Double-Hazelnut Vanilla Caramel Cake – quite a character!

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Re-reading Kathryn Stockett’s best-seller, The Help, I couldn't get one of the characters out of my mind. Appearing almost as often as the main protagonist, Minnie’s Caramel Cake seemed to be a huge part of the story. It made me hungry every time I picked up the book.

I tried to find a definitive recipe for Caramel Cake, but – like Irish stew – it appears to be one of those recipes that no matter what version you use, you’ll set someone’s tongue a-tutting.

Soooooo, I’m not going to try and recreate a Caramel Cake. I am going to make a Double-Hazelnut Vanilla Caramel Cake – hazelnut sponge cake, with a layer of creamy Nutella filling, slip in some crushed meringue, add a layer of caramel, another layer of Nutella/meringue filling. Top this sugar-fest with more caramel - the filling doubles as frosting.  You’ll need a sugar thermometer for the caramel topping.

For 10 generous slices you will need...
... to pre-heat the oven to 160°C


For the Cake Batter

200g butter, at room temperature

180g caster sugar

4 eggs, beaten

150mls fresh milk

1 teaspooon vanilla extract

330g plain flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

50g toasted hazelnuts, chopped

Method

·     First, butter and base-line two 23cm sandwich tins.

·     In a large mixing bowl (or food mixer) beat together the soft butter and sugar until fluffy and paler in colour.

·     In a jug, mix together the eggs, milk and vanilla extract.

·     In another bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder.

·     Slowly add about a quarter of the egg mixture to the butter, beating continuously until combined. Then, add about a quarter of the flour mixture. Continue beating while you add alternate lots of egg and flour to the butter mixture until both have been used up.

·     Finally, add in the toasted hazelnuts and mix until just combined.

·     Divide the mixture between the two buttered, base-lined sandwich tins and bake in the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes. Prod lightly with a finger. The sponges should spring back. If not, give them another 5 minutes or so and test again.

·     Leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Leave to cool completely.

While the cakes are baking, make the fillings...

For the Creamy Nutella Filling

240g cream cheese

130g Nutella

220g icing sugar, sifted

2 single-portion ready-made meringues, crushed into pea-sized bits

·     Place the cream cheese, Nutella, and icing sugar in a mixing bowl and with your hand-held blender set to low, beat together until combined in a smooth mixture. The meringue comes in later...

For the Caramel Filling and Topping

330g sugar

250mls milk

30g black treacle

50g Kerrygold butter

8 tablespoons condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·     Place the sugar, milk and treacle in a saucepan and stir together over a low heat until the sugar has melted. Turn up the heat a little, stirring continuously, until the mixture is bubbling and has reached the ‘soft ball’ mark on your sugar thermometer (116°C or 240°F). Don’t worry if the milk separates. It will all come together in the end.

·     As soon as it has reached the ‘soft ball’ stage, remove it from the heat and add the butter, letting it melt. Stir the melted butter into the mixture – it will seem like this is never going to happen at first, but persist! When the butter has vanished into the mixture, stir in the condensed milk and vanilla extract.

·     Leave the mixture to get cold, beating occasionally to break up the surface crust that forms as it cools.

Assemble when the cakes and the frosting are cold

·     Split each of the cakes and fill both with the Nutella mixture. Sprinkle the filling with crushed meringue before joining the cake halves together again.

·     Pour a generous layer of caramel on top of one cake and stack the other cake on top.

·     Pour the rest of the caramel over the stacked cakes, smoothing with a palate knife. Ensure that the sides are covered.

·     At this stage it looks very brown so I coat the sides with chopped toasted hazelnuts (that makes it triple hazelnut!) or desiccated coconut and drizzle the top with dark chocolate which sets hard and makes a lovely contrast to the soft caramel. You may have other decorating ideas. Either way, prepare for a sugar rush.

Tip
Use ready-made caramel or Dulche de Leche in place of the caramel frosting if you want to save yourself a bit of stirring. 

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge – a delicious mistake !

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We all make mistakes. Hopefully, most of the time we learn from the experience, and we try not to make the same error again. However, sometimes a mistake is worth repeating.

