Caro Caramel Cake {Recipe}

A couple of years ago a friend asked me to make a coffee cake. I don't drink/eat coffee and I don't particularly like nuts in cake, but the idea of a coffee cake appealed to me, so I came up with this recipe using a hot chicory and barley drink called Caro as a substitute for the coffee. Then I pared it with caramel because... well, just because!

The final result is my Caro Caramel Cake, delicious and sickly sweet (if you eat too much), it has become very popular among my friends. Yesterday a friend said to me: "You know, I don't normally like that kind of cake, but that was actually really yummy." Made my day!

This recipe can be made with Caro or any other chicory based hot drink. Caramel can be substituted with Dulce De Leche or caramel made from condensed milk.

Caro Caramel Cake Recipe     PRINT

Cake Ingredients:

335g stork margarine / soft butter

335g Demerara / light brown sugar

335g flour

5 tsp baking powder

6 large eggs

1 TBSP vanilla

6 level tsp Caro

       - dissolved in 1 TBSP boiling water

Icing Ingredients:

200g soft butter

400g icing sugar

2 tsp Vanilla

5 level tsp Caro

       - dissolved in 1 TBSP boiling water

1 Tin Caramel

Glace Cherries

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. 

Grease and line three 8in cake tins (I only have 2 tins, so I bake 2 layers, then bake the third afterward).

Beat all the cake ingredients, except the Caro and water, together until smooth. Stir the dissolved Caro into the batter. Divide the mixture evenly between the three prepared tins (reserve one third if you only have 2 tins), spread it out evenly in the tin and drop each tin firmly on the counter to settle the batter.

Bake for 25–30 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean and the sponge has pulled away from the sides of the tin.

Cool sponges in the tins for about 10 minutes, then remove from the tins and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.

To make the icing, beat the butter and icing sugar together until smooth. Beat in the vanilla and dissolved Caro. Fill a large piping bag with the icing and cut off the tip so that you have a 1/2 inch opening.

Fill a small piping bag with the caramel, cut off the tip to a 1/4 inch opening.

Place one sponge on your cake stand/plate, pipe on a double ring of icing about 1/4 inch from the edge of the sponge, then pipe a loose spiral of icing inside that ring, finishing in the centre of the sponge. Pipe caramel into the gap between the loops of the spiral - resulting in a double spiral of icing and caramel.
Place the second sponge on top and repeat the icing-caramel filling. 
Place the third sponge on top, then pipe on a single ring of icing, close to the edge of the sponge. Now fill in the top of the cake with an icing-caramel spiral. Finish with some swirls of icing topped with glace cherries.

Frozen Cake!

Well, it finally happened! A friend asked me to make a Frozen Cake, my very FIRST Frozen Cake! I'm sure many of you cake bakers out there have got bored of making them, and I apologise to readers who are sick and tired of seeing them, but I was thrilled to finally get to make one. I almost managed to make it without singing "Let it go," but the opportunity to tease my kids was just to good, especially once I started tossing on the sprinkles! 

I made the ice on the cake by melting Fox's Mints on a silicone sheet in the oven, then stirred ice blue gel colour into the resulting sticky mess. Once I was happy with the colour, I returned it to the oven for a couple of minutes to remelt a bit and settle into a smooth sheet. Once the candy cooled I shattered it with the edge of a bench scraper.

The sides of the cakes are airbrushed with DinkyDoodle airbrush colour. I used sky blue for the top half of the cake, and mixed a darker blue using sky blue, purple, hot pink and black. I then sprayed on a coat of pearl to give it a bit of shimmer and shine. I LOVE my airbrush!!

The cake is my deliciously moist Rich Dark Chocolate Cake with light vanilla buttercream filling, coated with milk/plain chocolate ganache and covered in fondant.

All the characters are plastic Disney figurines, bought by my friend to add to my cake.

Melktert - Milk Tart {Recipe}

Melktert is a classic South African dessert, loved by all South Africans, and every other person I have ever served it to! The pie's filling is a smooth, silky and almost white set custard topped with ground cinnamon. It is much lighter and less eggy than a traditional custard tart. The crust can be made in a variety of ways. Back in SA we would usually make a cookie crumb crust with either Tennis or Marie biscuits, but I also like it with a shortcrust pastry.

