Salted Caramel Layer Cake

If you follow blogging challenges you may well know that Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked is celebrating it's first birthday this month. So what else could our challenge be but...CAKE! I therefore decided to make this Caramel Layer Cake to help them celebrate.

This cake really is delicious and the flavour matures so it's even tastier the next day.

There are three layers of sponge and they are sandwiched together with a lovely caramel filling with one of the layers also having a chocolate caramel filling. The sponge contains buttermilk which made it lovely and moist. The whole thing was then covered in more of the caramel and then the cake is finished by piping a spiral of chocolate on the top and feathering it with a cocktail stick.

To make the caramel, butter, dark muscovado sugar and cream were melted together in a saucepan and then the mixture was left to simmer for 5 minutes to thicken. Icing sugar was then gradually whisked into the mixture (off the heat) until it was barely warm, at which stage a small amount of butter was mixed in to finish.

When covering the cake each layer of sponge was sandwiched together first and then left to cool so the whole thing didn't slide about. Then using a palette knife the top and then the sides were covered in the caramel before feathering the top with the melted chocolate. If you do decide to make this cake you need to work quickly to cover it as the caramel sets quickly...and don't do what I did and try and go over bits you've already done as it ruins the nice smooth surface. You also need to be quick with the feathering.

I'd definitely recommend having a go at this one...it's a guaranteed crowd pleaser!

 

Why not join in with next month's Tea Time Treats which will be hosted Kate at What Kate Baked. This month's host is Lavender and Lovage.

 

Sponge

 

300g self-raising flour

Pinch of salt

300g caster sugar

250g unsalted butter, very soft

4 large eggs

4 tbsp buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

 

Filling

 

225g unsalted butter

450g dark brown muscovado sugar

175ml double cream

300g icing sugar

1/4 tsp sea salt flakes

100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

 

Prepare three 20cm sandwich tins by greasing the sides and bottom and then base lining with baking paper. If you only have two tins, you can cook two cakes and then put the third one in straight afterwards.

 

Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 4. Put the sugar, salt and sifted sugar into a bowl and then add the butter, making sure it is really soft and cut into pieces. In a seperate bowl whisk the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla together with a fork and then add to the flour mixture. Mix thoroughly on a low speed until the mixture is smooth and all the ingredients are combined. Divide the mixture between the three tins and level before baking for around 25 minutes, they should be golden and shrinking away from the edges when done. Once removed from the oven run a knife around each cake and leave to cool in the tin for 2 minutes before turning out and leaving to cool completely.

 

Whilst the cakes are cooling make the caramel by putting 175g of the butter along with the muscovado sugar and cream into a saucepan. Melt the butter and then bring the caramel to the boil before reducing the heat and simmering for 5 minutes whilst stirring frequently.

 

When ready pour the caramel into a heat proof bowl and beat in the icing bit by bit using an electric mixture. You should continue to beat the mixture until it is fluffy and almost cool. Once at this stage you can add the remaining 50g of butter and the salt and then beat until incorporated. Don't be too hasty when adding the butter, if you add it too soon it will just melt straight into the mixture.

 

Next melt the chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water. When it is completely melted, spoon half the chocolate into a bowl and add just under a quarter of the caramel filling mix. Warning...again do not do what I did and add it straight away...the recipe didn't mention waiting for the chocolate to cool a little but if you don't it may seize a little.

 

Finally to assemble the cake, put a layer of cake on the serving plate and then add around a third of the remaining caramel mix and spread over the top. Next spread the chocolate caramel on top of another of the cakes before transferring it onto the first. You can the put on the third and final layer of cake. You should then leave this to set...if you don't it will slide around when you try and cover the cake. I put mine in the fridge for 5 minutes.

 

To finish cover the top and sides of the cake with the remaining caramel mixture. You need to make sure that the caramel is still smooth and not too firm...I put mine in the microwave for 20 seconds. It is easiest to use a mini-palette knife to apply the covering and you need to work quickly. Try not to go over areas you've already done as it will already have started to set.

 

If you wish to add the feathering on top, use the remaining melted chocolate and pop it in a piping bag and snip off the end. Quickly pipe a spiral on top of the cake, it doesn't matter if it's a little messy. Then again working quickly drag a cocktail stick through the spiral from inside out, repeating all the way around the cake. It can be quite difficult to make this neat...if you have enough chocolate you could always practise a spiral on the counter top first!

 

* Adapted from The Great British Bake Off - How to Turn Everyday Bakes into Showstoppers



Olympic Park Apple & Blackberry Picnic Pies

*Ahem*...in my best Marks and Spencer's voice...this isn't just a picnic pie...it's an Olympic Park picnic pie!

I've been lucky enough to enjoy some of the action in the Olympic Park this week and I wanted to soak up the atmosphere by enjoying a picnic in the park after a spot of athletics on Monday morning. So I packed up my sandwiches, crisps and other picnic goodies and as a tasty treat I made these pies to take too. I loaded them up in my Olympic regulation sized bag and took them to the park for lunch. I was a bit worried they wouldn't make it in one piece when my bag went through the scanner and was deemed to be suspicious, after a bit of rooting around from a rather dashing army man my pies were cleared!