I was aiming for smooth creamy fudge. Instead, I got crumbly Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge. In my book, ‘crumbly’ is not proper fudge. However, one of my taste testers - my lovely sister, Dee - sniffed out the jar of failed fudge I was saving to mix with ice cream and her reaction was: “Ommmfff! Mmmmmffffffff!  Ggggggggggnomnomnom.” – or words to that effect.

I think it must have been positive feedback because she agreed to taste-test the cheaty ice cream I made by mixing morsels of the fudge with softened vanilla ice cream and returning it to the freezer for days when I need a blood-sugar spike

For approximately 800g of slightly crumbly fudge you will need...

... a sugar thermometer  

500g caster sugar

150g condensed milk

150mls cold water

100g butter

½ teaspoon salt

100g smooth peanut butter

90g dark chocolate, broken into squares

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

 

I think I have a temperature...

 

1.      Place the first 5 ingredients in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat (I use a 2.5L pan for this amount). Melt together without stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved. Then turn up the heat to medium. The mixture needs to reach 238°F (soft ball) on the sugar thermometer, stirring occasionally to prevent the mixture ‘catching’ on the bottom of the pan and burning.  (Conventional fudge wisdom warns “DON’T STIR” ... as this can cause crystallisation... which leads to crumbly fudge. However, today I want crumbly fudge! )

2.      Once the soft ball stage has been reached, remove the pan from the heat. Without mixing them in, add the vanilla extract, peanut butter and chocolate. Leave the pan to cool for about 10 minutes and then beat (with a wooden spoon if you have lots of energy and elbow grease, or with electric beaters) until the mixture is very thick and loses its gloss.

4.      Transfer to a 20cm x 20cm tin, lined with cling film or parchment paper. Transfer to the fridge and leave to cool before cutting into squares.

Stored in an airtight container, or in the freezer, it will keep for up to 3 months and is outrageously good chopped into small pieces and stirred into good vanilla ice cream.

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Apple Fudge Dumplings with Cider Cinnamon Syrup – sinful !

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Sinful!

I wonder if Eve had this dessert in mind when she was caught scrumping apples from the garden of paradise. What was her sin exactly: Nicking the apples? Fencing the stolen fruit? Getting caught before she had a chance to turn her illicit bounty into apple fudge dumplings?

I’ve asked around and it appears most of my friends would have been booted out of paradise too, having partaken of orchard-raiding in their youth. The lure of this crime wasn’t so much the prize of stolen fruit as the thrill of the dare. Don’t judge – there was nothing decent on the telly and the internet hadn’t been invented.

Anyway, now that apple harvest time is upon us, it would be a sin not to make this simple treat. Have some good vanilla ice cream standing by for a match made in heaven.

For 4 apple dumplings you will need…
… to preheat the oven to 180˚C before you start to assemble the dumplings

Apple Fudge Dumplings

1 x 425g packet all butter puff pastry sheets (2 sheets)
4 apples (about the size of a tennis ball)
100g soft fudge, roughly chopped
75g walnuts or pecans, roughly chopped
a little milk to seal and glaze
4 whole cloves
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar 

1.                  If necessary, thaw the pastry sheets according to the instructions on the packet.

2.                  With a sharp knife, cut a strip about 2cm wide from each pastry sheet and set aside before cutting each pastry sheet in two.

3.                  Remove the core from each apple using a corer or a sharp knife.

4.                  Combine the chopped fudge with the chopped walnuts or pecans and pack the centre of each apple with the mixture.

5.                  Now, place a stuffed apple in the centre of a pastry portion. Lightly brush the edges with milk and bring opposite corners together to enclose the apple. Pinch the seams to seal the pastry well or the fudge will escape as it melts. Repeat with the remaining apples.

6.                  Cut 8 oval-shapes from the pastry trimmings you made at step 3 to make 'leaves'. Brush the back of the leaves with a little milk and place two leaves on each apple. Secure with a whole clove 'stem'.

7.                  Using a sharp knife, poke two slits in the top of each apple to allow steam to escape and prevent the pastries from bursting open. Brush with a little milk and sprinkle with a little brown sugar. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until golden and scenting your kitchen with autumnal aromas.

