Sunday 27 October 2013

Caramel Blackberry Cake

Since its been nearly 4 weeks (where has the time gone!?) since my last blog post, I really thought I must bake something blog worthy to feast your eyes on.

Bit of a strange combo, but they go oh so well.

I wanted to use some autumn ingredients and I had no apples, so this was it!
The blackberries give a sharp tang against the sweet caramel, which makes the perfect combination.





Ingredients:
For the cake-
  • 180g unsalted butter
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 80g brown sugar
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 180g self raising flour
Icing-
  • 200g unsalted butter
  • 3 tablespoons caramel
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 150ml double/whipping cream
Blackberry coulis-
  • 200g fresh blackberries
  • 1 tablespoon caster sugar
Extras-
  • chocolate shavings
  • crushed amaretti biscuits.

Preheat your oven to 180c then grease and line two sandwich tins.
In a large bowl beat together the butter and sugars until creamy.
Slowly add in the beaten eggs.
Sift in the flour and gently fold in with a large metal spoon until incorporated.
Divide between the tins and place into the oven for 18-20 minutes, or until a knife poked into the centre comes out clean.

While they're baking make the icing and coulis 
Place a saucepan on a low heat and add half the blackberries and the sugar, mix until the sugar has dissolved.
Put into a bowl to cool.
Beat the butter until light and creamy then add in the caramel and icing sugar.
In a separate bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks and fold in the buttercream.

Once the cakes are baked, leave to cool completely on a cooling rack before decorating.
Spread the coulis on one half of the cake and pop on the leftover blackberries.
Sandwich the other cake on top and cover the whole cake with the buttercream, I just used a spatula to do this.
Sprinkle over the chocolate shavings and crushed amaretti biscuits to finish. I also warmed up some extra caramel to drizzle on top, as, you can never have enough caramel.