"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.

Kitchen Experiment: "White Velvet" Cake

One of my personal favourite recipes on this blog is the red velvet cake I made back in 2017 when living in Roscommon with my fiancé. It's my go to recipe for chocolate cake, but normally when I want a plain cake I use my normal sponge recipe or the super fluffy sponge I used in the Japanese shortcake. So, I wondered: can I use the red velvet recipe for plain cake?

From my superficial research on Pinterest (which, to be fair, is all the research I have time for these days) American bakers make something called white cake, which essentially has the same constituent parts as the red velvet (without the cocoa and red colouring, obviously) but added together slightly differently. The main difference is that white cake uses only egg whites.

I tried making this cake the American way without egg yolks, but it always turned out too gummy. I think one needs the emulsifying nature of yolks to keep everything together. So, this is essentially the same as my red velvet recipe, only the butter is replaced entirely with oil and the egg whites are whipped separately for lots of volume.

I made a small rectangular cake by whipping 1 egg white with 1½ ounces (40 grammes) of caster sugar to medium peaks. In another jug, I mixed another 1½ ounces (40 grammes) of caster sugar with the egg yolk until smooth, then mixed in 2 ounces (55 grammes) sunflower oil, 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence, and a few drops of almond essence until evenly blended. I folded the yolk mixture into the white mixture gently until fully mixed. I then alternately added 3 ounces (85 grammes) of sifted white flour and raising agents with 2 fluid ounces (55 millilitres) of buttermilk. For this amount of cake, I added ¼ teaspoon baking powder, ⅓ teaspoon baking soda, and ¼ teaspoon of fine salt. I then baked it in a 180C oven for 20 minutes.

After baking and cooling, I filled and iced the cakes with the same kind of cooked milk frosting as the red velvet cake. This time, however, I made it by cooking half a pint of milk, 5 teaspoons of cornflour, and 8 ounces of sugar into a custard. I then whipped the custard with 8 ounces of unsalted butter. Cooking the sugar into the custard made for a much nicer mouthfeel. I only used half of this amount of icing for this small cake, before packing the sides with slivered almonds.

Now, was this cake any fluffier than just using the regular recipe and swapping out the cocoa and food colouring? No. Even though this was paler than a normal vanilla butter cake, I have other recipes that would be just as good for making a pale, fluffy sponge.

"Jacob's Mikado" Cupcakes: Coconut, Raspberry, and Marshmallows

Mikadoo, doo, doo, push Pineapple shake the tree.... 

Y’all know I love Mikado biscuits. I don’t think I’ve ever done a Mikado recipe on this blog before, but I’ve probably enthused about this all-Irish treat at some point on some blog post in the past. A Mikado, produced by a company called Jacob’s, is a small rectangular biscuit topped with two parallel rows of pink marshmallow, between which is a row of tangy raspberry jam; the whole confection is dusted with desiccated coconut. Although they are available all year round, they are especially popular at Christmas time, where they’re sold in massive plastic tubs to make sure you have enough for all the guests you’ll be entertaining throughout the Christmas season. 

Mikados are just one biscuit in a range of marshmallow biscuits produced by Jacob’s: there are Coconut Creams, which are round plain biscuits topped with a splodge of coconut sprinkled marshmallow (which are either pink or white); and there are Kimberleys, which are a sandwich biscuit made of gingerbread and marshmallow, the exposed edges of which are encrusted with coarse white sugar crystals. And all of these, of course, come in a chocolate coated variety for greater indulgence at special occasions (there’s even a triple chocolate Kimberley, where the biscuit and the marshmallow within the chocolate coating are also cocoa flavour. It’s sinfully delicious). 

This simple combination of plain, buttery biscuit, jam, marshmallow and coconut is easily adapted to all sorts of baked goods, including these here cupcakes! These are a nice vanilla almond cake (a flavour which is commonly referred to as “birthday cake” flavour in the States, sans the sprinkles) filled with seedless raspberry jam and topped with pillowy 7-minute frosting, before being dunked in desiccated coconut. The whole thing is then crowned with a Mikado. 

I make 7-minute frosting by mixing 2 egg whites, 2 tablespoons of water, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, and 8 ounces of caster sugar in a heatproof bowl. I then gently heat this over simmering water until the sugar dissolves and it’s warm to the touch. I take it off the heat and whip it with an electric hand mixer for a full 7 minutes, until it is marshmallowy light and cool to the touch. This is easily flavoured and coloured: in hindsight, I should have coloured mine pink to mirror the biscuits, but the white it also pretty; I flavoured mine with vanilla. 

