Cinnamon Caramel Cake

Goodness, how long has it been since I last wrote about my baking?  Ten months? Oops!  Okay, well let me return with something to really tickle your tastebuds.

This Cinnamon Caramel Cake was inspired entirely by the discovery of a spread on a supermarket shelf.  It was sat there surrounded by peanut butters and jams, and I almost didn't see it at all.

Do you ever go to a coffee shop where you get an individually wrapped Lotus caramelised biscuit?  Well this is a spread that tastes exactly like those biscuits.  Don't believe me? Here they are, and yes you can get then in smooth and crunchy!

Marvellous!

With my tastebuds well and truly loving me, and my little brain cells working overtime I tried to come up with something special, but also something simple that would let the Lotus spread shine perhaps without people even knowing what the secret ingredient was!

I used my sister and sisters in law as guinea pigs a few weeks ago on a lovely spa weekend just for us girls, and they went down a treat!

I don't often make the first of a new idea and decide not to change anything, but this was it.  It's incredibly simple, no fuss, no fancy decoration, just fabulous flavour.

My sponge recipe was only to add 1.5 tsp of cinnamon to a standard recipe, but I'll give you it here anyway (is this the first time I've given the actual recipe???).

200g self raising flour

200g caster sugar

200g unsalted butter, softened

4 large eggs

2 level tsp baking powder

1.5 tsp ground cinnamon 

I just blended it all together in the mixer until it was smooth and glossy (don't over mix it though or it won't rise as well as it should), then I put it in a greased and lined tin and baked it at 180 (160 fan) for about 40 minutes.  I think the tin I used was 7".

For the filling of the large cake I used some of the crunchy spread to add a little texture plus a little of the topping.  The topping was:

1 x 250g tub mascarpone

Smooth Lotus spread to taste

I used about 2 tbsp of Lotus spread, but half the fun with experimental baking is tasting as you go along, so have a play with it!

This is the cake I've finished off tonight, ready to give to a colleague who's leaving tomorrow.  After coating the cake I textured the top a little (though you can't really see it here) and sprinkled it with some ground cinnamon.  Decorating large cakes isn't exactly my forte, so I tend to keep it simple!  Anyway, without doubling up on the topping there wasn't enough to start doing any fancy piping.  

When I made the cupcakes the only difference was making a small well in the middle and filling with the crunchy spread before piping on the topping. 

I know I said I wouldn't change this recipe, but while I was typing I did consider that next time I might try using a soft brown sugar instead of caster sugar for a bit more depth of flavour.  Not yet though.  Ginger Cream Cake is next for dad's birthday party!

It turns out that there won't be many people at work tomorrow.  Shame.  Well, not for me and my colleague.  No, I won't tell you where I work.

Do make it.  It's rather lovely!

Mint Chocolate Cake

I know it’s been a long time since my last foodie blog post, but in my defence I’ve been a tad busy.  And lazy!  At some point I will post about the remaining technical challenges I completed last year from the Bake Off, but for now I’m focussing on the new stuff.

I’ve been experimenting a lot more lately.  I moved into my own flat in December, complete with absolute freedom in the kitchen, and I’ve immersed myself in experimentation of the baked kind.  This includes, but is not limited to:

·         Mint and double chocolate chunk muffins

·         A giant chelsea bun for a friend’s birthday

·         Hazelnut praline pavlova

·         Lemon and passionfruit cake

·         Citrus fruit loaf

·         Gingerbread house (more “I wonder whether I can”, rather than experimenting!)

My offering today is a Mint Chocolate birthday cake for none other than my boss!  I’m glad to say I’ve pretty much had freedom to choose what to make this time, the only request being for chocolate.

Back in November I did a batch of test cupcakes that were unleashed on the paying public for charity, those being Chocolate and Peanut Caramel Cupcakes.  They went down a treat, with two different people asking me for the recipe I’d used for the chocolate icing.  How flattering!  My main test of these cakes was down to the sponge.  I used a regular recipe for chocolate cupcakes, but I also added a forgotten quantity of dark Belgian chocolate.  The purpose was to produce a slightly denser but moister sponge, and I think it worked.

So, that’s what I used for this birthday cake, only playing a guessing game with the quantity of added melted chocolate because I like to live life on the edge!  I also added some peppermint extract because I didn’t just want a bog-standard chocolate cake with some flavoured icing.

I took inspiration from my Chocolate Orange Truffle Cake, and decided to coat it with a glossy chocolate ganache made with half milk and half plain chocolate so it wouldn’t overpower the mint.  I know it’s a fine line with peppermint; if you use too much you may as well be eating toothpaste, but use too little and the point of it is lost entirely.  It was also part of the reason for my decision not to attempt mint butter icing.  Buttery toothpaste, anyone?

I did, however, still want a filling for the cake.  I decided that whipped cream wouldn’t quite work for what I had in mind, so I returned to the trusty mascarpone!  I used one tub of mascarpone mixed with a little sifted icing sugar and some peppermint extract.

Decoration with larger cakes is often my downfall.  I have a great image in my mind of how I want a cake to look when it’s finished, but my talents mean I fall short and it looks very homemade!  On very bad days it looks like a five year old has made it!  This time I decided to keep it simple and attempted elegance!  I melted and tempered some white chocolate, grabbed a very large sheet of greaseproof paper, made a little piping bag and let loose.  The result was around fifty scribbles, shapes and patterns that I’d choose from later.  I’ll eat the rest gradually over time despite telling myself they’ll be stored for future use.

(Edited to add that they were eaten by the end of the next day!).

I didn’t wait until I’d iced the cake before deciding which of the white chocolate decorations to use.  Instead I laid them on the cake before I even sandwiched it with the mascarpone, to be sure I was doing exactly what I wanted and what (I thought) would work.

I was fortunate to read a tip from someone a few days ago (I can't remember where) for coating the cake. Before putting the cake on your board or plate, put a few strips of greaseproof paper where the edges of the cake will sit (I used five), and have a couple of inches sticking out.  The reason for this is that when the ganache flows down the sides of the cake not only will the paper catch most if not all of the overspill, once the ganache has set you can carefully pull the pieces of paper out from under the cake.  It will give you neat edges and you won't have to attempt cleaning up the board.  This was the first time I tried it and it worked a blimmin’ treat!

So this is the result.  Mint Chocolate Cake with mint mascarpone filling, coated with mint chocolate ganache, topped with homemade white chocolate decorations.

I've finally learned my lesson with a full ganache coating; to only use it for a single layer cake, or to use something like a thin fondant on the sides to get them lovely and smooth before pouring on the ganache.  In this case I could have used a ball of peppermint cream 'dough'.  Next time, perhaps.

Was it elegant?  Nope.

Was it perfect?  Nothing I ever bake is perfect in my view!

Was it delicious?  I've made nicer but it ain't half bad (see previous answer to 'perfect'!)

Did my boss like it? Yep, she really did, and that's what really matters.

Two people have since commented that the flavour reminded them of Yo-Yo mint chocolate biscuits from distant days gone by!  Ah, memory lane...