatula to spread the frosting carefully. You can also pipe the entire layer of frosting, if you don’t want to use the offset spatula to spread the frosting. Spoon 3 tablespoons of strawberry conserve over buttercream, smoothing it over buttercream.
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 white chocolate 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 white chocolate buttercream using an off set spatula and then use a scraper to smooth the edges.
8. Chill cake for 1 hour.
9. Place a large baking tray on a turntable and place cake on the baking tray.
10. Grab a handful of confetti, starting at the bottom and press them into the side of the cake. Spin the turntable as you work. Reuse the confetti that have fallen at the base of the cake.
11. Transfer some of the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large french open star tip. Pipe swirls around the top edge of the cake.
12. Pipe buttercream swirls on cupcakes as well.