This is best eaten within three days, as after three days the icing turns all dusty as the sugar re-crystalises. To avoid this, you can replace up to a third of the sugar with glucose syrup. 

Buon Natale! Orange Amaretti: Italian Almond Macaroons (Gluten- and Dairy Free)

And thus, our Advent-ure (get it?) around Central Europe will begin with a trip to Italy! Here is my take on a simple Italian seasonal treat: amaretti, with a hint of orange!

Essentially, an amaretto is an almond macaroon and a lot of Central European countries have a version of nut macaroons and coconut macaroons. In Germany, there are kokosmakronen (coconut), mandelmakronen (almond), and haselnussmakronen (hazelnut); in France, you have the iconic macarons, which are much more delicate and technical than its cousins in other countries; and in Hungary, there are kókuszcsók (coconut). Here in Ireland, coconut macaroons are definitely more popular than the almond variety.

Making amaretti doesn't really need a recipe, as it's just a combination of egg whites, sugar, and almonds. To make them, simply make a stiff meringue with 3 ounces (85 grammes) of caster sugar for each medium (US large) egg white. Add in orange zest and almond essence to taste, and enough orange food colouring gel to get a nice pastel shade, and then fold in 3 ounces (85 grammes) of ground almonds for each egg white.

Fit a disposable piping bag with a half-inch (1 centimetre) round nozzle, and fill the bag with the mixture. Pipe the biscuits onto non-stick paper lined baking sheets, making each biscuit into a mound about an inch or so tall and wide.

Bake in an oven preheated to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2) for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the biscuits are crisp and dry to the touch. Allow to cool slightly on the trays before gently peeling off and tranferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with a little icing sugar to serve.

These keep very well in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

メリークリスマス! Japanese Christmas Strawberry Shortcake

So, on my Facebook page, I recently announced that this December would be one without traditional dried fruit recipes: no mince pies, no fruit cake, no pudding, et cetera! This led me to do an awful lot of research into the Christmas food traditions of various nations from all over Eurasia, particularly Central Europe, and I was considerably educated!

However, before we delve into the Christmas traditional vitals of the central Europeans, here is an offering from the far East: Japanese Strawberry Shortcake!

From my superficial research, I was surprised to discover that mainstream Christmas celebrations weren't common in Japan until the American occupation after World War II, as such Japan doesn't have much of a Christmas food culture. Christmas is a primarily commercial affair to the mostly-Buddhist Japanese, and there aren't many particular foods that are associated with the event.

In all of my Pinterest surfing and Google searching had one cake in common, however: strawberry shortcake, called いちごのショートケーキ (ichigo no shōtokēki). This confection comprises of two light fluffy sponges (sometimes tinted pink) brushed with liqueur-scented syrup, sandwiching a sweetened whipped cream and fresh strawberry filling, iced with more cream and fresh strawberries.


While soaking cake in alcohol is very much a Christmas thing, the rest of it is something I'd associate more with a summer time dessert. And even the name is not fully correct, as the word "shortcake" refers to a cake which has a high butter or fat content, which this cake certainly does not as a (mostly) fatless sponge. Most articles say that this cake is a common generic celebration cake in Japan, and as such is eaten at Christmas as a celebratory food. I suppose this is a case of East is East, West is West, and ne'er the twain shall meet.

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DIFFICULTY

Each step is simple, but there are a lot of steps

TIME

About 2 or 3 hours

RECIPE RATING

Intermediate

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INGREDIMENTS

For one 7x11 inch (18x28 centimetre) rectangular cake

3 medium (US large) eggs

3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar

3 tablespoons (45 millilitres) sunflower oil

3 tablespoons (45 millilitres) milk, cream, or Baileys Irish Cream, or milk alternative

3 ounces (85 grammes) plain spelt flour

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence

A few drops almond essence

Pink or red food colouring

Simple syrup

2 tablespoons (30 grammes) caster sugar

2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) water

Optional: 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) liqueur of choice: Kirsch, rum, brandy, amaretto, Baileys Irish Cream

The liqueur can be replaced with a few drops of almond essence

Whipped cream and strawberry filling

3 ounces (85 grammes) strawberries, stems removed and cut into quarters

1 teaspoon (5 grammes) caster sugar

9 fluid ounces (250 millilitres) whipping cream

2 tablespoons (15 grammes) icing sugar

2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) vanilla essence

A few drops of almond essence

6 whole strawberries, stems removed and cut in half

Optional: 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) Baileys Irish Cream

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FREE FROM

Wheat, yeast, nuts

CONTAINS

Eggs, spelt, dairy (dairy free option in italics), refined sugar

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METHOD

First, make the cake

• Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4). Lightly grease a 7x11 inch (18x28 centimetre) rectangular tin, and line with non-stick baking paper.
• Prepare the cake according to this recipe, adding the essences and enough food colouring to make a delicately pink mixture. Once baked, remove the paper and allow to cool completely.

