"Ikea Daim Cake": Chocolate, Caramel, and Almond Cake

Looking for a Yuletide dessert that's not a fruit cake? Why not try this decadent Nordic confection, that can commonly be seen in your local Ikea?

Yes, today I will be sharing how you can make your own Daim cake! If you have an Ikea next door, then you have this fabulous cake within walking distance, but for those of us who live 100 miles away from the nearest Ikea shop (which, incidentally, is the only one in Ireland), we can make it whenever we like with this recipe!

For those of you who have never seen an Ikea before, it's a Swedish chain of homeware shops all across Europe and the USA. Coincidentally, it was St Lucy's Day on the Friday, which is a feast day commonly celebrated in Sweden! Maybe I should have made this for that occasion...

This cake bares a striking resemblance to the Esterházy torta I made earlier in the year: almond meringue layers sandwiching and enrobed in a rich filling made of egg yolk custard and butter. The only difference is an Esterházy torta doesn't have a chocolatey coating.

Having a dark chocolate layer, dotted with little crunchy pieces of slightly bitter caramel, gives the relentless butteriness and sweetness some much needed relief, which I think is missing in the Esterházy torta. But knowing what I know now, I might have another go at that cake as well.

I'm not going to lie, there is a tremendous amount of making in this cake. It has four different components: the dacquoise layers made of egg white, sugar, and toasted almonds; the vanilla mousseline made of egg yolk custard and unsalted butter; the crunchy caramel made of boiled sugar and salted butter; and the chocolate glaze, which is the simplest component.

For ease of reading, I have all the different components' ingredients and methods listed separately. Also, I've slightly updated it as I wish I had made my meringue layers a bit thicker.

TO MAKE DAIM CAKE

For the cake

4 egg whites

4 ounces (115 grammes) caster sugar

4 ounces (115 grammes) ground almonds

Decent pinch of salt

Optional: Almond and vanilla essence, to taste

• In a dry frying pan, toast the ground almonds over medium heat very well until they are a deep, nutty brown. Allow to cool.
• Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) and line the bottom of an un-greased 8 inch (20 centimetre) sandwich tin.
• In a mixing bowl, whip whites to soft peaks. Gradually add sugar while whipping to make stiff meringue. 
• Fold in the toasted almonds, salt, and essences. The trick is to be gentle, but quick.
• Bake the meringue 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown. It will dip slightly in the middle, but that's okay. 
• Cool for 10 minutes before loosening from the edges with a knife and turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the cream

3 egg yolks 

(you can add all 4 leftover egg yolks if you like, but technically it does only need 3)

3 teaspoons (15 millilitres) cornflour

3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar

6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) whole milk

(for added richness, you can replace a quarter of the milk with evaporated milk)

3 ounces (85 grammes) unsalted butter, soft

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence

Salt, to taste

• Mix yolks, sugar, and cornflour in a small saucepan until pale and creamy. Gradually mix in the milk until smooth. 
• Cook over medium heat, mixing all the time with a balloon whisk or rubber spatula, until it comes to the boil and thickens rapidly.
• Pour into a shallow bowl, cover the surface with greaseproof paper, and cool completely to room temperature. Once it's cool, pull off the greaseproof paper and scrape off any custard that is stuck to it, putting it back in the bowl with the rest of the custard.
• After cooling, place the butter in a mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer. Whip very well until pale, then gradually whip in the custard, little by little. Once completely mixed in, flavour with vanilla and season with salt.

For the "Daim" pieces

1½ ounces (45 grammes) salted butter

1½ ounces (45 grammes) golden syrup

1½ ounces (45 grammes) brown sugar

Two pinches of baking soda

• Fill the kitchen sink with about 2 inches (4 centimetres) of cold water.
• Cook all the ingredients, except for the baking soda, in a saucepan over medium heat, swirling the pan to mix the ingredients. Avoid the temptation to stir! 
• Cook the mixture to 150C, swirling very frequently to prevent the mixture from catching on the base of the pan. Once it reaches temperature, immediately remove from the heat and dip the bottom of the saucepan in the cold water to halt the cooking.
• Add the baking soda and swirl again to mix: it will puff ever so slightly, then pour onto a greased flat oven tray, or a marble slab. 
• When cool, crunch into small sprinkle sized pieces by hand, or by rolling over it in a plastic bag using a rolling pin.

For the chocolate coating

4 ounces (115 grammes) milk chocolate

2 ounces (55 grammes) dark chocolate

3 tablespoons (15 millilitres) sunflower oil

Pinch of salt

• Heat the chocolates and oil together in a jug in the microwave on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Season with salt.
• Alternatively, melt the chocolate and oil in a double boiler.
• Allow to cool and thicken slightly.

To assemble the cake

• Cut the cake in half (very carefully: it's quite thin and sandwich them together with the cream. 
• Flat ice the cake with a generous amount of cream. Any leftover cream can be used for other projects. 
• Take about three tablespoons of the chocolate coating and spread on top of the cake and sprinkle with Daim crunchies. Don't let it drip down the sides.
• Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes. This allows the crunchies to stick to the cake without running off with the rest of the glaze
• Use the remaining glaze, reheating gently if needed, to glaze the entire cake. Chill completely for 2 hours before serving.