Thursday 21 June 2012

Butterscotch, Caramel and Chocolate Checkerboard Cake



My love affair with checkerboard cakes continues and I got the pleasure of making this one again last week. Three of my favourite flavours; butterscotch in the golden layer, caramel in the light brown layer and the chocolate in the chocolate brown layer.
The cake rings are joined with a delicious butter caramel sauce and all wrapped in a whipped butterscotch buttercream. Let me just repeat my favourite bit there; whipped butterscotch buttercream !
Also, just to show that you don't need any special equipment to make this fun cake. Directions for this are below or you can go to the Knickerboker Glory Cake - Checkerboard Style for Strawberry, Chocolate and Vanilla version made in June last year. 

Magical Fairy Dust in the Kitchen? or Overuse of Gold Shimmer Spray!
Word of warning on the gold shimmer spray, I got a bit carried away and sprayed it from a distance onto the cake and the particles hung in the air for some time before hitting the floor. ( Yes I have used it before.... ) Whether it was due to the warmth that the shimmer suspended in the air for some time, I'm not sure but I took a quick picture.
However, it was only later in the evening as we got ready with the reflection of the artificial light, I realised that we were all sparkling on our hair and clothes! I'm not sure that it was a good idea to breathe that in either. The cake on the other hand has only a very slight coating of gold....




Ingredients :

Butterscotch and Caramel Cakes :

225g   Butter
225g   Soft brown sugar
1 tbsp golden/corn syrup
4 Large eggs
225g   Self raising flour
2 tbsp Milk

2 tbsp Caramel Syrup for one half
2 tsp Butterscotch flavouring for the other half

Chocolate Cake :

110g  Butter
110g  Caster sugar
1 tbsp golden/corn syrup
2 Eggs
55g Self raising flour
55g  Cocoa powder (light cocoa such as Cadburys)
1 tbsp Milk

6-8 tbsp Caramel Sauce for joining cake rings

Butterscotch Buttercream for inside and outside decoration:

440g Icing sugar
110g Butter
3+ tbsp Milk
A few drops of butterscotch essence to taste


Method:

Preheat oven 160c/140c Fan/325F/Gas Mark 3.

Grease three tins and line bottom with baking paper. Quantities are for three 7 inch /18cm cake tins.

Cream the sugar and butter together. Beat in the syrup. Whisk in the eggs one at a time. Fold in the flour.  Divide into two. You can weigh each one to make sure you have the same weight of mixture in both, for two even bakes.
Add butterscotch and 1 tbsp milk to one and add the caramel syrup and 1 tbsp milk to the other.
Make up the chocolate cake batter using the same method but  fold in the flour and cocoa. Add milk to soften batter.

Place in the centre of the oven. Check after 20 minutes. Cook until risen and a skewer comes cleanly out. Allow to cool.


Chill cakes before cutting out circles to reduce crumbing. You can use a special tin or simply use a glass for the centre circles, score with a knife and then cut out. For the outer circle use a saucer  or small bowl to draw around and cut out. Do the same for all three.


Put the colour circles into three different colour sets before you begin to assemble. In the past I have got the wrong combo and not got 3 different colours in each layer and it is very, very messy to take apart.


Put circles onto a wire rack.


Warm the caramel sauce lightly and brush or spoon onto the cut surfaces. Compared to using jam or jelly this was quite a sticky operation. 






Insert circles back into cakes making three layers. If you don't have much room in the fridge use grease proof paper between finished layers before stacking on top of each other to stop them sticky together.


  Chill for 10  minutes.


Make simple butter cream – whisk butter, and icing sugar and flavouring together. Add tbsp of the milk at a time until smooth enough to spreadable.  Spread the icing on top of the first and second layers and place the final layer on top. Spread on a crumb coat of icing. Return to fridge and chill until firm. Finish with final layer of buttercream. The cake was finished with a gold shimmer spray and some gold stars. Leave for the buttercream to firm slightly before cutting. This cake also freezes well. Magic!





50 comments:

  1. Pauline, somehow I'll never look at battenburg cakes the same way again; this is fabulous and love the flavours! Great for this weather too.

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    1. Just thinking of you too, taken delivery of 6 bottles of prosecco not with your lovely label though! and yes we were indoors sheltering from the rain...

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  2. How beautiful! Thank you for including the photos of how you assembled the cake. I've never made a checkerboard before and, after seeing your lovely cake, I think I'd like to give it a try. Thank you for sharing!

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    1. Thank you Stephanie, it's good fun and I still get a kick out of seeing those little squares when you cut into it for the first time, sad but true ;-) I'd love to know if you do and what flavours you choose. I'm going to redo a lemon, raspberry and blueberry next as see if I can make the blueberry a bit more intense, to compete with the other flavours.

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  3. Hey, I love your blog! So I've nominated you for the versatile bloggers award. Check out the post to find out more =] http://food-fork-and-good.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/herb-crusted-chicken-with-veggie-fries.html

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    1. Thanks Emma, that's very nice of you aka awesome ! I'm impressed by your tea drinking, don't know what I could confess too mmmm... next blog might take some editing. Thanks again!

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  4. First: That cake looks fantastic. Second: I love your blog! So I've nominated you for the versatile bloggers award. Check out the post to find out more http://www.thesaucygourmet.net/2012/06/bang-bang-shrimp-lettuce-wraps.html

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    1. Thank you ,I had a peek and well, I think Shari's Tea and Garden Emporium has a great ring to it! Thank you again for thinking of me x

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  5. very impressive finish! love the flavour combination as well!

