Christmas Cake 2014!

Like I do every year, I started making the Christmas cakes in September as is tradition. I macerated the fruit for a week, then began the mass production of wheat and dairy free cakes. I made 4 successful cakes in total, but I messed up the first one by accidentally mixing baking powder into the flour by force of habit; that one we're eating as a tea brack.

I've always loved Christmas cake, and this year it's just as delicious as ever. I did, however, subsidise some of the sherry with cold strong tea to make it go further, as I was macerating 4 pounds (2 kilogrammes) of fruit in one go to make a load of cakes.

They have gone into storage, wrapped in cling film then tin foil, to mature until December when I will cover them all in marzipan and icing.

Here is the recipe for the cakes, it's a slightly modified version of last year's one (not much, just a little)

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat

CONTAINS
☒ Alcohol (use ingredients in italics for an alcohol-free version)
☒ Nuts (use ingredients in italics for a nut-free version)

INGREDIMENTS
Makes 1 8 inch (20 centimetre) round cake

For the fruit preserve:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) dried currants
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) raisins
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) sultanas
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) glacé cherries
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) candied mixed citrus peel
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) slivered almonds
• For a nut free version, simply replace that ounce (30 grammes) of almonds with another fruit of some sort.
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) brown sugar
• 1¾ fluid ounces (50 millilitres) rum, spiced or plain
• 5 fluid ounces (150 millilitres) dry sherry
• For an alcohol free version, just use 7 fluid ounces (200 millilitres) cold strong tea instead of the rum and sherry.

For the cake mixture

• 4 ounces (85 grammes) butter or block margarine
• 4 ounces (85 grammes) soft brown sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour or gluten-free flour mix
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) ground almonds
• For a nut free version, just replace this with an ounce (30 grammes) of cornflour
• 2 teaspoons ground mixed spice
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence or almond essence

HOW-TO

First mix all the fruit preserve ingredients together in a glass or ceramic bowl. Mix thoroughly, and leave somewhere cool (but not in the fridge) for a week before preparing the cake, stirring daily. For best results, the cake should be made at least a month before serving, so by extension the fruit mixture should be prepared about a month and a half in advance.

When the fruit has soaked:

• Prepare your cake tin. Grease and flour the inside, and then double line the bottom and sides with baking paper. Preheat the oven to Preheat your oven to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2, or moderately cool) and set the rack in the centre of the oven with plenty of room to spare from the rack above it.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and creamy with a wooden spoon or electric hand mixer.
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla or almond essence, and then the ground almonds.
• Sieve in the flour, spice and salt and mix in until the flour has just disappeared.
• Add the fruit preparation and combine thoroughly.
• Pour the cake mixture into the tin and bake for 1½ hours.
• Start checking for doneness after about an hour and a quarter. The cake is baked when a skewer inserted into the thickest part - usually the middle - comes out completely clean. If it isn't, continue cooking but don't cook for more than 1½ hours in total; it'll be dry and chewy.
• Once cooked, allow to cool completely in the tin before taking out and transferring to a wire rack.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Free-From Gingerbread Men

Variation on a Theme: Double Chocolate Chip Cookies (Wheat Free)

There's nothing I like more than a chocolate chip cookie, but when the cookie part is chocolate as well? Now that's a kind of magic.

As you can see in the picture, the chocolate chips are colourful, that's because I used M&Ms; I didn't feel like chopping up a bar of chocolate, and M&Ms just happened to be on offer in Dunnes. I think the only thing that could have improved these is if they had been Peanut M&Ms....

Also, these look a little different to the ones I usually make using this recipe because this batch I made using plain wheat flour. Once again, white spelt flour is rare and expensive, and seeing as I was making these as a gift for a friend who isn't wheat intolerant, I used normal flour.

To make these, I simply followed my usual recipe as linked above but replaced 1 tablespoon (30 millilitres) of the flour with cocoa powder, and used 7 ounces of M&Ms instead of chocolate chips. That simple: no voodoo here.

My brother, who is also able to eat wheat, sampled one and said they were delicious, but when he was eating one it sounded a tiny little bit crunchier than the ones I usually make. They're a little bit more like the packets of chocolate chip cookies you buy here in Ireland, that are crunchy not soft like they are in the States.

Either way, they were very pretty and reliable sources say they were tasty, which is my job done.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: (coincidentally) Variations on a Theme: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Something Savoury: Cheddar and Chorizo "Calzone" Pockets (Wheat Free)

Buon giorno, everyone! As you can see, this is a little different to what I usually do on this blog: this is not a sweet, but a savoury baked snack. I felt like doing something a little different for a change, and I've decided that sometimes I will be sharing some of my savoury snack and meal ideas with my readers here at Sweetie Pie Bakes stuff.

