I love cake challenges.
I love it when someone is specific in the kind of cake they wish for and I have to research recipes and decide what to use and plan and make lists. Any reason to make a list really . . . .
My awesome cousin, Kate, requested a Snickers cake and so a Snickers cake was what she was going to get.
I get a heap of inspiration these days from Instagram marvels such as Katherine Sabbath, Unbirthday Bakery and Don't Tell Charles (as well as Sweetapolita) so there is a little bit of a reference to all of the above in the final product.
In February I was lucky enough to attend a Katherine Sabbath demo at Peters of Kensington in Sydney. She is an absolute marvel. A teacher by day, a baking wonder by night who has taken the chocolate ganache drip to a whole new, sometimes neon, level.
She was generous enough to provide a recipe booklet and demo of her upside down icecream cake with all the components (brownie mud cake, caramel mud cake, bubblegum Swiss meringue buttercream, raspberry cream cheese filling, raspberry ganache and the upside down cone).
For this recipe I used the cake components, the idea of the cream cheese filling (as it is a lot more stable a filling than the Swiss Meringue would be), my never fail Sweetapolita Swiss meringue buttercream and Martha Stewart brittle.
As always, you can decide which components you do and don't want to make. You could easily fill and ice it with the SMBC and miss the cream cheese filling, buy the meringues and brittle. So this cake can be as easy or as detailed as you wish for it to be.
All the recipes are linked below and the construction method follows.
Although there are a few components, if you get it started a few days before you need it, it isn't stressful at all.
I made it on the following timetable for when it was needed for a Thursday night.
Monday: meringue and peanut brittle
Tuesday: caramel mud cake and brownie cake
Wednesday: chocolate cream cheese filling and Swiss meringue buttercream (fill and ice cake)
Thursday: make ganache, decorate.
Chocolate Brownie Cake
Recipe via Katherine Sabbath
Ingredients
Melted butter or cooking spray for greasing
200 gm butter, chopped
200gm dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
2 tablespoons instant coffee powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup caster sugar
3 free range eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup self raising flour, sifted
Method
1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius, fan forced. Grease or line a 17cm round cake plan. Line base with non-stick baking paper.
2.Combine butter, 100gm chocolate, water, cocoa, coffee and vanilla in a saucepan. Cook, whisking continuously over a low heat until smooth and well combined. Remove from heat and stand until mixture is lukewarm.
3. Use electric beaters to whisk sugar and eggs in a large mixing bowl until pale and creamy. Whisk in the chocolate mixture until well combined. Add the flour and whisk until combined. Stir in remaining 100 gm of chocolate.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan and bake in a preheated oven for 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
5. Remove from over and cool in pan. Cover the pan with cling wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Once chilled, remove cake from pan and wish a long, serrated knife, cut horizontally into 3 even layers. Set aside until assembly.
Caramel Mud Cake
Recipe via Katherine Sabbath
Ingredients
Melted butter or cooking spray to grease pan
200gm butter, chopped
200grams white chocolate, chopped
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon gold syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 free range eggs, room temperature
2 cups self raising flour, sifted
Method
1. Preheat over to 160 degrees Celsius fan forced. Grease and line the base of a 17 cm cake pan.
2. Combine butter, chocolate, water, golden syrup and vanilla in a medium saucepan. Cook, whisking continuously over a low heat until smooth and well combined. Remove from heat and stand until mixture is lukewarm.
3. Use electric beaters to whisk sugar and eggs in a large mixing bowl until pale and creamy. Whisk in chocolate mixture until well combined. Add the flour and whisk until combined.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan and bake in a preheated over 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
5. Remove from over and cool in pan. Cover the pan with cling wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Once chilled, remove cake from pan and wish a long, serrated knife, cut horizontally into 3 even layers. Set aside until assembly.
Chocolate cream cheese frosting
Salted Caramel Swiss Meringue Butter cream (halve the recipe in the link)
The recipe above is for plain buttercream. Add the caramel below to taste to make it salted caramel. The reason I didn't use the full recipe for the Salted Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream is that it says to heat the egg whites to 160 degrees when most other recipes say 130, 160 is on the way to scrambling. Scrambled eggs in SMBC is baaaaddddd.
Salted Caramel
Recipe via Sweetapolita
Ingredients
1 cup (200 g/7 oz) sugar
1/4 cup (60 mL) water
1/4 cup (60 mL) heavy cream
Pinch of sea salt
Method
The first step is making the salted caramel (you can also do a non-salted caramel by omitting the sea salt), to set aside to cool while you make the Swiss Buttercream. You then add the cooled caramel sauce it to the buttercream as the very last step. I haven’t tried buying ready-made gourmet caramel sauce and adding it, but I suspect it would taste nothing short of awesome.
1. Place 130 grams (5 ounces or 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons) of the sugar and the water in a medium saucepan to a boil over medium heat. Brush down the sides of the pot with a dampened pastry brush to prevent sugar crystals from forming. Stop stirring and cook until caramel is dark amber, gently swirling from time to time. Remove from heat, and slowly add cream, whisking by hand until smooth. It will be splatter, so be careful. Whisk in sea salt and vanilla. Let cool.
Meringues
Peanut Brittle (basic brittle, add 1/3 cup finely chopped peanuts)
Dark Chocolate Ganache
Recipe via Katherine Sabbath
Ingredients
250 grams good quality dark chocolate, chopped
125ml thickened cream
Method
1. Please cream in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for around 1 minute until little bubbles begin to form.
2. Add in chocolate and stir until melted. If the hot cream and stirring does not melt all the chocolate, heat for 15 second intervals and then stir until all smooth. Leave on bench until a dripping consistency. For a visual reference of dripping consistency, see My Cupcake Addiction.
To decorate
Snickers cut into slivers
Peanuts
Construction
1. Have a cake board the same size as your cake. Place a small amount of icing on cake board to adhere cake to it.
2. Place chocolate layer on base, layer with cream cheese filling, leaving a 1cm rim free of icing so that it doesn't mix with the buttercream. Sprinkle on a few small pieces of brittle.
3. Layer caramel mud cake on top, layer with cream cheese filling like before. Continue adding layers, alternating between caramel and chocolate until complete. Make sure final cake layer is the base of one of the cakes so that it is flat and even.
4. Place in fridge and allow to set. If you find that the cake is not staying even and upright, place two wooden kebab sticks in cake to secure all the layers.
5. Once set, apply a crumb coat of Swiss meringue buttercream. Place in fridge to set for 15 minutes. Apply final later of Swiss meringue buttercream (generously) and then scrape back so it is even all around (I use a plastering tool). If you like the 'naked' look where some cake shows through, scrape back until that happens. Place in fridge to set.
6. When ganache is at room temperature and a dripping consistency (kind of runny custard, see video link I had under ganache recipe above) use a teaspoon to drip ganache down sides of cake. Once all your drips are to your liking, place an even layer of ganache on top of cake.
7. Place decorations on cake as you like!