The action in the athletics stadium during the morning was amazing and the atmosphere electric! After the excitment of the morning we found a spot for our picnic and spread the picnic blanket, we were even overlooking 'Gloriana' on the lock. I am happy to report the pies were in one piece and were really tasty. The pastry was sweet and soft and the classic combination of apple and blackberry can't be beaten. So all in all a success!

 

The recipe for these pies came from Bakingmad.com. I slightly misread it and added the demerara into the pastry which should acutally have been sprinkled on top. I also found that the flour and butter was a bit dry and didn't bind together in a ball so I added in an egg yolk. It worked well and it was a good pastry. It was however a little difficult to get them out of the muffin tin at the end, a number broke, so obviously I had to eat them then and there! ;-) If you were to make these I'd recommend not making the pastry too thin as they may then be less liable to breaking upon removal. I'd also add more filling next time as I was a bit weary of over-filling. Finally, I might also up the blackberries in the recipe.

These pies would taste delicious warm straight from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream! I'm entering them into this month's Tea Time Treats hosted by Kate at What Kate Baked and Karen at Lavender and Lovage. These Olympic Park Pies are particularly apt as Kate was a cloud wrangler in the Olympic opening ceremony no less!

We had the most amazing day at the Olympics, it has truly lived up to it's billing as the 'Greatest Show on Earth'. We even managed to catch a glimpse of Andy Murray, Greg Rutherford and Laura Robson at the BBC. In the evening we were also lucky to see some beach volleyball at Horse Guards Parade where we enjoyed another pie or two!! ;-)

Ingredients

350g plain flour
225g cold butter, diced
100g golden caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 egg beaten
6 tbsp demerara sugar

Filling

2 cooking apples
150g blackberries
2 tbsp golden caster sugar

The recipe suggests putting the flour and butter into a bowl and rubbing them together...being a bit lazy I used a food processor, either is fine! Then add in the sugar and a pinch of salt. The original recipe only called for the golden caster sugar...I also added the demerera by accident but it tasted really good...so again your call. The pastry should come together in a ball, so I add an egg yolk to bind it but maybe see how your pastry goes. This recipe produces a rich sweet shortcrust pastry, especially with the addition of the egg. The pastry should then be wrapped in clingfilm and chilled for 30 minutes.

To make the pie filling, peel, core and chop the apple and pop it into a saucepan with the golden caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of water. Heat gently until the apples begin to soften and then add the blackberries and leave on the heat for another 5 minutes. Whilst the apple and blackberries and cooking, lightly grease a muffin tin. I made 12 pies but the recipe says it makes 18.

When the pastry has chilled for at least 30 minutes, roll it out on a lightly floured surface and cut out 12-18 7.5cm circles and then 12-18 6cm circles depending on how much pastry you have and how many pies you are making.

Gently use the larger circles to line the muffin tin holes before spooning in the filling. Dampen the edge of the pies before pressing on the smaller circles to form lids. I did not cut any holes in the top of the pastry. Brush the tops of the pies with beaten egg and then put in an oven preheated to 200c/180c fan/gas 6. They take around 20 minutes to bake and should be golden when done. Leave to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes before VERY gently removing from the tin. Enjoy!

* Adapted from www.bakingmad.com

White Chocolate and Cherry Loaf

The tea time treats theme this month is 'Cake Stall Cakes and Bakes'. So here's my contribution to the cause...a White Chocolate and Cherry Loaf cake.

This was an interesting cake...I'm not sure whether I used the wrong size loaf tin but there was an awful lot of cake mixture and when I put it in the tin it was full to the brim before I'd even started baking. The recipe called for a 1kg tin...I thought I used a 2lb tin which roughly equates but when I put the cake in the oven it overflowed!

In the end the cake still worked out...although some oven cleaning was required afterwards. It was edible but it was a little claggy and not perfect! I did however enjoy the fresh cherries in the cake. The frosting is melted white chocolate and mascarpone, finished with white chocolate curls on top.

It seems that fruit is destined to sink in cakes, I did the whole dust in flour thing before mixing the cherries in but still most of them ended up at the bottom. Fortunately as some of the cherries were sprinkled on top just as the cake went in the oven, they actually stayed fairly near the surface. Does anyone have any ingenius ways of preventing fruit sinking?

Tea Time Treats is hosted by Karen over and Lavender and Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked. Karen is hosting this month and there are always loads of fabulous entries, so check out the round up at the end of July...or better still join in!

I'm also entering this cake into Simple and in Season as cherries are the perfect summer fruit. This month it is hosted by Fleur from Homemade by Fleur with the regular host being Fabulicious Food.
Ingredients

225g butter
225 golden caster sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
225g self-raising flour
375g fresh cherries, pitted
175g white chocolate chopped

White Chocolate Frosting

100g white chocolate
140g half-fat mascarpone
White chocolate curls

Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 4. Line a 1kg (2.2lb) loaf tin with baking parchment. The paper should come up higher than the sides.

Cream together the butter and sugar until it's pale and fluffy. Then add the eggs a little at a time so they don't curdle. Next add the vanilla extract before sifting in the flour, folding it in until the mixutre is smooth.

