Caramel Layer Cake
|Oh my goodness.. how I love cakes with fillings and ganaches and gooey bits. However, I never seem to be very good at them.. so when the people from brand new The Great British Bake Off App contacted me and asked if I was interested in a yummy baking challenge, I thought, yes… why not?! We love to bake. And who knows. This time it make turn out a treat! Better still, I am allowed to share the recipe with you! Hooray!
Materials
- 3 x 20.5cm sandwich tins (greased & dusted with flours)
- Baking paper (for the bottom of the sandwhich tin)
- Piping bag (for the decoration)
- 300g self raising flour
- pinch of salt
- 300g caster sugar
- 250g unsalted butter
- 4 large eggs at room temp
- 4 tablespoons of buttermilk (I used plain yoghurt as a replacement) at room temp
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Filling (the gooey bit)
Note: I had quite a lot of this left over (and used it for cupcakes), I reckon 2/3s or half the quantity of the below should be enough!
- 225g unsalted butter
- 450g dark brown muscovado sugar
- 175ml double cream
- 300g icing sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
Preheat oven to 180C
Prep the sandwich tins: grease and sprinkle with flour, then line with the baking paper.
Method:
The Cake (easy)
I let the kids help. Afterall, it is pretty much “just” measuring and mixing. Great for kids learn about numbers and following instructions. The Girl, ADORES breaking eggs!
1) Make the cakes first: in essence mix it all up. But if you are professional about it, beat the eggs, yoghurt/ buttermilk and vanilla essence together first and then gradually pour it into the flour/ sugar/ salt/ butter mixture. Whisk it with an electric whisk until smooth and fluffy. Divide evenly into cake tins. Spread the top. And pop in the oven for 20-25min. Until golden and springy. Remove from the oven. Let cool a minute or two and then remove from the tins and place on a rack to fully cool.
The Gooey Bit (a little tricky, but worth it)
I made this part without the kids. As mentioned above – I had quite a lot of this left over (and used it for cupcakes), I reckon 2/3s or half the quantity of the below should be enough!
- Place 175g of butter, the sugar and the cream in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Keep stirring. Then keep simmering for another 5min.
- Put in a heat proof dish. Gradually add all the icing sugar whilst whisking with an electric whisk.
- Once almost cooled, add the remaining 50g of butter and salt to taste.
- Melt 50g of the chocolate carefully in the microwave (the App and book give different instructions as to how to do this to this, but I am lazy and used the microwave) – I give it several 30sec blasts, be sure not to burn it.
- Add 1/4 of the caramel mixture to the choc and mix well. I let it cool in the fridge for 10min as I didn’t want it to run away (my classic ganache problem!).
- Use this choc caramel mixture for two layers of the sandwich cake. Let set in the fridge.
- Use the remaining caramel mixture (heat if necessary, I didn’t, as I didn’t want it super runny again), to cover the top of the cake. In the meantime melt the remaining 50g of chocolate in the microwave.
- Fill your piping with the chocolate (ooo-eerr). Create a swirl pattern.
- Take a toothpick and skim across it.
- Admire your work.
Now.. as mentioned, this cake is part of the Great British Bake Off cake book and App. To launch this new book and app, they got hold of 10 *daring* bloggers and asked them to get baking. Trying out the cook book and the app as they went along. We are also all adding one letter to our cakes… and once you you see all 10 cakes it will spell something.. can you guess what it is? Mummy Mummy Mum did the first cake and letter. What cake did she bake? How did it taste? And more importantly WHAT LETTER?! Check it out!
Here is ours:
Mmmh. Apologies that it ended up a little small! I tried to make it BIG….
Find out more about the App:
I do love the app – as the one thing I ALWAYS forget when I am at the shops is… “what ingredients do I need for xyz”. I DO love browsing a book… but I love browsing an app whilst waiting to collect the kids or when at the baking aisle even better!
Disclaimer: I was sent the cook book, app and some baking ingredients and tools to take part in this challenge.
Wow! That looks absolutely delicious!
Bethany @ No Twiddle Twaddle recently posted..Virtual Book Club: Kevin Henkes
Thank you, we rather enjoyed it. Just a little left and sharing it with playdate tomorrow!
This would be wonderful with a cup of tea!
Oh yes, perfect with some tea!
This would be wonderful with a cup of tea!
Wow, that looks fantastic!
Emma recently posted..Back to school
It was rather yummy! Thank you!
What a lovely recipe! Think we might be doing a spot of baking this week end at Casa The Fairy and The Frog
The fairy and the frog recently posted..Happy Birthday Dear Zoo
Enjoy!! And if like us, you have lots of the caramel left over, save it for cupcakes with choc sprinkles!!!
Oh yum! This looks delicious!!! Mmm, would love a slice right now 😉
Kelly recently posted..Magical starry night
Hi there,
I tried this recipe but the layers were very dense. I felt that a raising agent was needed – and buttermilk as an ingredient led me to think this should be bicarb.
I tried again with half a teaspoon and the results were fantastic. I contacted Love Productions to query if it was a mistake but received no reply.
I also had a problem with the caramel icing – it did not want to come together and kept splitting, seemed very oily?
I would love to hear your views – thank you!
Linda
Hi Linda,
Thanks for your feedback. I confess, I am not an expert when it comes to “fancy recipe”. I found the icing fine – but I guess, possibly a bit dense? More like a caramel ganache?
Not sure how you could improve it!
Maggy