"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.

Dessert Mashup: Phish Food Cake (Chocolate, Caramel, and Marshmallow Layer Cake)

Looking for a show-stopping dessert for your party table! Try this decadent chocolate, caramel and marshmallow layer cake: the Phish Food gateau!

I like to take inspiration from unusual places, and this time it's from a flavour of ice-cream! Phish Food flavoured Ben and Jerry's is a chocolate ice-cream with little chocolate fishies, a marshmallowy swirl, and a caramelly swirl. I thought it'd be great to interpret his in cake form.

This cake was a big hit at the opening of the play my husband was in this week, and was devoured in minutes. I wish I had got some better pictures, but maybe I'll make another one of these in the future to get better pictures.

 

INGREDIMENTS

For the cake

7½ ounces (210 grammes) white spelt flour, or gluten free flour
1½ ounces (40 grammes) cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda
3 medium eggs
9 ounces (250 grammes) caster sugar, divided in two
3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) sunflower oil
3 ounces (85 grammes) butter, at room temperature, or margarine
6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) buttermilk, or milk alternative mixed with 2 teaspoons of lemon juice or white vinegar; or dairy-free yoghurt thinned down with water to buttermilk consistency
2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) vanilla essence

For the filling

3 ounces (85 grammes) dulce de leche, homemade or shop bought

1½ ounces (40 grammes) salted butter

For the marshmallow topping

1 egg white

1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) water

1 ounce (30 grammes) glucose syrup, or white corn syrup

3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar

A few drops of lemon juice

½ teaspoon vanilla essence

Pinch of salt

For the choco fudge icing

8 ounces (225 grammes) plain chocolate, about 45-50% cocoa

4 ounces (115 grammes) salted butter

6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres) whole milk

2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) evaporated milk, or just use all whole milk instead

8 ounces (225 grammes) caster sugar

METHOD

• Bake the cake according to these directions.
• Make the filling by beating the caramel and butter together. Set aside
• Make the choco fudge icing by boiling the milks and sugar together for about 5 minutes or until it reaches 105C (220F) on a sugar thermometer. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate and butter until smooth and melted. Allow to cool for about an hour, or until spreadable.
• Make the marshmallow topping: mix all the ingredients in a heatproof bowl. Gently heat over simmering water until the sugar dissolves and it’s hot to the touch. 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. For extra accuracy, you can use a thermometer to check the temperature of the egg white syrup, which should reach 70C (160F) before whipping.
• Trim the cake dome, slice in half and sandwich with the caramel filling. Ice the sides with the choco fudge icing, and pipe a decorative border around the edge of the top.
• Either pipe or dollop the marshmallow icing onto the top of the cake, keeping within the border.
• As an extra touch, you can dust some cocoa powder on the top through a fish shaped stencil. I made one out of the cardboard from a cereal box.

World Goth Day 2019: Black Raspberry Mud Cake

Happy World Goth Day, everyone!

(wishing someone a happy day isn't very goth, is it? How about gloomy World Goth Day?)

So, it rolls around again. Pretty much every year since I started this blog I've done a World Goth Day post, and it's kinda difficult to work within such a restricting colour scheme: black, white, grey, and dark bloody tones like red and purple. Maybe next year, I'll focus less on colour and more on cultural iconography.

I thought this year I'd do something with red wine: I tried making a red wine and white chocolate ganache, which tasted incredible but looked a very strange colour. I also made a red wine chocolate cake mixture, which tasted amazing when it was raw in the bowl, but once it was cooked it tasted kinda beery and the red colour had cooked out.

So, this year I decided to go completely black on black! I used very dark chocolate in the ganache, and dark chocolate in the cake mixture. Oddly enough, though, once the dark chocolate was cooked in the cake it turned a deep red colour. It must have reacted with the other ingredients, but I'm not complaining! It was a happy coincidence.