Prepare the syrup

• Mix the sugar and water together in a jug or mug, and heat in the microwave for 1 minute on high, until the sugar has dissolved completely in the water.
• Mix in the liqueur, and allow to cool slightly until just warm. If you don't want to use alcohol, add in a few drops of vanilla and almond essences.

Prepare the strawberries and cream

• In a bowl, toss the quartered strawberries with the caster sugar and allow to sit for 10 minutes. The sugar will transform into a delicious syrup and the strawberries will become juicy.
• Whip the cream with the icing sugar, vanilla, and almond essences to soft peaks in a cold mixing bowl. Take about 3 ounces (85 grammes) of the cream and fold into the juicy strawberries.
• Keep the remaining cream and the strawberry cream in the fridge while you prepare the cake for assembly.

Now, assemble the masterpiece!

• Cut the cake in half to make two 7x5½ inch (18x14 centimetre) cakes. Brush liberally with the simple syrup to soak the surface. 
• On a serving plate, sandwich the two cakes together with the strawberry cream, spreading the filling to the edges. Press together gently, and chill for an hour.
• Take out of the fridge and trim the crusts; your cake will be reduced in size to roughly 6x5 inches (15x13 centimetre). Enjoy the cut offs!
• Ice with the remaining cream, smoothing to your liking, and then decorate with the halved strawberries.
• Chill for about 2 hours before serving. This cake can be cut into 12 little squares, or 6 fingers.

STORAGE

This cake will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for 3 days.

Bakewell Gateau (Wheat Free, with Dairy Free Option)

My Dad celebrated his 57th birthday this year! It was a lovely day: he got some nice presents, like some new bubble baths and books on watercolors--which is a new hobby of his--and we got a lovely dinner made by my brother's fiancée (with his help).

So, to commemorate this special occasion, I decided to make a cake version of my Dad's favourite pastry: Bakewell tart! I've only had one brush with the iconic English delight on this blog in the past, and it was just a fairly straightforward traybake re-imagining to save some time on making individual pastry cases.

This cake pays homage to the delicious shortbread pastry case by encircling the whole perimeter with shortbread biscuits. The cake itself is made from two thick layers of buttery almond sponge, inspired by the dense, moist frangipane sponge usually found in a Bakewell tart. And you can't make this kind of cake without sweet fondant-style icing and glacé cherries!

Please set aside a good 5 hours to make this: it's not technically complicated, but it's time consuming. In fact, this tastes much better the day after it's made, not on the day.

