Heeello LINZ fans. So happy to share with you another cake order. A cake was requested to be caramel and white chocolate. I was on holiday at the time I got this cake order. So I put a lot of effort into designing this cake. I am so so thrilled in how it turned out! I didn't want to let it go!
It is a Vanilla Buttermilk cake, soaked in caramel, iced with Vanilla Swiss meringue Buttercream, caramel drizzling, fudgy brownie pieces, Vanilla roses, Salted Caramel popcorn and two toned almond praline, with white chocolate.
My roomie at boarding school is crazy obsessed with caramel, anything she eats she makes the caramel sauce and spoons it on. Cinnamon scrolls, biscuits, ice cream you name it she caramels it! Whenever I am working with caramel it reminds me of her. I did make a caramel cake for her birthday, with spun sugar, caramel hazelnut spikes and dulce de leche frosting. She was in heaven!
I think what I love about baking is how it can bring people together, even people you don't know well and you can bond over a piece of cake, sharing your favourite cakes and flavours.
When I was boarding, I used to take cakes in for girls birthday, it was almost like a tradition on Sunday nights all the girls would come down to the kitchen and try my latest creation. I had many jealous day girls who would see the cakes all over the boarders social media.
I think the two tone praline is such a classy way to decoarte the praline and adds some sophistication to the cake! It makes me so happy when I think and create something new. It is always so rewarding, especially when it works out!
I love to have lots of texture contrast in my cakes, it makes eating the cake that much better! I thought of popcorn because I knew it is something very easy to flavour and would photograph well!
I had some left over cake batter, so I thought cute little cup cakes would complement the photo shoot very well!
I will definitely be using popcorn in the future. Was a huge hit!
Let's begin the tutorial!
Place your cake board on a turntable.
Place your cake on the cake board under some icing to adhere it to the cake board. Place your cake on and drizzle with some caramel sauce. Then add a generous amount of frosting. Place fudgy brownie pieces in the middle and cover with frosting.
Place your second layer of cake on top.
Ice the cake with a crumb coat and allow it to set up in the fridge for preferably and hour.
Take the cake out and ice your final smooth layer around the cake.
Make sure your caramel sauce has to thicken and cooled down before you do this otherwise it will melt all your hard work!
Drizzle caramel all over the cake and allow it to drip down to give the drizzle effect.
Pipe on roses with your vanilla buttercream. Decorate the rest of the cake with vanilla cookie crumbs, salted caramel popcorn and two tone almond praline.
Recipe Caramel Sauce
note: you can make this salted caramel sauce by adding salt, but I had already salted my popcorn.
Makes about 500g (plenty leftover to drizzle on your ice cream)
185ml cream
1 vanilla pod
365g caster sugar
60g liquid glucose
300g room temperature salted butter cubed
-Put cream into a small saucepan and gently heat, scrape the seeds out of a vanilla pod and place in the cream. Place the pod in the cream to infuse the cream! Once you get bubbles around the edge of the pan. Take off the heat and allow it to infuse for 30 minutes.
-Place sugar and glucose into a medium saucepan, and heat slowly, stirring only occasionally by tossing it using the handle. This is called the dry sand way to make caramel.
-Cook the sugar until it starts to turn an amber colour, at this point, you can start to stir it so it doesn't burn.
-Once you reach your desired colour add your cream, be careful it will foam up.
-Discard the vanilla pod as your are pouring the cream. Mixing continually to incorporate it into the caramel.
-Mix well and take it off the heat. Add the cubed butter one at a time and mix until you have no more butter.
-Allow it to cool down before using it.
Recipe Caramel Popcorn
Popping Corn
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp oil
90g Popcorn
1 tsp salt
Caramel
100ml water
210g sugar
1 Tbsp butter
-Place your oil and butter in a pot and heat gently until it just starts to simmer.
-Toss your popcorn in the oil/butter mixture and coat the corn kernels.
-Place a lid on the pot and heat the kernels on low heat.
-Once you start to hear them popping, grab the lid and hold the handle and shake the pot so the same kernels don't stay on the bottom.
-When there is no more popping take the pot off the heat and place the popcorn in a bowl. Toss with salt
-Set aside
-In the meantime make your caramel, place your sugar and water in a pot and heat over medium heat.
-Once the syrup starts to turn an amber colour, watch it carefully because it turns from beautiful caramel to burnt caramel.
-When the caramel is a nice amber colour, quickly pour it over the popcorn, try to pour it all over the popcorn, not in one spot.
-You have to work quickly, toss the popcorn and try to coat it all in caramel.
-Place the popcorn on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
-Set aside until you're ready to garnish the cake.
I hope you all give one of those recipes a crack, make the caramel sauce and the salted caramel popcorn. Get a bowl of ice cream, drizzle the sauce and toss on the popcorn. That definitely makes your boring vanilla ice cream not so boring!
Till next time lovelies
LINZ x x
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