INGREDIMENTS

For the chocolate cake

3 medium eggs

4 ounces (115 grammes) caster sugar

2 ounces (55 grammes) brown sugar

3 ounces (85 grammes) butter

3 ounces (85 grammes) dark chocolate

5 ounces (140 grammes) white plain flour: spelt, wheat, or gluten free

Salt, to taste

1 ounce (30 grammes) cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) hot strong coffee

Vanilla essence

About 4 or 5 ounces (115 to 140 grammes) seedless raspberry jam

For the ganache

9 ounces (250 grammes) dark chocolate, at least 60% cocoa

3 ounces (85 grammes) unsalted butter

3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar

3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) water

Black food colouring

METHOD

First, make the cake

• Preheat the oven to 170C (340F, Gas Mk.3), and grease an 8 inch (20 centimetre) with butter, and dust with caster sugar.
• In a small bowl or jug, melt the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler or in the microwave on low power. Make a slurry with the cocoa powder and coffee. In another bowl, mix together the flour and baking soda.
• In a large mixing bowl, whip the eggs and sugars together with three pinches of salt (one pinch for each egg) with an electric hand mixer until pale yellow, thickly foamy, and about doubled in size.
• Gradually beat in the melted butter and chocolate, and the vanilla essence. Sieve in half the flour mixture, then fold with a rubber spatula or wire balloon whisk until half mixed in. Fold in the coffee until, again, half folded. Sieve in the last of the flour and fold through completely.
• Pour into the tin, and bake on the centre shelf of the preheated oven for about 35 to 45 minutes. Check the doneness with a cocktail stick. You know the drill! 
• Once baked and cooled, level and split in half. Fill and coat with a thin coat of raspberry jam. chill thoroughly for about 2 hours before icing.

Then, make the ganache

• Chop the chocolate with a serrated knife into small pieces, and put it in a heatproof mixing bowl.
• In a saucepan, or in a jug in the microwave on high heat, melt and dissolve the water, sugar, and butter together until it boils and there are no more granules of sugar left.
• Pour the hot, buttery syrup over the chocolate and allow to sit and melt for about 3 minutes. With a wire baloon whisk, slowly mix the ganache together. Allow to cool completely and set into a spreadable consistency, about an hour or two. For best time management, make the ganache while the jam coating is setting. You can also colour it black, if you like.
• Ice the cake carefully with the ganache, so the jam doesn't get too disturbed. I made mine all swirly.

Variation on a Theme: Lemon Medovik and Spartak

This... is.... SPARTAK! 

 

(I know, that's a terrible joke. I do apologise)

A few months ago, I did a Medovik: a Russian cake made of layers of honey flavoured biscuit and slightly sweetened sour cream. 

Immediately after making I knew I wanted to do a chocolate version, and took to the internet. I discovered that a chocolate medovik has its own name. It’s called a spartak, and is made a little differently. However, to keep things simple, I just used my medovik recipe, with two changes. 

One, I swapped the honey for condensed milk in the biscuit mixture, and replaced a sixth of the flour with cocoa powder. I made the biscuits in the exact same way thereafter.  

Two, I flavoured the cream with a touch of cocoa powder, to taste. It really does depend on how dark you want your chocolate flavour, but I made mine fairly light. 

I equally thought that something made with a whipping cream and sour cream filling could easily be adapted to have a cheesecake theme. I simply used the medovik recipe and added the zest of a large lemon to the biscuit mixture, and a touch of zest and juice to the creamy filling. This one was very light, summery, and refreshing. 

You could very easily do a strawberry cheesecake theme, too: you could gently fold some strawberry purée or strained jam through the cream and decorate with a strawberry fan. In fact, any tasty summer fruit would work perfectly here. 

All in all, this is an extremely adaptable cake technique. I even think a coffee flavoured one, or even a gingerbread one... or a coconut one.... really, I could come up with loads of variations. Watch this space!

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.

Medovik: Russian Layered Honey Cake

Continuing with my Eastern European experiments, I present my take on the Russian classic: Medovik!