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DIFFICULTY

Simple sponge cake and shortbread making, and layer cake constructing

TIME

About 5 hours

RECIPE RATING

Experienced: time consuming

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INGREDIMENTS

Makes one deep 8 inch (20 centimetre) round cake

9 ounces (250 grammes) caster sugar

6 ounces (170 grammes) unsalted butter, or baking margarine, at room temperature

3 medium (US Large) eggs, at room temperature

1 to 2 teaspoons (5 to 10 millilitres) almond essence, to taste

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence

4 fluid ounces (115 millilitres) whole milk, or milk alternative

Pinch of salt

4½ ounces (130 grammes) white spelt flour

4½ ounces (130 grammes) ground almonds

2½ teaspoons (12 millilitres) baking powder

Jam Filling

4 fluid ounces (115 millilitres) seedless raspberry jam

2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) cornflour

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) lemon juice

Shortbread Biscuits

3½ ounces (100 grammes) white spelt flour

1 ounces (30 grammes) cornflour

3 ounces (85 grammes) salted butter, or baking margarine

1½ ounces (40 grammes) sugar

To decorate

8 ounces (225 grammes) icing sugar

1 ounce (30 grammes) butter, melted, or coconut oil, or baking margarine

Hot water, to mix

7 glacé cherries, cut in half

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FREE FROM

Wheat, yeast

CONTAINS

Spelt, eggs, dairy (dairy free option in italics), refined sugar, nuts

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METHOD

First, make the biscuits to decorate the outside

• In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and icing sugar together until smooth. Sieve in the spelt flour and cornflour, and rub into the mixture with your fingers until you have a soft dough. Wrap in cling film, flatten into a disc, and chill for about an hour.
• If you like, while the dough is chilling, you can prepare the cake.
• Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2), and line one or two flat sheets with a piece of non-stick baking paper.
• Dust the work surface with cornflour and roll out to about a quarter inch (5 millimetres) thick. Cut into rectangles measuring 1 by 2½ inches (2½ by 6½ centimetres) with a straight blade or a fluted pastry wheel. You can re-roll the dough twice to cut more biscuits, and you should have about 20 biscuits.
• Lie the biscuits on the baking tray, about half an inch (1 centimetre) apart, and bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the edges are gently browned.
• After cooking, transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the cake

• Sieve together the flour, almonds, salt, and baking powder onto a sheet of baking paper, and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together very well, until light and creamy. Using an electric mixer, this will take about 3 minutes.
• Beat the eggs in one by one, making sure to beat in each egg completely before adding the next. If you have a food processor, the eggs, sugar, and butter and be blitzed all at once for a couple of minutes.
• Beat in the essences, adding the almond essence to taste. Fold in half the flour mixture, followed by the milk, and finishing with the last half of the flour mixture.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, and bake on the centre shelf of the preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. If the top is browning too quickly, but the cake isn't done through the middle, cover with a tin foil tent.
• Once cooked, remove from the oven, loosen the sides, and allow to cool completely in the tin on a wire rack.

While the cake cools, prepare the jam

• Place the jam in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until it melts and begins to simmer. Mix the cornflour, lemon juice, and a few teaspoons of water together in a cup to make a slurry.
• Beat in the slurry and continue to cook for a minute or two, until the mixture thickens. Allow to cool completely before using to fill the cake.

Assemble the masterpiece!

• If the cake has a dome, cut it off. Cut the cake in half into two equal layers. Place the top half of the cake upside down on the serving plate, cover with the jam, spreading out to half an inch (1 centimetre) from the edge. Sandwich with the bottom half of the cake, upside down. Now, the flat bottom crust of the cake is the top.
• Make a thick but running icing with the icing sugar, melted butter, and enough hot water to get the right consistency.
• Cover the top and sides with a very thin layer of glace icing. Use a little bit of icing on the back of each biscuit and attach to the side of the cake to make a crust.
• If the icing has set too much, add a few drops of water and heat for a few seconds in the microwave to retrieve the flowing consistency. Pour onto the top of the cake to make a thick icing layer; the biscuits make a damn to hold in the icing.
• Decorate the top with halved glacé cherries, as you like. This cake is best made the day before serving, but if you don't have that amount of time, allow the whole confection to set for about 2 hours before serving.

STORAGE

Best eaten the day after it's made, but keeps in an airtight container for up to 10 days at room temperature.

Bat 'n' Burg Cake (Wheat and Dairy Free)

 

In my world, everyday is Halloween: I usually wear black with spiders and bats and spikes (gotta love a Goth stereotype), but when it's actual real-life calendar accurate Halloween, it's essentially my Christmas.

So, as my first offering of the Halloween season, I present to you this punderful delight: the Bat 'n' Burg! I think it's appropriate in two ways, as this is a delicious seasonal retelling of a traditional tea time classic, and also the name is a nice visual homage to Dr Frank 'n' Furter, who--for those of you in the know--is so fittingly seasonal. Credit to my lovely companion for coining the name of this delight...

Although this is a mini cake which would give a little slice to four people, a bigger version would be a delicious centre piece for any party table! Speaking of a bigger version, keep your eyes peeled for this Bat 'n' Burg's bigger brother in my upcoming Halloween video!

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DIFFICULTY

Requires cutting cake into layers,
shaping, and coating with marzipan

TIME

About 3 hours

RECIPE RATING

Experienced

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INGREDIMENTS

For each 4 inch (10 centimetre) cake

2 ounces (55 grammes) white spelt flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar

1 medium (US Large) egg

1 fluid ounce (30 millilitres) sunflower oil

1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

A few drops almond essence

Green and orange food colouring

To decorate

6 or 8 ounces (170 to 225 grammes) white marzipan, bought or homemade

Purple and black paste food colouring

Raspberry or apricot jam, warmed

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FREE FROM

Dairy, nuts, wheat

CONTAINS

Spelt, eggs, refined sugar, almonds

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METHOD

First, bake the cakes.

• Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the bottom and sides, line the bottom of the tin with non-stick baking paper, and flour your 4 inch (10 centimetre) round deep cake tin.
• Separate the egg, put the whites into a mixing bowl, and mix the yolk with the oil in a jug.
• Whip the egg white, adding the sugar gradually, until you have a meringue that holds soft peaks. Mix in the vanilla, a few drops of almond essence, and orange food colouring. You want a nice shade of colour, but the colour will darken slightly after baking.
• Sieve in the flour and baking powder and add the milk, then fold gently until well blended, making sure not to knock out the air.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and tap a few times on the work surface. Bake in the centre of the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the surface feels springy to the touch, and a cocktail stick poked into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow the cake to cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack before loosening from the sides of the tin and turning out onto the rack to cool completely.
• Wash the tin so you can grease, line, and flour it for the next cake. If you have two tins, you can cook both cakes together.
• Repeat the whole procedure for the second cake, this time colour it with the green colouring.

Next, decorate!

• Cut the domes off both cakes and cut evenly into two layers each: all layers should be very close in height.
• Using a 2½ (6 centimetre) inch and a 1½ (4 centimetre) inch cutter, cut each layer into concentric circles. Take the concentric circles apart, brush the insides with warm jam, and put them back together again with alternating colours.
• Take the best three layers, and sandwich them together in alternating colours, using the jam to join them. Brush the entire cake with jam.
• Dust the surface with icing sugar, and pinch off a tiny bit of white marzipan to use later. Knead purple colouring into the rest of the marzipan. Roll it out to about a quarter inch (5 millimetres) thick, and cover the cake completely and evenly. Cut off the excess.
• Knead some black colour into the remaining marzipan and roll it out again to the same thickness. Cut out two wings, two eyes, two heat shapes, and a smiley mouth. Stick a cocktail stick onto the wings and fix in place with some more marzipan. Fix some cocktail sticks onto the hearts, making sure the pointy end is pointing out, and then pinch the two rounded bits together to make ears. Leave everything to dry completely before assembly.
• Using the little bit of white marzipan, put shines on the eyes and make two little pointed teeth.
• Assemble the bat face, fixing the black marzipan on with water. Stick the wings and ears into the cake using the cocktail sticks.

STORAGE

This cake will keep for up to 10 days in an airtight container at room temperature, but is best enjoyed within a week of making.

Something Different: Doboš Torte (Wheat Free, with Dairy Free Option)

Tetszik a tortát? Itt van egy Doboš torta!

There ain't nothing like a good Central European cake: they tend to be decadent, elegant, and impressive, but made with good, simple, traditional baking ingredients. They also tend to feature a serious amount of eggs and butter. I love the proper old fashioned, somewhat imperial cakes like this, and in general am a big fan of German, Polish, and Central European baking.

This cake is no different: invented by the Hungarian baker Jozef Dobos, this dessert was introduced to the Austro-Hungarian courts in 1885. I first saw a picture of this cake on Pinterest, which started me on a whimsical adventure through all the wonderful Hungarian and Romanian cakes there are to see.

From my observation, many cakes from this region revolve around multiple layers of thin sponge cake, sandwiched with some sort of buttercream or pastry cream, and decorated with dark caramel accents and nuts. Doboš Torte is no different, being made from 5 layers of cake, sandwiched with chocolate, and decorated with caramel coated biscuits and flaked almonds and hazelnuts.

This cake was a show stopper when it was first invented, and it is still today: the whole cake uses 10 eggs, that all need beating into sponges and foamy custards. Making it today takes a lot of beating with an electric mixer, so God knows how long it would have taken the Imperial bakers to beat all the eggs by hand back in the 19th century.

Through research on Hungarian websites, with the help of Google Translate, I found the traditional buttercream recipe for this cake, that uses eggs and sugar as a base, like a French buttercream. However, for those of you that are nervous about raw eggs, these are beaten over steaming water until thick and creamy, so technically the eggs are cooked. If that doesn't ease your troubled mind, however, don't feed to small children, elderly people, or people with autoimmune issues.


