Salted Caramel Chocolate Doughnut Cake

It was mum’s birthday this month; I wont share the date because it will highlight the extent of what a lazy blogger I am. 

Obviously, mums deserve ‘showstopping’ cakes; do you think this covers it? I pretty much copied the style of this cake from Blue Bird Kisses, as you can see, hers looks like it was sent from heaven. 

Mine? It's pushing purgatory. 

I needed the cake to be nothing short of extravagant and mouthwatering down to the last crumb - so it had to be a tried and tested recipe. No fail and one I’d used before to ensure an all round success. 

The Sweet ‘n’ Salty Chocolate Cake from Hummingbird Bakery was my first, last and only option. It ticks all the boxes and has about 500 different steps to it so be prepared to spend your evening by the stove. 

To go the extra mile, I soaked the cakes in homemade salted caramel as soon as they came out of the oven, knowing full well that it would cause me a cake covering disaster. That’s love, eh?

The Recipe

Adapted from Hummingbird Bakery's Sweet n Salty Chocolate Cake

For the chocolate cakes

300g unsalted butter 

300 caster sugar

140g light soft brown sugar

100g cocoa powder

160ml buttermilk
60ml water

330g plain white flour

3 large eggs 

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp sea salt

For the salted caramel 

200g caster sugar 

2 tbsp + 1 tsp golden syrup (or corn syrup)

120ml double cream

60ml soured cream

60ml water

1 1/2 tsp sea salt 

For the chocolate icing

450g dark chocolate (55%)

360ml double cream

450g unsalted butter, cubed

2 tbsp golden syrup (or corn syrup)

1 tsp sea salt 

Sainsbury's mini iced doughnuts

Note: Half the recipe for a small 6 inch cake if you dont have many mouthes to feed. 

The Method

Start with the salted caramel. In a medium sized pan add the sugar, water and golden syrup. Heat gently for 10 minutes until it changes colour and turns slightly syrupy. 

Will probs get killed for this

In a smaller pan, bring the double cream, salt and sour cream to the boil and then immediately remove from the heat and carefully pour into the caramel. Stir until silky smooth, pour into a jug, cover with cling film and set aside.

Make the chocolate icing. In a medium sized pan add the sugar, water and golden syrup. Heat gently for 10 minutes until it changes in colour and turns slightly syrupy.

In a smaller pan, bring the double cream to the boil and then immediately remove from the heat and carefully pour into the caramel. Stir until silky smooth and set aside to cool slightly.

Roughly chop the chocolate and add it to the slightly cooled caramel, stirring constantly until the chocolate has fully melted. Whisk the mixture with an electric whisk for 5 minutes until the chocolate feels cooler.

Whilst whisking, add the butter to the chocolate mixture until the icing appears whipped. Transfer the mixture into a bowl, cover with cling film and refrigerate for 45 minutes whilst you makes the cakes.

Preheat the oven to 170 C.

In a freestanding mixer or with an electric whisk, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, until well incorporated making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl after each addition.

In a measuring jug add the cocoa powder, buttermilk,vanilla extract and water. Stir to form a thick and smooth paste.

In another bowl add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and stir with a spoon to mix everything together.

Alternatively add the cocoa paste and flour mixture to the creamed butter whilst mixing everything continuously.

Once the batter appears creamy and consistent in colour, stop mixing.

Divide the batter into two or three tins and bake for 25 minutes if using three tins, and 40 minutes if using two tins. Make sure a toothpick comes out clean before takings the sponges out of the oven.

As soon as the cakes are out of the oven, pierce the cakes several times with a sharp knife and pour a thin layer of salted caramel over the tops of the cakes.

Transfer the cakes onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

If the icing is stiff by this point, zap it in the microwave for 20 seconds and give it a stir.

To assemble the cake, add 2 tablespoons of icing to sandwich each layer and cover the sides with icing.

Stack with little donuts for the finishing touch.

 Sweet 'n' Salty Chocolate Doughnut Cake 

Love Em xx

Kitchen Sink Cookie Dough

Add caption

Whose noticed raw cookie dough popping back up in supermarkets? They taste AMAZING. 

Asda were the first to make the move way-back-when, me and a friend used to buy a packet each (250g I believe, fat as anything!), hide it in our cool grunger handbags and have a right old fiest in the cinema not caring about all the pasteurized egg going in our tums.  

So its 2013 now and Tescos stock it too, I reckon that prompted ol' Asda to jump back on the wagon. 

You’d think they were sponsoring this post. They’re not by the way, I’m just not that into milling my own flour and churning butter.

Who aint got a craving for cookie dough 24/7? Seriously. Take the egg out of any recipe, and voila. Delicy-mo! (Is that a word?)

Add just about anything you like:

Pretzels, wine gums, a little bit of pepper? 

Its kitchen sink cookie dough people! But there is one rule, seeing as its ‘kitchen sink’ you kinda absolutely 100% CANNOT skimp on the cornflakes. They are a must. Yumyum AND Crunchcrunch all at once. 

But you don’t have to use M&M’s. Or chocolate chips, although I did…but come on, its cookie dough!

The Recipe:

228g unsalted butter, softened 

150g white granulated sugar

165g soft light brown sugar 

290g white plain flour 

3 tbsp full fat milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

1/2 tsp sea salt 

2 packets chocolate chips

40g cornflakes

1 packet of any sweet you can think of!

The Method:

Cream the butter and sugars together until soft and light in colour. 

Add the flour, vanilla and salt and mix on low speed until combined. 

Pour in the milk, add more if the dough still appears too thick and sticky and if you want a 'dipping' consistency. 

Put in the chocolate, cornflakes and *sweets* and mix on low for 10 seconds until just combined. 