This confection appears throughout the former Soviet countries under several similar-sounding names and it essentially layers of honey flavoured biscuits and sweetened whipped sour cream, which is then coated in biscuit crumbs. The biscuit layers have the texture of a soft gingerbread, and the creamy layers are reminiscent of cheesecake.

I discovered it by accident while researching Eastern European bakery—which generally speaking involves varying ludicrous quantities of cream, butter, eggs, honey, and nuts—and thought to myself oooh, that looks like some kind of cross-breed between a cream gateau and a cheesecake. And my my, I was not disappointed: this is one of the tastiest things I've eaten in recent years.

Like many cakes from this part of the world, however, it does take a bit of making: there are several individual layers of cake that all need to be rolled out and baked separately like giant cut-out biscuits, and if you only have one flat tray like I do, it's time consuming. Also, the dough needs to be chilled overnight, and the whole finished cake has to set overnight too, so it takes two days to make.

Although eight layers is traditional, you may have noticed my cake only has seven: the first cake layer I rolled wasn't as big as the others because I hadn't got into the rhythm yet. I recommend measuring your layers to make sure they're all the same size before trimming them exactly.

Also, another adjustment I made is that the recipe includes more cream than I used, because I think the cake here didn't have enough.

INGREDIMENTS

For the cake layers

12 ounces (340 grammes) plain white flour: wheat, spelt, or gluten free

¾ teaspoon (4 millilitres) baking soda

4 ounces (115 grammes) salted butter

4 ounces (115 grammes) honey

4 ounces (115 grammes) caster sugar

Salt, to taste

For the cream

12 ounces (340 grammes) sour cream

18 ounces (510 grammes) whipping cream

4 ounces (115 grammes) icing sugar
2 teaspoon (10 millilitres) vanilla essence


METHOD

First, make the cake layers

• In a large mixing bowl, sieve together the flour and baking soda, making sure the sieve is held high. Set aside.
• In a medium saucepan, mix together the butter, honey, and sugar. Dissolve over medium heat, stirring frequently, until it begins to bubble. Add salt and carefully taste: the mixture should taste rich and sweet, but not flat and characterless.
• Pour the melted liquid into a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.
• Scrape the mixture onto some cling film, wrap tightly, and chill for at least 4 hours, or overnight for better results.
• Once chilled, preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F, Gas Mk.7) and line as many large flat trays as you have, at least 10 inches (25 centimetres) in size, with non-stick baking paper. 
• Gently work the dough into a sausage and cut into eight pieces. Keeping the other layers covered as you work, roll each piece into a circle, about an eighth of an inch (3 millimetres) thick.
• Lay a circle onto each tray, and bake for 6 or 7 minutes, or until beautifully golden brown and crisp. Cool completely on wire racks. How long this process takes will depend on how many trays you have.

Then, make the cream

• In a mixing bowl, mix the sour cream, vanilla, and icing sugar together until completely smooth and blended.
• Add in the whipping cream and stir to combine. Using an electric whisk, whip the cream mixture until it hold peaks that fall over slightly.

Now, assemble the masterpiece

• Take each cake piece and, using a bowl or a plate as a guide to keep them all the same size, trim them into circles about 6 or 7 inches (15 to 17 centimetres) across.
• Take all the cake trimmings and using a plastic bag and a rolling pin, or a food processor, turn into crumbs.
• On a board or cake turntable, place the bottom sheet of cake. Ice with a generous dollop of cream, and pop on the next layer. Repeat until all the cake layers are sandwiched with cream.
• Ice the top and sides of the cake with the leftover cream, then coat the top and sides with crumbs.
• Pop the whole cake in the fridge overnight, or for best results a full 16 hours. Transfer the cake to a plate or cake stand before serving.

Kitchen Experiment: Esterhazy Torta, a First Attempt

Happy 2019, everyone! I hope that 2018 treated you well, and that 2019 will be even better to you. And for my first offering of 2019, I present to you a little kitchen experiment: Esterhazy Torta!