Recipe:

Make and bake a pie crust using your favourite method - cookie crumb or sweet shortcrust are the two I use the most for this pie. The pie pictured above was made with a Ginger Nut cookie crust - any crisp/crunchy cookie can be used and can add variety and interest to the pie.

My Sweet Shortcrust Recipe can be found here.

To make a Cookie Crumb Crust:
Crumb a packet of cookies/biscuits - you should end up with about 2 cups of cookie crumbs.
Combine well with 1/4 cup melted butter.
Press this mixture into your greased pie dish and bake at 180ºC for 10 minutes.

Melktert Filling                  PRINT

Ingredients:

1 L milk

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

2 ½ TBSP cornflour

2 ½ TBSP flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

2 TBSP butter

Method:

Bring milk to the boil on medium heat.

Beat eggs, then add sugar, cornflour, flour and salt and beat again to well combined.

Pour boiling milk into the egg mixture while stirring, combine well, then return to pot.

Put on medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and just starts to boil.

(If the mixture sticks to the bottom of the pan the temperature is too high.)

Add butter and vanilla and stir in well.

Pour into baked pie crust.

Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon.

Allow to cool to room temperature, then chill in the fridge. Best served chilled.

Visiting Teaching Thought for the Month May 2015 {Handout}

This month we are asked to share one of the General Conference talks with our sisters. One talk that really stood out for me this conference was "Stay by the tree" by Elder Kevin W. Pearson. Here are my thoughts as I listened to his message:

He tells us that when one of the Brethren visited President Heber J. Grant shortly before he passed away, President Grant prayed, “O God, bless me that I shall not lose my testimony and keep faithful to the end!” Even a Prophet of 27 years is not beyond Satan's influence. This is a great reminder to me not to be discouraged when I feel the pull of temptation, the fact that I am tempted does not make me weak - it makes me human. It is how I act upon that temptation that makes the difference. My task is to withstand those temptations, strive every day to become more like Christ and endure to the end.

Elder Pearson says that the principle of "enduring to the end" is not the same as "hanging in there" (which is not a principle of the gospel). To "hang in there" has the implication of doing as little as possible to just get by.  Christ, however doesn't want us to be mediocre, he wants us to become perfect, and we are not going to achieve that by doing as little as we possibly can. Instead, we need to make that endure actively, we need to put daily work into remaining faithful.

He says: "Casual obedience and lukewarm commitment weaken faith. Enduring to the end requires total commitment to the Savior and to our covenants" (emphasis added).

He gives us 6 important principles that can help us do this:

1. Don't Forget to Pray
2. Come Unto Christ and be Perfected in Him
3. Press Forward with Faith
4. The Book of Mormon is Key to Spiritual Survival
5. Don't be Distracted and Deceived
6. Stay by the Tree (referring to Lehi's vision)

My Visiting Teaching Thought for the Month comes from point 4, and he repeats the message again towards the end of his talk. He reminds us that we need to prayerfully study the Book of Mormon and the words of the Living Prophets and live it's teachings every day, every day, every day! Doing this will help us when we feel conflicted, spiritually low, confused and overwhelmed. Elder Pearson testifies that "the profound power in the Book of Mormon will change your life and strengthen your resolve to follow Christ. The Holy Ghost will change your heart and help you see 'things as they really are.' He will show you what you need to do next."

I hope that seeing this handout on your fridge, pin board, mirror or wall can serve as a little reminder to feast, daily, on the scriptures and strengthen your resolve to come unto Christ, be fully committed to Him and to actively endure to the end. One day at a time.

Click here, or on the image above, to download the English printable.

Click here, or on the image above, to download the Spanish printable.

Thank you to Wanda Lopez for the translation.

Click here, or on the image above, to download the Dutch printable.

Thank you to Chaya Herrebrugh-Wachtmeester for the translation.

If you would like to make fridge magnet pegs to display your Thought for the Month, click here for the printable and tutorial.

Click links below for previous month's Thought for the Month

• January 2015
• February 2015
• March 2015
• April 2015