Sometimes blogging can get stale, and I thought it was time to freshen things up! But also, I need to mind what I eat a bit more because my skin keeps breaking out so I'll be avoiding sugary things. Not cutting them out completely, not at all! Just reducing.

For those of you that don't know what a calzone is, it's basically a pizza folded in half to make a pocket. This however doesn't use traditional Italian pizza dough, which is basically like bread, but instead I use hot water pastry, which is more familiar to the people of my parents' native land, England.

Hot water pastry is used in making pork pies and sometimes also for Cornish pasties: it's flaky but dense, and very rich. Traditionally, lard is used, but I use butter because it's tastier and not as artery clogging. Meat dripping would also work well, or margarine for the vegetarian dairy-free types.

The consistency of hot water pastry is very like play dough, so it's very easy to work with.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts


CONTAINS
☒ Gluten (oats and spelt)
☒ Dairy (you can use margarine instead of butter)
☒ Eggs

 INGREDIMENTS
For 5 pockets

For hot water pastry:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) spelt flour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter or margarine
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) water
• 1 medium egg
• Pinch of salt
• Milk, for brushing

For the filling:

• 5 slices of chorizo or salami
• About 3 ounces (55 grammes) grated mature Cheddar cheese
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) tomato purée
• Salt and pepper
• Optional: ground smoked paprika, or cayenne pepper

HOW-TO

• To make the pastry, heat the butter and water in a saucepan together over high heat and bring to the boil.
• Once boiling, remove from the heat and pour in the flour in one go. Mix until it becomes a dough. Leave to cool slightly for about 2 or 3 minutes.
• Add the egg and salt and beat to a thick paste. Cover with cling film, directly touching the surface of the pastry, and chill in the fridge until cold, about 30 to 45 minutes.
• Preheat your oven to 200°C (4000°F, Gas Mk.6, or hot) and lightly grease a baking sheet.
• Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a floured work surface and knead lightly for about a minute to bring it all together and make it smooth. Divide the dough into five equal portions.
• Take each portion and roll it into a square, just under a quarter inch (5 millimetres) in thickness.
• Spread a fifth of the tomato purée onto the square, leaving a half-inch (1 centimetre) border around the edge. Place a chorizo or salami slice in the middle, top with a fifth of the grated cheese, then season with a pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper, and a little shake of ground paprika or cayenne pepper, if using.
• Fold the square over across the diagonal to make a triangle, then firmly crimp the edges with a fork. Trim off the excess pastry if you like to make it neater. Place it on the baking sheet.
• Make the rest of the pockets in the same way, placing them all on the baking sheet. Brush each pocket with milk and bake on the top shelf of the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden and crisp.
• Serve hot from the oven or at room temperature. Do not reheat each pocket more than once.

The above filling is just a suggestion, but you could put anything in these: pork sausage meat with thinly sliced apple, left over chili con carne, chicken tikka, the world is your oyster!

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: The Search for Perfect Homemade Ice-Cream without a Machine

Recipe Revision: Vanilla Fudge Recipe

Last year I published a recipe for soft vanilla fudge, which is no doubt delicious, but can at times be very temperamental. Recently I've been finding out ways of making fudge a little easier to make, and this is the resulting fudge!

Beautiful isn't it?

It turns out that the first thing I discovered is that condensed milk is actually really useful. My original recipe didn't use condensed milk, because it's quite expensive and at the time I couldn't justify the cost of using it when it's perfectly feasible to make fudge without it. But when I discovered a really simple 2 ingredient condensed milk cheat, it suddenly became a lot cheaper. So, I'm reconciled with it.

The second thing is that traditional fudge is too sugary for my liking and not rich enough. I remedied this by upping the butter amount in the recipe. Very simple, but now the flavour is a lot fuller and not as one-dimensional.

This fudge is really soft and melts in the mouth. Depending on how long you beat it for is how firm and grainy it gets: the less you beat it, the softer; the more you beat it, the firmer.

I'm going to be adapting all my previous fudge recipes using this new improved version. Stay tuned!

INGREDIMENTS

This is a large quantity that will make about 1 pound (450 grammes) of fudge, but I've found it can be easily halved or even quartered. Just be really careful when making small batches because it can burn or crystallise easily.