Ensure all cherries are pitted and then dust them in flour, this should help them not to sink in the cake! Add half of the cherries and half of the chocolate and gently stir into the mix. Spoon into the prepared tin before scattering the remaining chocolate and cherries on the top. Bake fro 1hr 10 - 1hr 15 mins until a skewer comes out clean. Upon removing it from the oven, leave to cool for a few minutes and then turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool completel

To make the frosting, bring the mascarpone to room temperature. In the meantime melt the white chocolate over a pan of water. When melted stir in 1 tbsp of the mascarpone, then beat the remainder in. Don't overbeat otherwise the frosting will go grainy. Spread over the top of the cake and finish with curls of white chocolate.

Strawberry Shortbread Meringue Pies

Hurrah...it's officially the start of summer...British Strawberries have arrived...we might just have to ignore the weather though!! What could be better on a warm summer's evening than sitting in the garden with a glass of wine and one of these Strawberry Shortbread Meringue pies.

The recipe for these desserts specified to use shop bought shortbread which I would be more than happy to do but for this blog post I thought I'd add a bit more of a baking element and make the shortbread! The recipe I used is below but I perhaps found it a little crumbly...so you can either try the same recipe or how about this one from Delicious magazine...they also add a hint of Orange.

To make the base for these pies, it's a bit like a cheesecake, crumb up the shortbread and then add melted butter before pressing it into the tin. My only complaint about this recipe was that it was nigh on impossible to get the dessert off the base so in the end I had to resort to leaving on. To get round this problem, the recipe suggested making the baking paper for the base larger than needed. My other thought was to just use a food ring and leave the base as a whole circle of shortbread, baked in the shape for the purpose.

So once the base is chilled, it's just a case of cutting the straweberries in half and putting a circle around the edge. Inside of this goes whipped double cream with a little sugar, mint and crushed strawberrries. Then the finishing touch is to make a gorgeous Italian meringue which can be piped on to make dramatic peaks. The meringue is then browned off under the grill and voila! To make the meringue it does help to have a sugar thermometre but you can do without.

So the finished product is a dreamy desssert of shortbread, cream, strawberries and clouds of gorgeous Italian meringue...who could resist...certainly not me...I'm going to make this again next weekend!! :-)

It seems everyone has gone berry mad this month...and who can blame them! I'm therefore entering these luscious lovelies into the following challenges. The first being Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen over at Lavender and Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked.

Next up is the One Ingredient Challenge hosted by Working London Mummy and Laura at How to Cook Good Food. The theme for their challenge this month is Strawberries.

Finally, we have Simple and in Season where you can pick any seasonal product you like...hence the lovely British Strawberries! The challenge is from Fabulicious Food and this month it is also hosted by How to Cook Good Food...a busy month for Laura!

Ingredients

65g unsalted butter, melted
200g shortbread fingers
500g strawberries
1 tsp vanilla extract
185g caster sugar plus extra for dusting
200ml double cream
Handful of fresh mint
2 eggs
Pinch of cream of tartar

So to put it altogether...start by melting the 65g of butter and breaking your shortbread up into crumbs. Combine the two and then press into the base of four greased and based lined 10cm tins (springform). It is suggested you make your base paper circle larger than the actual base to help you remove the dessert from the tin when it's finished. Chill this in the fridge.

Next up whip the double cream with 1 tbsp of sugar and quarter 200g of the strawberries. Mix the quartered strawberries with the vanilla extract and 1 tsp of sugar. Then add the whole lot together with a little mint and crush the strawberries slightly with a fork.
You should have 300g of strawberries left which can be halved. To make the Italian meringue place 185g of sugar in a heavy based saucepan with 60ml of water. Gently dissolve the sugar and then bring to the boil (do not stir). In the meantime shisk up the two egg whites until they are at the soft peak stage. Using your sugar thermometre heat the sugar and water to 115 degrees. When it gets to this heat begin whisking the egg whites again and slowly pour a steady trickle of the sugar syrup into the egg whites. Try to avoid the beaters as you pour, otherwise it tends to splatter everywhere.

Finally, to assemble place the cut strawberries on the shortbread around the edge of the tin. The recipe calls for alternating cut side and non-cut side out...however, I think it looks better with all the cut sides out! Place a blob of the strawberry cream in the middle and then using a medium size round nozzle and piping bag, pipe the Italian meringue into peaks on top. Fo finsh off, brown the meringues under a grill until they go golden or use a blow torch if you have one. The whole thing can then go back in the fridge to chill before serving.

Shortbread

200g flour
200g butter
50g castor sugar

Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan. To make this it is suggested that you use a food processor but you can make it without too. Add the flour and butter into the food processor and mix, then add the sugar and combine, it should be crumbly at this stage. Ensure you have a 22cm greased fluted tart tin to hand and press the mixture into the tin with a spoon. Bake for 30-35 minutes, when it's golden it's done! Cut into wedges whilst still warm and then dust with a light covering of castor sugar.

* Recipe adapted from Delicious Magazine and is by Allegra McEvedy