I thought I'd kick off the year with someone I've been wanting to try ever since I did the Doboš Torte in 2017. Decadent confections of Central Europe hold a lot of fascination for me, and this delight from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire is quite an unusual treat. A good start to what I hope is a year of shameless experimentation.

2018 was my least prolific year on this blog since 2016, which makes sense as 2017 was the most prolific year of my blog ever. I suppose I used up all my ideas in 2017! And this year had a punishingly long hot summer, which curbed the baking output somewhat. But I have a lot of good plans for this year, including more videos (I got a nice bit of practise in last year, and learnt from a multitude of mistakes) and designing a cookery book for my own personal entertainment. Who knows, I might release it some day.

But in my own real life outside of the blog, I already know that 2019 will bring at least two wonderful things to my family. Firstly, I'm getting married in June to my best friend and the love of my life, which will be the best thing to happen to me in my life so far. And secondly, I will be an aunt! My oldest brother's daughter is due at the end of April, or the beginning of May, and she will be born in Cavan, where my brother and his wife will be living from February onward.

Once the Christmas feasting is over and forgotten about, I will start on my wedding cake trials. I will try a cupcake wedding cake, and a traditional tiered cake.

But, back to the cake!

Esterhazy Torta is a dacquoise cake, which is basically a fancy French term for a layered cake made from nutty meringues, sort of like macaroons. Dacquoise cakes can be layered with all sorts of things, like creme patissiere, whipped cream, melted chocolate, or buttercream. This cake is made of delicate walnut dacquoise layers, sandwiched with vanilla and amaretto flavoured French buttercream, which is a style of buttercream that uses an egg yolk custard. It's very, very similar to Ermine buttercream, like in my red velvet cake.

Having made this cake, I can assure you it's absolutely not my thing at all. It sounded great on paper, but in reality it was far too rich and sickly. Nuts, vanilla, eggs, butter, and amaretto together is just unrelentingly sweet. If you like sugarbombs, then this is for you.

How I Made this Cake

To make the dacquoise layers, I made a simple French meringue with one egg white and one ounce (30 grammes) caster sugar. I folded in an ounce of ground walnuts, which had been lightly toasted in a dry frying pan. I divided the mixture in four (although, in retrospect, in three would have got nicer, thicker layers) and spread it out thinly into four 4 inch circles. I baked them at 180C for 6 minutes.

To make the buttercream, I gently cooked the egg yolk, an ounce of sugar, and an ounce of milk in a heatproof bowl over simmering water until I had a nice, thick custard. I allowed this to cool completely before whipping in two ounces of room temperature butter to make an icing.

To assemble, I brushed the cake layers with amaretto, and layered the cake and iced the outside. I packed chopped walnuts onto the sides, and feathered the top with some dark chocolate.

How I Would Do This Cake Differently in Future

I think in future to take the edge off the sweetness, I would use some cream cheese in the icing to add a note of tanginess. I would also use dark rum in place of amaretto, which has a much harsher quality. I would also make the dacquoise layers thicker and the icing layers thinner, more like a glue to hold it together. I would also use a traditional glacé icing topping, maybe made with a little lemon juice, to balance the sickliness with some more tang.

Keep your eyes peeled for further experiments!

Southern States Caramel Cake

Howdy, y'all! I present to you a Southern States style caramel cake.

 I've been wanting to do another American style cake for a while, and ever since I saw a post about caramel cake on Pinterest, I knew it would be that one. I know I do a lot of American style things, but I find the cakes and sweets so fascinating because we have nothing like them here.

My father recently went on a business trip to New York, which was his first time in the United States. He works for a multinational company that designs LED signs, and one of the signage systems in the subway system had gone a bit haywire. As such, he was flown from Ireland to New York to investigate the problem for a couple of days; luckily for his wanderlust, the problem took all of three minutes to fix. He showed us all the photos of his trip when he returned, and it looked to us like he had a whale of a time.

