Sweet And Salty Chocolate Cake

As you know it was my birthday earlier last week and I had a full on baking session the day before. People at work are pretty serious about birthday baking so I had to up my game. I've spent the best part of the last six weeks baking for others, I never go to have any of it so I though I'd go all out with treats I could get to try myself rather than giving them away :)

I recently got the latest Hummingbird Bakery book, 'Cake Days', I've wanted one of their books for ages so was so excited when I first got my hands on it. I've gone through this book a million times now, and this recipe always stuck out and I knew it was something I just had to bake, it was going to be amazing too, you just know don't you?

So this, their sweet and salty chocolate cake is probably the most beautiful chocolate cake I have ever made. It's a bit of a giant too, made up for three layers, though I only managed to fit two inside my cake carrier so kept and iced the last one for home, which my family loved so that worked out well.
Mine's a bit on the wonk here as I had so many to take in got a bit shuffled around, I also should have put it on a nice plate first really for the picture shouldn't I? whoops :)

It does take quite a bit of time to make so you do need to dedicate an afternoon to it, but trust me people it is so worth it. I would also like to say you do need cutlery to eat this one, it's definitely not just a 'grab a piece' cake. I have to warn you though, the caramel is so good you might have to hide it until you use it as it is easily the yummiest caramel I have ever tasted and you will be tempted to just drink it! Sorry about the ugly picture below but I had to show you how thick the frosting was, you can see knife marks!

This recipe says you need three 8inch loose bottomed sandwich tins, I don't know about you but I certainly don't have three actual tins the same size? So I used three of the cake tins that you get in a set of two from the shop, and used three of the smaller sized one. As you probably know if you're a regular reader...I have a tin obsession so this was the only way I can ever make three the same size! This is also probably why mine came out so tall, the tins should have been a big bigger.

Ingredients:

For the sponge:

• 300g unsalted butter, softened.
• 300g caster sugar
• 140g soft light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 100g cocoa powder (I used Green & Blacks)
• 160ml buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 330g plain flour
• 2tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2tsp salt

For the salty caramel:

• 200g caster sugar
• 2tbsp golden syrup
• 120ml double cream
• 60m soured cream
• 1 tsp fine sea salt

For the frosting:

• 200g caster sugar
• 2tbsp golden syrup
• 360ml double cream
• 450g dark chocolate, chopped, 70% minimum cocoa solids plus extra to decorate
• 450g unsalted butter, softened
• Sea salt flakes, for sprinkling

 Method:

1. First make the salty caramel. In a small saucepan bring the sugar and golden syrup to the boil with 60ml water, allowing the mixture to boil for about 10 minutes, during which time it should become quite syrupy and a rich caramel colour.

2. Put the double cream, soured cream and salt into a separate pan and bring to the boil, then remove from the heat. The salt should completely dissolve into the cream.

3. When the sugar syrup is ready, remove it from the heat and carefully add the hot cream. It will bubble up as you pour in the cream, but smooth out again quickly after that, becoming a creamier golden colour. Pour the caramel into a small bowl and set it aside to cool while you make the frosting.

4. In a small, clean saucepan, bring the caster sugar and golden syrup to the boil with 60ml water, again letting this boil for about 10 minutes or until it is syrupy and caramel coloured.

5. In a separate pan, bring the double cream to the boil.  Carefully pour the hot cream into the caramel; as before, it will bubble up but settle down again shortly afterwards. Set this caramel aside to cool slightly (Don't eat it! :) )

6. Once it has cooled, add the chopped chocolate, stirring constantly while the chocolate melts (don't worry it definitely will). Using a hand-held mixer, mix the frosting for about 10 minutes or until the bottom of the bowl feels cold.

7. Add the butter to the chocolate caramel frosting and whisk together until the mixture is light and looks slightly whipped. Place the frosting in the fridge to cook and set for 40-50 minutes while you make the sponge.

8. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius, gas mark 3, and line the tins.

9. Using a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment, or a hand-held one, cream together the butter and both types of sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl.

10. In a jug stir together the cocoa powder, buttermilk and vanilla with 60ml of water to form a thick paste. Sift together the remaining sponge indredients, then add these in stages to the creamed butter and sugar, alternating with the cocoa powder paste and mixing thoroughly on a low-to-medium speed until all the ingredients are incorporated.

11. Divide the batter between the three tins and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until the top of each sponge feels springy to the touch. allow the sponges to cool slightly in their tins before turning out on to a wire rack and cooling completely before assembling.

13. Once the sponges feel cold to the touch, place one on a plate or cake board and top with approximately 2 tablespoons of the salty caramel, smoothing it over the sponge with a palette knife. Top the caramel layer with 3-4 tablespoons of the frosting and smooth it out as before.

14. Continue this process, sandwiching together the other two sponges with the remaining salty caramel and a layer of frosting and leaving enough frosting to cover the sides and the top of the cake. To finish decorate with some shaved/chopped chocolate and a light sprinkle of the sea salt flakes...although this isn't easy to get on the sides, so you kind of have to throw the chocolate/salt at the sides!

15. Eat! Nom! Pin It Now!

Limoncello and White Choclate Croquembouche

Until I watched The Great British Bake Off on tuesday I will be honest and say I hadn't heard of a croquembouche before...profiteroles sure, but done like this? Never. And instantly I just knew I HAD to make one.