• 8 ounces (225 grammes) condesned milk
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) light brown sugar
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) milk
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla or other essence

HOW-TO

• Prepare an 4 by 6 inch (10 by 15 centimeter) loaf tin by lining it with non-stick baking paper. You could also use a silicone baking tin, which needs no lining.
• In a heavy-based large saucepan, heat the all the ingredients in a heavy bottom saucepan the sugar has completely dissolved. Using a pastry brush dipped in hot water, wash the sugar crystals from the side of the pan. Alternatively, you can just pop the lid on the pan for a minute to allow the steam to wash it all away instead.
• Once the sugar has dissolved and there is no evidence of sugar crystals left, bring the mixture to the boil and once boiling clip a sugar thermometre to the side of the pan. Cook over medium-high heat until the whole thing reaches 118°C (245°F), stirring occasionally to prevent the dairy from burning to the pan.
• Once the fudge has reached temperature, take the pan from the heat and add the vanilla essence. B beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until thick, creamy and opaque. The mixture will slightly lose its shine and become more matte, and the consistency will be like freshly made Mr Whippy ice-cream. 
• Pour into your prepared tin and allow to cool at room temperature overnight.

Do not even think of setting it in the fridge: you can store it in the fridge once set, but setting the fudge in the fridge will cause crystallisation. Store in an air tight container to avoid it catching any unwanted odours or flavours.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: The Grand Christmas Cake Creation of 2013 (Part 2)

Wheat-Free Autumn Apple Crumble

Here in Ireland we've been having a massive late summer/early autumn heatwave, and every day this September has been in excess of 20 degrees Celcius outside, whih is not what I expect for autumn; in fact, I'm disappointed in autumn this year. For me, it has always been a month of hearty, warming comfort food, but the weather outside is just too darn hot for heavy food.

My solution: eat the same old comfort food, but make them a little lighter; same autumnal flavours, but without the heaviness.

Here is one of those recipes: a nice autumnal spiced apple crumble, made with a granola style crust. 

This recipe has been made a little less rich than is traditional by adding a nice dose of lemon juice to the apple mixture, and by using oil instead of butter. Oddly enough, despite using autumnal flavours, it has quite a summery feel to it.

I also really like the little oven dish I bought from my local Dealz (PoundLand) for a quid-fifty. It's about 4 by 7 inches (10 by 17 centimeters) which is just the right size to serve two or three people with this crumble. The recipe amounts are to fit a dish of this size, but obviously you can increase it if you want to fill a larger dish.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts
☑ Dairy

☑ Eggs
☑ Cocoa

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten (oats and spelt)
☒ Refined sugar products

 INGREDIMENTS

For the apple filling:

• 2 large sharp firm apples, for example Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Jazz, Braeburn etc.
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) raisins or sultanas
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) golden syrup
• Juice of ½ a lemon
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) salt
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) ground ginger
• Pinch of ground cloves

For the crumble topping:

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) rolled oats
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) wholegrain spelt flour
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) brown sugar
• 1½ fluid ounces (45 millilitres) sunflower oil
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) water
• Pinch of salt

HOW-TO

• Preheat your oven to 200°C (4000°F, Gas Mk.6, or hot).
• Prepare the filling by cutting the apples. To do this, cut each apple into quarters then cut out the core on each quarter; thinly slice each quarter. You can peel the apples if you like, but I prefer leaving the skins on.
• Place the apple slices into a bowl and sprinkle over the salt and golden syrup. Mix well. As you mix, the salt will pull the juice from the apples and the mixture will thin out. Add the rest of the ingredients and pour into your chosen dish.
• Prepare the crumble by mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl until it is fully combined, making a loose but moist mixture. Sprinkle over the filling spread out evenly.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the topping is crisp and golden brown.
• Serve hot with cream, custard, yogurt, or ice cream.

As well as being a nice dessert, I discovered (merely out of laziness) that this also makes a very nice breakfast when eaten with thick Greek yogurt. Obviously, it's not an every day breakfast, but does well as an occasional treat. Also, instead of apples one could use peaches, pears, or nectarines.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: There was no recipe.

Millionaire's Cheesecake (Wheat Free)

To be honest, I have absolutely no idea how and why I invented this dessert, but it certainly exists now if it didn't before. A blend of cheesecake and millionaire's shortbread, I bring you the Millionaire's cheescake!

The other day I made some millionaire's shortbread, which went wrong because I overcooked the caramel, and I still haven't been able to get the idea of cheesecake out of my head since my sister's birthday over a month ago. And yesterday I woke up with this concept jammed in my brain.

Shortbread biscuit base, caramel flavoured cheesecake layer, topped off with delicious dark chocolate ganache sauce: a Hipster's dream dessert, I'm ashamed to say.

