20 Sweets in 20 Weeks - #3 Caramel Layer Cake

Are you ready for an absolute sugar overload? If you answered yes then read on this recipe is full of sugar and is so sweet! Even I the world's biggest sugar lover thought it was just a wee bit too sweet - but hey it hasn't stopped me from eating it. What is especially wonderful about this recipe is the cake itself - a lovely light texture, not too crumbly and super easy to make - I love it, and I hope you do too.


Yellow Cake (from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott)
Serves 8 to 10

3/4 cup butter
1 cup milk
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Grease and flour 2 9" round cake tins. (I used 2 8" tins)
   
2. Combine the butter and milk in a small saucepan, and cook over low heat until the butter melts. Stir well and set aside to cool to room temperature.
3. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl, and stir with a fork to mix well.
4. In a large bowl, combine the eggs and sugar, and beat well at high speed, scraping down the bowl often, until light yellow, smooth, and thick.
5. Stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture, mixing only until the flour disappears. Add the cooled milk mixture and the vanilla, and divide the batter between the prepared pans.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the cakes are a pale golden brown, spring back when touched lightly in the center, and begin to pull away from the sides of the pans. (Mine baked for 45 minutes)
7. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes on wire racks. Then turn out the cakes onto wire racks to cool completely, top side up.
8. I halved each cake again to make 4 layers of cake and 3 layers of icing.
   

Caramel Icing (I ended up making 1.5 times the mixture to get enough for the extra 2 layers of icing)

2 2/3 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
7 tbsp evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a heavy medium saucepan, combine all of the ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir well and then adjust the heat so that the frosting boils and bubbles gently. Cook for 7 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
2. Beat the warm icing with a wooden spoon until it thickens, 2-3 minutes.
   
3. Quickly spread the icing over the bottom layer of cake, then position the next layer and ice again, continue until all layers of the cake are in position. Then ice the top and side of the cake.
4. If the icing becomes too hard to spread warm gently over low heat, add a spoonful of evaporated milk, and then scrape and stir well until the icing softens enough to spread again. Dip a table knife in very hot water to help soften and smooth out the icing once it is spread.
   

Banana and Caramel Cake

I have been a bad blogger, I forgot to announce to the world on Saturday that it was Mat's birthday! And not only was it Mat's birthday but on that very same day it was our 6 year anniversary. Yep six wonderful years together and it feels like it has all just flown by. To celebrate this fantastic day I baked Mat a banana and caramel cake. I actually read through a whole heap of cake descriptions to see his reactions - mostly it was no, no, no - but then a yes! Yes he likes banana cake and so it was made.


Banana Caramel Layer Cake (from The Australian Women's Weekly Classic Cakes)
Makes a 24cm bundt cake
(I made a 6" cake and 12 cupcakes instead)

185g butter, softened
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
335g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/4 cups mashed banana (I needed 4 bananas)
1/3 cup milk
380g can caramel Top'n'fill (I used half a tin)
3/4 cup thickened cream, whipped
1 large banana sliced thinly (I omitted this)

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease 24cm bundt pan well (or grease and line a 6" round cake tin, and line a 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake liners).
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
3. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients, mashed banana and milk.
4. Spread mixture into bundt pan (or cake tin and cupcake liners).
5. Bake for 40 minutes (took my cupcakes 20 minutes and my 6" cake 30 minutes).
6. Stand cake in pan for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool.
7. Split cake into three layers. Spread bottom layer of cake with half the caramel, top with half the cream then half the banana slices. Repeat next layer. Replace top of cake and dust with icing sugar to serve. (I only split my cake into two layers and I left out the banana slices because I didn't want them to go brown).
   

Happy birthday and 6 year anniversary Mat - love you!

Baking Mondays - S is for Snickers Cupcakes

Chocolate cake filled with caramel and nuts, topped with caramel swiss meringue buttercream, chunks of Snickers and nuts, and finally drizzled with milk chocolate.

Snickers would have to be one of my all time favourite chocolate bars, so when they won the poll last week you could say that I was just a little bit excited. Lets see - chocolate, caramel, nougat and peanuts - could there be a better combination of yumminess? I think not.