Using a spatula, combine the chocolate and cornflakes together until everything is even. 

Place in a bowl and enjoy for up to 3 days.

Alsooo, I have a birthday cake post coming up ! I will say no more, you will just have to come back and have a look at it. Just as soooon as I meet all my deadlines... Not long at all, then! 

Love Em xx

5 Ingredient Killer Key Lime Pie

With summer on our footstep all I wanna do is shove fruit in my gob and eat stuff with piles of cold, whipped cream thrown on top of it. It is really difficult though, to leave wintry desserts behind – I don’t know about you but I wont say no to a treacle pud whatever the weather. 

Here’s a little warning if you’re feeling in the mood for this pie – its expensive to make. BUT. Take a deep breath. Its worth the extra dough. 

Why? 

Well, quite frankly, why not? 

But also because it tastes so darn fresh and the textures mingle so darn well together that it almost tastes like a really expensive, professional pie prepared at the likes of I dunno, up-town Manhatten? That’s exactly why its worth the 15 pounds well spent on ingredients, its such an effortless pie as well – you can hardly taste the supposed richness from the 8 egg yolks too! 

So easy. SO worth it. SO not Maybelline.

Key Lime Pie

The Recipe:

Adapted from Hummingbird Bakery Book 1 Key Lime Pie 

For the pie crust
500g digestive biscuits or graham crackers
200g unsalted butter, melted
For the filling
800g condensed milk (2 tins)
8 egg yolks
Zest of 5 limes
Juice of 5 limes
For the topping
300ml double cream, whipped

Equipment
23cm deep pie dish

The Method:

Preheat the oven to 170C. Put all of the biscuits into a food processor and pulse with the blade setting unit fine crumbs form. Whilst the processor is still running, pour in the melted butter until crumbs appear sticky.

Pour the crumbs into a pie dish, with a tablespoon and your fingers press the crumbs into the sides and bottom of the dish. Bake for 10 minutes until darker in colour then leave to cool semi completely.

Preheat the oven to 150C. Zest and juice all of the limes and set aside.

In a large bowl or freestanding mixer with a whisk attachment, add the condensed milk, egg yolks and lime juice and whisk until thickened - 1 minute.

Set aside a small amount of lime zest for sprinkling on top of the pie and add the rest into the filling until incorporated.

Pour the filling into the prepared pie crust and bake for 20 minutes.

Leave to cool completely and in the mean time, whip the cream using a whisk. Layer the cream on top of the cooled pie and garnish with your reserved zest.

Pie is best served after 2 to 24 hours of 'settling' time in the fridge.

Have you ever made Key Lime Pie, was it as darn simple as this beaut?!

Can I hold your attention for a little longer??

I have gone and nominated myself for this years Cosmopolitan Best Food Blog Award! After some crazy miracle (thank you readers!!) I managed to get shortlisted last year (wdf?), I would be aaaaaaabsolutely thrilled if you could nominate me again! Please click here if you fancy it.

Or here.

Orrrrr here?

Perhaps here?

Am I sounding desperate yet? Tehehehe.

THANK YOU!!

Love Em xx

Violet Macaroons

Violet Cakes' Macaroons

Ever since that afternoon I spent at Violet Cakes however long ago I have been besotted, foolishly besotted, by a macaroon.

Everything else of that afternoon seems distant in my memory now, apart from that golden, crispy, syrupy rounded mound of baked coconut.

Before my near death experience involving sugar, my only knowledge of a macaroon (the real deal, not the contemporaneous meringue kind, I’m talking about the poor macaroon that was overshadowed by that) came from a packet of 4 overly chewy macaroons commonly found in my aunts, or even dating back 10 years ago, my late nan’s flat – where there would always almost certainly be a packet of chocolate dipped store bought macaroons. But hey, I knew no better, and I still ate the whole bloody packet.

Who says the coconut cant be desiccated?! 

The recipe for Violet’s delicate, perfectly proportioned macaroon can thankfully be found in Leon’s Baking &Pudding’s book – I will take this moment to mention how lucky we are that Ptak & the founder of Leon live in the same neighbourhood. Leon is one of the best food chains in England, but truthfully, I bought their book for the macaroon recipe but I’m sure I will be dipping myself into some more recipes such as the Lemon Bars fairly soon (as should the poor soul reading this). 

What really sets this recipe apart from the rest is the addition of honey; it makes the world of difference through extra subtle sweet flavours on top of that already coming from the caster sugar (trust me, it works). It also makes the macaroons extra sticky, so sticky you will need to keep your paper towels well away until its time to wipe the stickiness from your fingers - licking is totally acceptable btw. 

The Recipe:

Adapted from Leon Baking & Puddings Coconut Macaroons 

150g desiccated coconut 

150g caster sugar 

3 egg whites

3 heaped tbsp honey of your choice 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

Makes 6 large macaroons 

Equipment

Deep, medium sized saucepan 

Ice cream scoop

The Method:

Place all the ingredients except vanilla into the saucepan and stir on medium heat until the sugar has dissolved and the bottom of the pan leaves bubbles when scraped across - about 7 minutes. 

Take off heat and leave to cool completely, about 15 minutes in preheat oven to 180C. 

Place baking parchment over a baking tray. 

Scoop level amounts of mixture straight onto the baking tray making sure they are slightly spaced apart. 

Bake for 30 minutes or until sufficiently golden brown. 

Leave the macaroons to cool completely before removing from the parchment. 

The macaroons will lose their crispiness if stored in an airtight environment, so try to eat them on the day of baking! 

So, here's the big question that's playing on both our minds - do you plunge yours in chocolate or leave them raw?

Love Em xx