My only issue with the dessert is that the layers are not very defined, and I also could have found a way to make the caramel cheesecake taste more caramelly, but this was my first attempt at making this so there's only room for improvement!

I used a heart shaped sillicone mould to make these, and it had eight hearts in it. Alternatively you can use a regular muffin tin, lining each hole with a paper cake case, or in an 8 inch (20 centimetre) round sillicone or springform tin.

Now for the recipe.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Dairy
☒ Eggs
☒ Cocoa


 INGREDIMENTS

For the base:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) spelt flour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) cornflour
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter or margarine
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• Pinch of salt

For the cheesecake mixture:

• 1 ounce (30 grammes) golden syrup
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) dark brown sugar
• 1 fluid ounce (30 millilitres) whipping cream
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) cream cheese
• 1 medium egg
• Pinch of salt

For chocolate sauce:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 1 fluid ounce (30 millilitres) golden syrup
• 3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) whipping cream
• Pinch of salt

HOW-TO
To make the biscuit base:

• Preheat your oven to 160°C (320°F, Gas Mk.2½, or very moderate).
• Make the biscuit base according to this shortbread recipe using the above ingredients, and distribute among the holes in your lined muffin tin. Prick the surface of each shortbread and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes.
• Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool.

For the cheesecake:

• While the bases are cooking, prepare the caramel base for the cheescake. In a saucepan, gently heat the golden syrup, cream, butter and sugar until all the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Once it reaches a boil, simmer gently for one minute only while stirring. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
• Once the shortbread bases come out of the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2, or cool). 
• Allow the bases to sit for 10 minutes. By this stage, everything will be at the right temperature to continue.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese, caramel mixture and salt until smooth. Add in the egg and mix with a wooden spoon until fully combined.
• Distribute among the individual bases and return to the oven for 20 to 22 minutes, until the cakes are set around the edge but still soft in the centre.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before chilling in the fridge for at least 2 hours before service.

To serve, make the sauce:

• In a microwave safe jug, heat the chocolate, syrup and cream together in one minute bursts on 'Defrost', mixing between bursts until it becomes a sauce. Alternatively, you can melt all the ingredients in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
• Serve the cheesecakes with the sauce poured over them, or present each diner with a cheesecake and serve the sauce in a jug for each diner to pour over themselves.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: The Grand Christmas Cake Creation of 2013 (Part 1)

Variation on a Theme: Malted Chocolate Ice-Cream with Caramel Swirl (Egg and Wheat Free)

As I'm sure you can imagine, this ice-cream was inspired by a very popular kind of chocolate bar made of malted chocolate nougat, topped with a layer of caramel, and enrobed in chocolate; you guessed it, a Mars bar.

Let me explain how I came to conceive of this ice-cream in my mind:

Over the course of my life I have come to learn that there are a few kinds of food products that are specifically enjoyed by English people, and it only dawned on my recently - being made more aware of my immigrant nature through talking to a Polish friend - that in Irish supermarkets you have the "English immigrant" foods. Examples of these products are crumpets, Marmite, Ovaltine, iced fingers and steak and kidney pies in tins, and I remember trying to explain to my peers why I was so excited when Cherry Coca Cola was eventually made available in Ireland. Now, generally speaking I consider myself and Irish person, but sometimes I get the little reminder that I also half belong to another race of people.

Within the last six months, however, one of these English interest products has vanished from Irish shelves: white Ovaltine. Ovaltine is a malted hot chocolate drink that is sold in powder form, which is mixed with hot milk and drunk as a bedtime drink. Due to my allergy to chocolate, I developed a taste for the white version, which is basically malt powder without the chocolate added. This version has sadly been discontinued here. Horlicks is similar, but nowhere near as nice, and also contains wheat. So, I went on the search for something that could replace my beloved white Ovaltine.

The other day I went to the local health food shop to get my usual spelt pasta and flour, and I spotted on the shelf a jar of pure barley malt extract, and my mind went BINGO! I had found the replacement for white Ovaltine. Barley malt extract is in syrup form, however, not powder. Since then, I've kind of been baking it into everything (including some really delicious malt granola that tastes just like Shreddies), and decided to make a flavour of ice-cream inspired by a malted milkshake, like the ones you can get in American style diners.

First I thought of making malted strawberry ice-cream, which would also be awesome, but I didn't have any strawberry jam. Instead, my mind wandered down the road of malted chocolate things, and finally it arrived at the doorstep of the Mars bar.

So, Mars bar: this is my ice-cream tribute to you!

