I will say that I am now more appreciative of the often miserable weather we get here in the UK, because without it we may never have had the inspiration or even the inclination, to create such beautiful puddings. One of the best in my opinion, being sticky toffee pudding.
It should be in our national anthem, it should be on our Union Jack....but it isn't. I am saddened that we really don't do enough to celebrate this amazing dessert. In France they have an entire festival dedicated to celebrating the cassoulet. So if you see a girl rocking a t-shirt with a sticky toffee pudding on it, it's almost certainly me, so make sure you say hello!
This cake is perfect all year round, but this I'd like to think of this cake as being the summer version of sticky toffee pudding, and hence the sponge is a little bit lighter and we have a cold caramel buttercream instead of the warm rich sauce we have in winter.
The recipe is from Miranda Gore (you may remember her from the Great British Bake Off), and her sugar biscuit recipe was such a success that I decided try another recipe of hers.
Do try this recipe out, you won't be disappointed!
Sticky Toffee Cake
Ingredients:
For the cake:
375g/13oz dates
250ml water
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 eggs
250g muscovado sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
200g/7oz butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
350g/12oz self raising flour
For the icing:
200g/7oz soft butter (using soft butter gives you a smoother icing and makes it easier to mix, so just leave out on the counter to come to room temperature for an hour or so before you need it)
400g/4oz icing sugar
4 tbsp Nestle Carnation Caramel/dulce de leche (I made these quite heaping tbsp as I do love caramel)
1 tbsp milk (you may need more, or less)
For the topping:
Four spoonfuls of nestle carnation caramel
Fudge pieces (I used these crispy honeycomb chocolate fudge pieces we had at work)
1) Preheat your oven to 180C/Gas mark 4/350F. Line two 18cm round tins with greaseproof paper. I used two 23cm by 30cm square tins, but your cake will look far more regal if you use round tins.
2) Pop the dates in a pan along with the water, cover and bring to the boil. Add the bicarb, remove from the heat, and stir well. Transfer the contents of the pan to a blender and blend until smooth. A few chunks of date here and there are quite pleasant though, so don't be concerned if it's a little chunky.
3) Use an electric whisk to whisk the eggs, sugar and syrup until pale and a bit voluminous. Whisk in the melted butter and then gently mix in the vanilla and pureed dates
4) Sieve in the flour and fold in with a metal spoon (Miranda doesn't say to sieve it, but I don't like little lumps of flour). Spoon half of the mixture into each of the tins and bake for 25 - 30 mins, mine were done after 25 minutes, so check and make sure so you don't end up with a dry cake.
5) When the cakes are cool, whizz up the icing by mixing the butter, icing sugar and caramel together. Add the milk a little bit at a time until you have a creamy thick icing.
6) Sandwich this glorious icing between your cakes and spread on top. Drizzle with the caramel (if it's a bit solid, just mix it vigorously together beforehand) and sprinkle with fudge pieces.
Serve to some very lucky people, and expect lots of compliments. By the way, this cake would be fantastic with some walnuts or pecans folded into the sponge if you wanted to add something a little extra.
No comments:
Post a Comment