8.                  Leave to cool for about 5 minutes or so before serving with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or custard and a drizzle of the cinnamon cider syrup.

 

 

While the apple fudge dumplings are cooking make the syrup…

Cider Cinnamon Syrup

250 mls cider (or apple juice)
1 stick cinnamon, broken in half
4 tablespoons runny honey
25g butter 

1.                  Place the cider and cinnamon stick in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil the simmer until reduced by half. Add the honey and continue to simmer for a further 5 minutes. Then add the butter, stirring until incorporated, and continue to simmer for a further 5 minutes.

2.                  Strain to remove the cinnamon. Leave to cool. Pour over the apple fudge dumplings just before serving.

 

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Walnut Frangipane Tart with Apple and Fudge – when ingredients rebel...

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Yesterday, I bought some Bramley apples. They had “apple pie” written all over them - or so I thought.  Somehow a stray bag of fudge ended up among my shopping. I didn’t spot this stowaway until it had been through the checkout and all the way home.

 

Hey Apple! We've got a better plan...

On the journey, these ingredients conspired and by the time they were unpacked, the apples refused to be mere apple pie. They recruited the fudge and a bag of walnuts that needed using up, (remember War On Waste?), then staged a revolution.

I gave in and packed the apples and fudge into a crumbly sweet pastry shell, then topped the lot with a walnut frangipane. OMG! I’m glad I listened to those apples. They were so right!

It's a conspiracy!

For one large delicious tart you will need...

Sweet Pastry

150g butter

50g caster sugar

1 egg, beaten

½ teaspoon vanilla essence

225g plain flour

1          For the pastry: In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale in colour. Now add the flour to the creamed sugar/butter mixture, beating until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Mix together the egg and vanilla essence and add a little at a time, until the mixture comes together in a soft paste. You may not need to use all of the egg. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes in the fridge (or overnight if possible).

2          Remove the pastry from the fridge and place on a lightly floured surface or on a large sheet of non-stick baking parchment. Roll the pastry out, making sure to roll in one direction, turning the pastry a quarter at a time to keep it spreading out evenly to a thickness of about 3mm (about the thickness of a euro coin).  If you roll in both directions you can end up stretching the pastry which will shrink back in the oven. Use to line a 23cm (9 inch) tart tin. Press gently into place, then run the rolling pin over the top – this neatly removes any pastry overhang. Return the pastry to the fridge to rest while you pre-heat the oven to 170°C.

Apple and Fudge filling

1 - 2 Bramley apples, or your favourite apple (yielding about 250g of fruit when prepared)

150g vanilla fudge, finely chopped (or 12 tablespoons of fleur de sel caramel sauce)

3          Peel the apples and cut into 1cm cubes. Place the apple cubes in a bowl of cold water to which you’ve added a squeeze of lemon juice to stop them turning brown, or if using the fleur de sel caramel sauce pour over the apple cubes and set aside until ready to use.

Walnut Frangipane

100g butter

100g caster sugar

3 medium eggs, beaten

100g walnuts, ground

100g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

4          Make the frangipane filling: Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl or stand mixer and beat together until pale and fluffy. Add the beaten egg, a little at a time, mixing well between additions. When all the beaten egg has been added, sprinkle in the ground walnuts, flour and baking powder, and mix well until all the ingredients have been combined.

5          Remove the chilled tart shell from the fridge. Dry the apple cubes in a clean teacloth and arrange evenly in the pastry shell, leaving a margin of about 1cm around the edge .  Sprinkle the chopped fudge over the apple (or if using the fleur de sel caramel sauce simply spoon the apple/caramel mixture into the shell). Now spoon the walnut frangipane filling over this, levelling it out with the back of the spoon or a spatula, right to the edge of the pastry.

6          Place in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the filling is golden brown and risen and springs back when pressed lightly with your finger. Leave to cool, then remove from the baking tin. Dust with icing sugar before serving with a swirl of whipped cream.


Couldn't resist an extra hit of caramel

There are some apples left over from that batch. With such ambition and creativity, who knows what they’ll become! J

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