I do understand that barley malt is unsuitable for coeliacs, but for those of you who can eat it, I recommend you give this a go.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Cocoa (yes, I thought I'd contain it because I was allergic to cocoa for a time)


INGREDIMENTS

For the ice-cream

• 8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres, 1 US cup) whipping cream, 35%-40% fat content
• 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres, ¾ US cup) condensed milk
• 3 tablespoons (45 millilitres) cocoa powder (see notes below)
• 4 teaspoons (20 millilitres) barley malt extract
• You could also replace the cocoa and malt extract with 4 tablespoons (60 millilitres) of original Ovaltine
• Pinch of salt

For the caramel swirl

• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) condensed milk
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) soft light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) cream

HOW-TO

• To make the caramel sauce, melt all the ingredients together in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved, stirring all the time. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
• Once the caramel sauce has cooled, make the ice-cream following the instructions here, but adding the malt extract (if using) to the condensed milk and cocoa mixture.
• Pour a third of the ice-cream mixture into the freezing container, then drizzle over half the caramel sauce. Pour another third of the ice-cream mixture over it, then drizzle the remaining caramel sauce over that layer. Finish with the final third of the ice-cream mixture.
• Using a knife, gently swirl all the layers together by zigzagging the knife through the container once. Decorate the top with sprinkles, if you like, then freeze for a minimum of 6 hours of overnight.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Wheat-Free Chocolardiac Arrest Cake

Hazelnut Chocolate Gâteau (Wheat Free)

Yesterday was my sister's boyfriend's 19th birthday, so I made him a cake as usual. I asked my sister to find out what kind of cake he wanted, and he requested a cake that "tasted like Nutella". So, here's what I came up with: a chocolate hazelnut gateau!

 In my time I have tasted many a chocolate hazelnut spread and I can say, even though this may be blasphemous, some supermarket own-brand kinds are nicer than the famous Nutella, despite it being the most popular. If one were to make this cake with actual brand Nutella it would be rather expensive, as I used an entire 400 gramme (14 ounces) jar to make this cake.

This recipe uses a quantity of buttercream that uses a pound (450 grammes) of icing sugar, and as you can see from the pictures the layers and outer icing are quite thin. This is how I like it, but you could always increase the buttercream quantity by half to make the layers and the outer coating thicker.

INGREDIMENTS:

For two 8 or 9  inch (20 or 23 centimeter) round sandwich cakes

• 6½ ounces (185 grammes) spelt flour
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) cornflour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 5 medium eggs, at room temperature
• 2½ ounces (70 grammes) soft brown sugar
• 5 ounces (140 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2½ ounces (70 grammes) sunflower oil
• 2½ ounces (70 grammes) butter or block margarine
• 5 to 7 tablespoons (75 to 105 millilitres) warm water
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) chopped hazelnuts

For filling and crumb coat:

• 4 ounces (85 grammes) room temperature butter or block margarine
• 4 ounces (85 grammes) chocolate hazelnut spread
• 1 pound (450 grammes) icing sugar, sieved
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) room temperature milk or water, or more if needed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For assembly (optional):

• Roughly chopped hazelnuts
• Chocolate hazelnut spread

HOW-TO:

First, prepare the cakes:

• Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate).
• Prepare the cake mixture as per the basic sponge recipe, and pour into two greased and floured 9 inch (23 centimeter) cake tins. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes until ready. Allow to cool completely in tins.
• Once cold, cut each cake in half horizontally, and cut the domes off both cakes. Decide how you will assemble the layers, making sure the bottom layer of one cake, bottom side up, is on the top of the pile.

Then, fill and crumb coat the cake:

• Cut a circle of card that's the same size as the bottom of the cake.
• Make the chocolate buttercream icing following this recipe, beating the chocolate spread and butter together first.
• Smear a little buttercream on the card circle and stick the bottom layer of cake to it.
• Spread the cake with a thin scraping of chocolate hazelnut spread, and then spread just a little less than a quarter of buttercream. Use the same amount per layer
• Spread the next layer with chocolate spread in the same way, and place on top. This means that each layer will be, cake -> chocolate spread -> buttercream -> chocolate spread -> cake. Repeat until you have run out of cake layers.
• Coat the whole cake in a thin layer of buttercream to hold in the crumbs. Chill in the fridge for about an hour; you should have just under a third of the buttercream left.

Assemble the masterpiece:

• Remove the cake from the fridge and coat with the remaining buttercream, leaving a nice back-and-forth rippled effect on the surface. Pile the roughly chopped hazelnuts on the top. Allow to set for about an hour before service.

And that's it! It's not very complicated, just a matter of spreading, but my Lordy was it delicious. We still have a little left in the fridge....

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: The Making of Videos (and Subsequent Technical Difficulties)