(I think it speaks volumes of the company's faith in my father's programming ability that they wanted him flown over from here! Well done, Daddeee!)

As such, hearing about my father's transatlantic adventures reignited my interest in American baking. So I decided to have a shot at the caramel cake.

From my research, there are many, many, many ways to make caramel cake, each purporting to be the authentic way. So, I turned to retro recipe hunting: how was this cake made by all American grandmas? The cake itself has to be a good firm cake, a lot of the recipes for which advise using sour cream to make the crumb dense. And, although many recipes use icing sugar, the way to make the icing is a traditional boiled sugar beaten fudge.

Now, boiling sugar is one of those things that sends bakers running in the opposite direction: there are so many things that can go wrong. However, please don't feel overwhelmed as this one is quite easy! I just tweaked one of my fudge recipes in response to my research to make the mixture more like an icing. If you've made fudge before, you can make this icing.

I have made a baby little 4 inch (10 centimetre) cake just to try the recipe out, and I've scaled up the icing recipe for a full 8 inch (20 centimetre) cake. If you want to make a mini cake like I did, just half the quantity and cooking time, making sure to test for what sugar stage you're at.

INGREDIMENTS
For one 8 inch two-layer round cake

• One deep 8 inch (20 centimetre) round cake, vanilla flavour
• 1¼ pounds (570 grammes) caster sugar
• 8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres) whipping cream, slightly warmed
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) unsalted butter
• ¼ to ½ teaspoon (1 to 3 millilitres) fine salt
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) vanilla essence

HOW TO

• Prepare your cake for layering by cutting off the dome and cutting it in half horizontally, keeping the layers equal.
• In a large saucepan with a metal or enamel interior (don't use a dark coated pan), add two ounces (55 grammes) of the caster sugar and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it turns a deep, deep brown. Don't be afraid of burning it: if it does burn, just start again with another 2 ounces of sugar.
• Once the sugar has browned, add in the warm cream, the rest of the sugar, and half of the butter. Stir well until everything has dissolved nicely and is a golden brown syrup. Bring to a simmer.

• When it begins to simmer, turn the heat to medium-low and simmer gently for up to 30 minutes, until it reaches soft-ball stage (112°C to 115°C (235° F to 240° F)). On reaching this temperature, remove from the heat immediately and allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the bubbling has completely stopped.

• Cut the remaining butter into small cubes, and then beat the syrup with an electric hand mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes.
• As the syrup begins to thicken and lose its gloss, taking on a matte appearance, start adding the butter, a cube at a time while beating, making sure to beat in each cube fully before adding the next. The whole process should take about 5 to 6 minutes.
• Eventually, you will get a deliciously thick, caramel icing. If the icing begins to split, leaving oily patches or film, add in half a teaspoon of cold water and beat until it comes together again.
• Fill and ice the cake with the icing quickly. If the icing begins to seize as you're using it, once again add a little water and beat to get a nice icing once more.
• After icing the cake, allow to set for at least 2 full hours before serving. This cake is best served the day after preparation.

THIS TIME IN 2015: Sausage Rolls (Wheat Free)
No blogs on this day in 2016, 2014, nor 2013

Happeee Birthdaeee, Mumeee!: Lemon Meringue Layer Cake

Happy birthday, Mummy! To celebrate the occasion, I made her her favourite dessert in cake form: lemon meringue layer cake!

I think as long as I have done this blog and beyond, Mum has wanted a lemon or an orange cake for her birthday. In fact, my Mum loves anything citrusy and zesty: she loves lemon yoghurt, lemon meringue tart, lemon sorbet, lemonade, the list is endless.

So this year, I thought I'd do a mash up of a birthday cake and a lemon meringue tart. I'd researched on Pinterest for a few weeks, but I could find no-one who had put a meringue layer in their cake. Even when I shared pictures of this cake into one of the baking groups I'm a member of on Facebook, a few people commented that they'd never seen a meringue layer in a cake before.