INGREDIMENTS
For one very large cake that serves 16 people

For 6 sponge layers

• 6 medium eggs, separated
• 6 ounces (170 grammes) caster sugar
• 6 tablespoons (90 millilitres) sunflower oil
• 6 tablespoons (90 millilitres) milk, or milk alternative
• Icing sugar, for dusting

For the chocolate buttercream,

• 4 medium eggs*
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) caster sugar
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) dark chocolate, about 60%, most dark chocolates are dairy-free, but check the ingredients just to be sure
• 12 ounces (340 grammes) unsalted butter, or margarine
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) vanilla essence

For caramel topping,

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
• 4 teaspoons (20 millilitres) cold water
• 4 teaspoons (20 grammes) unsalted butter

To assemble,

• 16 hazelnuts
• About 3 or 4 ounces (85 to 115 grammes) flaked almonds

* If you're nervous about using semi-cooked eggs in your icing, use 8 fluid ounces (240 millilitres) of milk, or milk alternative, cooked into a custard with 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) of cornflour. This will make it a chocolate version of the icing used in my red velvet cake recipe.

METHOD

First, prepare the buttercream base.

• In a large heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, beat together the eggs and caster sugar very well with an electric mixer until pale yellow, super fluffy, and tripled in volume. This can take up to 8 or 10 minutes, so be patient. Once light and fluffy, remove from the heat and beat for a further 2 minutes to set the texture.
• In another large heatproof bowl, either over the same simmering pan or in the microwave, melt the chocolate.
• Take a small spoonful of the whipped eggs and fold into the chocolate. It will seize and turn crumbly, but don't be alarmed: as you gradually fold in the whipped egg, it will turn back into a smooth, moussey mixture.
• Allow to cool to room temperature, then cover with cling film and allow to set for about an hour.

Next, prepare the sponges.

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.3), and line two flat baking trays that are at least 10 inch (25 centimetre) square. On the back side of the baking paper, draw around an 8 inch (20 centimetre) round tin: this will be your guide for making the sponges.
• Not many people can fit 6 trays in their oven, so you have to make the mixture a bit at a time. If you prepare all the sponge mixture at once, but can only cook 2 sponges at a time, the remaining mixture in the bowl will deflate. As such, for each tray that will fit in your oven, use a sixth of your ingredients.
• Prepare the mixture as you need according to this recipe, using a third of the ingredients listed. Divide the mixture between the two trays, putting the mixture into the middle of the circle guide. Smooth the batter out to the edges of the circle.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 18 minutes, or until evenly golden brown. Remove the paper from the trays, and cool the cakes upside down on a wire rack until the paper can peel off easily.
• Put the liners back onto the trays, and continue the process until you have 6 cakes altogether. 
• Cool all the cakes completely. If you don't have enough wire racks to cool all your cakes, cool 2 at a time, then stack on a plate. Just dust each cake generously with icing sugar to stop them from sticking to each other.

Once the cakes are cooled, prepare the caramel biscuit layer.

• Take the cake that's the most evenly shaped, and place it upside down on a sheet of non-stick paper. Butter the blade of a large kitchen knife very well.
• In a pan, cook the sugar and water together, stirring constantly, over medium heat until it becomes a golden brown syrup. This can take up to 5 minutes.
• Add in the butter and stir well. It'll steam and bubble up, but after a few seconds it'll calm down.
• Working very quickly, pour the caramel over the cake's surface and even out. If some goes over the sides, it's okay.
• Once smoothed, score the surface of the cake circle into 16 pieces, pressing down well with the knife. If it starts to stick, butter the blade again. Also, trim any caramel that has run off the sides.
• Allow to cool completely before cutting cleanly into the individual wedges. Keep covered while finishing the cake so they don't go sticky.

Now, make the butter cream and assemble the cake.

• In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until creamy and smooth. Add in the cooled chocolate custard mixture a spoon at a time, beating well after each addition.
• On your serving plate, assemble the cake by layering all 5 remaining cakes with half of the chocolate icing in thin layers.
• Use the remaining icing to coat the top and sides. Pat almonds into the side of the cake to decorate. You could also use finely chopped nuts of your choice to decorate the sides.
• Even place the hazelnuts around the top edge of the cake. Prop the caramel biscuit wedges on the top, leaning against the hazelnuts.
• Pipe a decoration in the middle to cover the tips of the caramel biscuits. If you have enough icing leftover, you can pipe a border; I didn't have enough to do so. Allow to set for about an hour before serving.

This cake must be kept in the fridge, well wrapped so the caramel doesn't melt. Eat within 3 days of making, because of the egg in the icing.

THIS TIME IN 2016: Chocolate Lime Cupcakes (Wheat Free)
THIS TIME IN 2014: Lessons in Chocolate Dipping and Edible Anniversary Gifts
THIS TIME IN 2013: Homemade Box of Chocolates = WIN
There was no blog this time in 2015.