Luckily my lovely mother had bought me the latest GBBO book 'How To Bake'. Last season's book, which I baked my Somerset Apple Cider Cake from was brilliant, like a bible. This one is more Mary Berry inspired and very girl which is great. It's gives great step by step guides and shows you in pictures how to do things and what it's supposed to look like which is a godsend. Full of pastel colours and gorgeous photography,  I was so happy to see they featured one of the croquembouches from the show inside, so this was the one I decided I had to make, with limoncello and white chocolate. I could post the whole recipe from start to finish but then it would turn into an essay and I don't want to bore you - so I'll post the limcello and white chocolate bit, as while the choux pastry recipe was good, I think it's just as good any recipe I've used before so I'm sure you can find another in one of your cookbooks or online.

I hadn't made profiteroles before, only eclairs, which are similar but I still had only done those a couple of times but I love choux pastry so I was determined to do it right. It's not as lengthy as you imagine in itself but all in all it did take a few hours from start to finish as you have to let bits cool and stand for a while so it all added up, trust me though it is worth it. I know it's a bit of an extravagant recipe to just decide to do for fun, but I did downsize it to about a quarter of the size of what they did on the show, so it was ok :)

You do need a croquembouche cone, though I didn't have one and I've heard they're quite expensive, so I made mine with a left over cake box lid and some foil. I wrapped the foil over the card and twisted it into a wide cone shape and taped it all up together and leveled it so it stood straight. Voila, and costs next to nothing. I did it with foil rather than baking paper as I was worried the baknig paper would tear on the caramel which would be gutting in the end stage!

The hard part for me was the caramel, I hadn't made it like this before so I didn't really know what to expect and stupidly thought it would be easy as there were only two ingredients...wrong! It took me three attempts, nearly a kilo of sugar, and after number two I had run out of saucepans after filling up the dishwasher and my patient grew thin when realising how fickle sugar is! But I managed to rustle up another saucepan, a bigger one this time and I think that was part of the trick. I burned it the last two times and kept on cooking it. This time when I got to the right temperature and it hadn't quite lots all of the massive sugar clumps that had formed, I turned it down and kept the correct temperature whilst actually stirring it (even though they told you to NEVER do that on the show) and third time lucky it turned out beautifully. So do be patient with it and give it a bit more time than you may expect. The only thing I think I would change would be to add some more double cream to the filling as it was a little loose and kinda spilled out everywhere when you tore a bit off to eat so it could have down with being a bit thicker.

Right enough waffling here's the recipe:

Limoncello and White Chocolate Croquembouche

Ingredients:

• 2 recipe quantities of profiteroles
  (about 96)
• 300g caster sugar for the caramel
• caster sugar for the spun sugar

Filling:

• 4 large egg yolks
• 75g caster sugar
• 25g plain flour
• finely grated zest of one lemon
• 250ml full fat milk
• 150g white chocolate
• 1 tablespoon limoncello
• Sugar flowers to decorate (optional - I didn't use them)

You will also need a piping bag with a 0.5cm plain tube, cake board (I just used a plate) a sugar thermometer,  croquembouche con.

Method:

1. To make the filling, whisk the egg yolks in a bowl with the sugar, flour, lemon zest and one-third of the milk until smooth. Heat the rest of the milk in a medium pan until almost boiling, then pour onto the yolk mixture, stirring constantly. Return to the pan and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture boils and thickens. Simmer for one minute, whisking, cooking out the flour taste and cool until lukewarm.
2. Meanwhile, gently melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of steaming hot water but not boiling water (don't let the baste of the bowl touch the water). Cool until lukewarm, then whisk the chocolate into the custard, followed by the limoncello. Cover and chill for at least an hour before folding in the whipped cream.
3. When ready to assemble the croquembouche, spoon the filling into the piping bag. Pipe into the cool profiteroles through the steam hole, taking care not to overfill (to avoid leaking).
4. To make the caramel, dissolve the sugar in 4 tablespoons of water in a medium pan, stirring occasionally (again this is odd as they did say to never actually stir it, so I mainly just swirled it around).  Once the has sugar has dissolved bring to the boil and boil rapidly to a light caramel (160 degrees celcius / 320 Fahrenheit) Immediately plunge the base of the pan into cold water for 20 seconds to halt the cooking.
5. Place your cake board on the worktop. Working quickly, dip one side of each profiterole in the hot caramel (be careful not to burn yourself it's crazy hot)  and stick them together inside the cone. You can also just freestyle it into a pyramid. If the caramel 'glue' starts to set you can loosen it up again by heating it gently.  Leave the croquembouche in a cool to set. This shouldn't really take to long.
6. For the spun sugar you can make the caramel again, but I had some left over so I used that, after it's been in the cold water for 20 seconds let it settle for 5 minutes. Hold a couple of forks in one hand, dip the tines in the caramel and lift them out and flick strands of caramel over the assembled croquembouche. Stop as soon as the caramel starts to set and becomes thick. Decorate with sugar flowers if you would like.
7. Destroy and eat! Nom!

I hope you all made it through the recipe I know it's lengthy -
so you can see why I didn't want to write up the choux pastry recipe too!

1. Place your cake

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