I'm aware in Australia and New Zealand covering cakes in meringue is a thing, but nobody does it here. I'm glad to do something new and unusual!

With further ado, let's get to the recipe.

INGREDIMENTS

For the cake,

• One deep 8 inch (20 centimetres) round vanilla cake, dome cut off and cut into two layers
• Up to 1 pound (455 grammes) lemon curd, shopbought or homemade
• 2 egg whites
• 4 ounces (155 grammes) sugar

For the icing,

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) unsalted butter, softened
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) caster sugar
• 6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) milk
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) cornflour
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence

METHOD

First, prepare the meringue,

• Preheat the oven to 120°C (250°F, Gas Mk.½), and line a flat baking tray with baking paper. Turn the paper upside down, and draw a 7 inch (18 centimetre) circle on it with a pen, then turn it right way up again.
• Using the egg whites and sugar, make a meringue mixture. Fill a piping bag fitted with a half inch (1 centimetre) round tip, and use some of the mixture to fix the paper to the baking tray.
• Pipe one large meringue disk into the circle, about a half inch (1 centimetre) thick, making sure the sides are straight and don't taper. In the free paper around the circle, pipe some little meringue kisses: I made eight 1 inch (2 centimetre) meringues, but the size and shape is up to you. If you don't have enough room on one tray, use two.
• Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until they are crisp on the outside but still pale. You don't want them to brown.
• Allow to cool on the trays completely before handling.

Next, make the icing,

• Mix the cornflour and milk in a small saucepan until completely smooth and place over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, and cook at boiling for 2 minutes, until it has thickened well.
• Transfer the mixture to a small bowl to cool fully, mixing occasionally to preventing a skin forming. It will be very thick when cool, almost like a jelly.
• Beat the butter in a mixing bowl very well using an electric mixer until almost white; this should take about 3 or 4 minutes. 
• Then, beat in the sugar gradually until fully mixed and fluffy. This should take another 4 minutes or so.
• Add the cooled custard and continue to beat until it comes together into a fluffy mass, about 2 or 3 minutes. Add in about 3 ounces (85 grammes) of lemon curd to make a nice pale yellow icing with a hint of zesty flavour.
• Fill a piping bag fitted with a half inch (1 centimetre) round tip halfway with icing, and set aside.

Finally, assemble the masterpiece,

• On your serving plate, fix the bottom layer of your cake (which is traditionally the top half of the cake with the cut dome side facing up) with a little dab of icing. Pipe a dam around the edge and fill with lemon curd, about 4 or 5 tablespoons (60 or 75 millilitres). Place the meringue layer on top, pressing very gently to fix together. 
• Again, pipe a dam around the edge, and fill with the same amount of lemon curd. Finish off with the final top cake layer, and press down gently but firmly until all the layers are well fused together.
• Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes to allow everything to set a bit to make icing easier. If there is icing left in your piping bag, just pipe it all back into the bowl with the rest of the icing.
• Once chilled, ice the top and sides of the cake with the remaining icing, leaving enough behind for piping detail. I don't like a load of icing on my cakes, but if you feel you need more icing, you can make more.
• Finish the cake off with some piped borders, and the little meringue kisses. Chill for about an hour. When you want to eat it, let it sit on the counter for 20 minutes to take the chill off it.

This cake is best stored in the fridge, and will happily live there for up to 5 days. I have not frozen it, so I'm not sure of its freezing capabilities.

THIS TIME IN 2016: Birthday Cupcakes and Centre Piece Cake: Wheat-Free Lemon Sponge

THIS TIME IN 2015: Zingy Lemon Gâteau (Wheat Free)

THIS TIME IN 2014: Variations on a Theme: Lemon Curd Sponge (Wheat Free)

THIS TIME IN 2013: A Cautionary Tale on the Dangers of Novelty Cakes: The Dinnersaurus (This blog is my number one most viewed post!)

As you can see, all of Mum's birthday cakes of the past 4 years are lemon flavoured. I wasn't lying!