I was actually a bit nervous this week after my absolute failure with my white chocolate raspberry cupcakes - but I am happy to report that these cupcakes rocked my socks off! I am officially back on track. So without further ado I present you with the recipe for Snickers cupcakes - The Red Deer style...

Devil's Food Cake from The Australian Women's Weekly - Classic Cakes
Made 20 cupcakes

180g unsalted butter, softened
385g caster sugar
3 eggs
225g self-raising flour
75g plain flour
1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
70g cocoa powder
3 tsps instant coffee granules
125ml water
125ml milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line 2 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake cases.
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in the eggs one at a time.
3. Fold in sifted flours, soda and cocoa with combined coffee, water and milk, in two batches.
4. Spoon mixture into cupcake cases and bake for 30 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean). Set aside to cool.

Snickers Cupcake Filling

1 cup peanuts
1 tin of Top'n'Fill Caramel

1. Mix together the peanuts and caramel. As a side note if you are not short of time it would be far yummier to make your own caramel - but with a baby constantly trying to pull down my pants I decided to take the easy route.
   
2. Once the cupcakes have cooled cut a well out of each cupcake, fill with the Snickers filling and then replace the piece of cupcake that was cut out.

Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Follow the directions for almond swiss meringue buttercream but replace the vanilla extract and almond essence with 4 tablespoons of caramel flavoured ice-cream topping.


Putting it all together

First off you need to make your topping so you will need the following...

1 cup milk chocolate melts
1/4 cup peanuts, roughly chopped
2 Snickers bars, roughly chopped

1. Top each cupcake with a swirl of caramel swiss meringue buttercream.
2. Sprinkle each cupcake with the combined peanuts and Snickers bar.



3. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring between intervals.
4. Drizzle each cupcake with chocolate.
5. Devour...
   

So the ratings?

Me - 9/10 - I think the only change I would make is to make my own caramel - that would make it super yummy! Other than that I love these cupcakes!
Mat - 10/10 - snickerrific!

Baking Mondays - C is for Caramel?

Okay so I was very excited about having caramel as the flavour for this week and I was tossing up between baking caramel spice cupcakes and caramel mud cupcakes. My ever so lovely husband decided that the caramel spice cupcakes sounded nice so I set out on my baking mission. Once they were all baked I sampled one of the cupcakes to make sure they were worthy of frosting (something I do with every batch) - and guess what? They don't taste like caramel at all! In fact I would say they taste more like gingerbread. So while that was a bit disappointing - I must say for a spice/gingerbread cupcake these were darn tasty! So I present to you Spice Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

Spice Cupcakes
(Caramel cake from The Australian Women's Weekly - More Cakes and Slices)
Makes 16

185g butter
150g brown sugar
80ml golden syrup
2 eggs
40g almond meal
125ml milk
300g self raising flour, sifted
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line 2 12 hole muffin trays with cupcake liners.
2. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and beat well with an electric mixer on low speed until combined.
3. Bake for 15 minutes (again remember my oven is silly - so this time may vary for you).

Brown Sugar Swiss Meringue Buttercream

4 egg whites
1 cup brown sugar
250g unsalted butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract

1. Combine the egg whites and sugar into a heatproof bowl and whisk over a saucepan of simmering water until sugar is dissolved and the mixture is as hot as you can get it without the egg whites cooking.
2. With the whisk attachment on your mixer whisk the egg white and sugar mixture on high speed until a stiff meringue is formed and the mix has cooled down to room temperature.
3. Now put the paddle attachment on your mixer and with the mixer on a low speed add a tablespoon or two of butter at a time. Once all the butter is incorporated turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix until the mixture is light and fluffy again.
4. Add vanilla extract and mix on medium speed until you get a good piping texture.

The ratings?

Me - 8/10 - very light, spongy, moist and tasty!! The cake is great and the buttercream is very subtle. My only complaint was that it didn't taste like caramel at all.

Mat - 10/10 - unexpected flavour - but they were sensational (and Mat doesn't even like gingerbread)!

Mat's work friends - 12/10 :o)

And the winner is...

Caramel!

Stay tuned for the next Baking Monday post to see the caramel cupcakes come to life.