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    1. Thanks, I got more bling than I bargained for!

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  6. Wow! You've knocked the spots off chocolate cake. I love caramel and butterscotch. This is fantastic!

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    1. Thanks Hester! Due to the appalling weather and not being able to get in the garden. I've spent all evening on Foodbuzz looking at yours and lots of other goodies and I don't feel bad at all, inspired and rather hungry from mentally tasting them all!

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  7. A little bit of everything in a stunning dessert :D
    Love it!

    Cheers
    CCU

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    1. Thanks you , I'm sure butterscotch helps in your exams too, Good Luck!

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  8. What a great combination of flavors! This sounds delicious!!

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  9. I do love a good chequerboard cake and this one is a corker! I also wish my floor had golden fairy sparkle...instead of just dust!

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    1. Thank you ! It didn't do the dust it landed on any favours either ;-)

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  10. I really want to make a checkerboard cake! Yours looks amazing.

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    1. If only there was some left to send you, thankyou !

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  11. Looks like this is a super-glamorous cake. Glittering floor! - Very pretty :D

    All your bakes are fantastic! I'm following you now via Twitter and blogger :D Hope to hear from you soon.

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    1. Thank you very much Zoe, I was intrigued by the Catalàn Salt Pinch Cake on your blog. Haven't heard of that one before so need to give it a go, thanks for sharing.

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  12. Apologies to the last two bloggers who left comments. Seems I have iPad fingers and have deleted your lovely comments. I will get used to the new blogger interface but there is no way to retrieve them. Suitably shamed :-(

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  13. Gold shimmer spray sounds so luxurious! That cake looks wicked yummy. Thanks for the how-to. What a nice bday cake it would be.

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  14. Gold shimmer spray makes the cake so luxurious. Thanks for the how-to. This would be such a cute bday cake!

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    1. Thanks Coco the spray looked good on the cake but I don't think it did 'anything' for us!

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  15. I need this cake in my life right now! Looks so delicious! I love the gold shimmer spray touch! It makes it look so elegant and dreamy!

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    1. Thanks Amber sorry you're not nearer then you could have a slice or two!

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  16. this cake looks so, so, so very yummy!!!

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  17. This sounds amazing! I like your step by step guide as to how to make the checkerboard, very easy to follow.

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    1. Thank you , it is easy just gets a bit sticky but worth it !

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  18. I am really very very hungry to see friends hemmmmmmm ...

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    1. Thank you Mang and welcome my geography is improving too!

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  19. creative and magical cake, even the floor sparkles, heheheh...

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  20. Thank you Peter we were very sparkly!

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  21. Love this cake. With changes to food buzz, I'm following you with Google connect. Hope you follow me too.

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  22. Hello mrs. Mulfurd ....What a lovely blog you have..I love too much..This cake is very fantastic..Noww I am following you..Hope we will meet.. Ihave blog too..Can you came anad visit me...love Nurşen..nurlumutfakta.blogspot .com

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  23. I need to make a checkerboard cake!

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    1. Thanks Elizabeth, go on make one, I still get a childish thrill when you see it come out in squares as you cut it, never mind ;-)

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  24. Hello Mrs. Mulford,

    Simply love your cakes! And they make me want to bake so much more! :)

    I nominated your blog for the ‘Very Inspiring Blogger’ award. http://wp.me/p1a482-8W
    Do look at the rules! Congratulations and Take Care!

    Cheers,
    Ashima

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    1. Wow Ashima thanks a lot! I'll have to think very carefully about my 7 things, good job its only 7. Enjoyed reading yours too as I had a very similar career change. Busy writing blog now, Happy Baking and thank you from Pauline ;-)

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  25. Beautiful checkerboard cake. It's so pretty (yet evil delicious!) You have an eye for the shopping products don't you. First the cookie cutter I saw you got from the states. Now the caramel syrup and butterscoth flavouring. Not to mention the caramel dipping sauce from Waitrose. I've not seen the caramel syrup or butterscotch flavouring anywhere. Speciality cake store or some hidden treasure trove I don't know of?

    -Lisa.
    Sweet 2 Eat Baking
    P.S. I know we're friends on FoodBuzz but since it's closing its virtual doors at the end of the month, I didn't want to lose touch with my friends on there. I know we're tweet buddies too. But if you're on Facebook and Pinterest too, please add me. Links on my blog.

    And finally (sorry) just to let you know, I changed servers on my blog so you may need to re-subscribe again (sorry!) See this post. I'm not sure if you were subscribed previously. If so, you may need to update and it only takes a few seconds. Thanks mi'lady.

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    1. Don't worry Lisa I'm following you in true stalker fashion !
      The Butterscotch flavouring is from ebay and one of the nicest flavourings from there was a Butterscotch Schnapps but the suppliers come and go. Also, the postage isn't too bad for small essence bottles. The caramel syrup is also from Waitrose, they are very good for certain ingredients but sometimes I get a better choice via Ocado the online shopping service that stocks Waitrose products as well as their own. My most unusual ingredient to date has been the cactus candy http://www.cybercandy.co.uk/store/Cactus-Candy-791581000021.html
      Hope this helps. Happy Baking!

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  26. Checkerboard cakes always look so impressive when you cut into them and I love the combination of flavours in this one too! :-)

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