Choca Mocha Caramel Cake

This blog should have been posted allot earlier today but I got distracted catching up on all the blogs I subscribe to and finding some new blogs to read that I lost track of time. I also now have a list as long as my arm of tasty treats I want to make, I've recently started writing them all down as I found I was forgetting about all the great recipes I'd seen, the problem is there seems to be so many recipes so little time! I tend to bake once or twice a week (otherwise I'd bankrupt myself buying ingredients) yet each week I see about 5 -6 recipes I want to try! There's just to many hehehe.

My baking endeavor of this week just goes to show how long the list of things I want to make is as boyfriend requested I make this particular cake back in November and I've put it off till now (bad girlfriend) but this weekend he got his cake and here it is, Mocha caramel Cake:

 

I was a little impatient (as ever) in putting on the icing and should have really waited for it to thicken more but this cake is still super yummy, super sweet and very moreish with its chunks of caramel chocolate and hint of coffee. Its meant to be made as 1 cake however I didn't have a deep enough cake tin (really need to invest in one) so I made two thinner cakes and sandwiched them together with some of the icing.

Here's how it's made: (Recipe via good food)

2tsp Instant coffee granules
2tbsp Cocoa powder
4tbsp Hot water
175g Butter at room temp
175g Golden Caster sugar
2 eggs
2tbsp Golden syrup
200g Self raising flour
100g Chocolate caramel bars.


For the icing:
100g Chocolate caramel bars
50g Butter
2tbsp Milk
100g Icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180deg C. Grease and line a 8in round cake tin. Measure the coffee and cocoa into a cup, add the hot water and mix to a smooth paste. Put the butter, sugar, eggs, syrup, flour, milk and cocoa paste in a large mixing bowl and beat together until smooth. Break the caramel bars into sections and stir into the mixture.

Turn the mixture into the tin and bake for 35- 40 mins until the top springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in the tin for 5 mins then remove from the tin and lining and cool on a wire rack.

To make the icing, break up the caramel bars and put in a small pan with the butter and milk. Gently heat while stirring until melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the icing sugar. If it doesn't dissolve straight away just keep stirring (I still had a few little lumps after a while so I simply sieved the mix into a bowl.) Leave the Icing to cool until it thickens enough to leave a trail when you lift a spoon. This is where I was impatient so I'd recommend giving it enough time to thicken enough so as allot doesn't run of as you'll end up with a too thin layer of icing. Spread the icing over the cake leaving it to run down the sides, then leave to set.

And that's it! Nom nom nom. I also found an old pic of a birthday cake I made for a friend a while back so I thought I'd post this too. The logo on it is basically the logo of his fave band, of which I'd decided to put on the cake without realising how fiddly it was. It was a bit of a rush job (surprise party and small window of time) but It could have been better but worked out OK, apart from having black fingers from the food colouring for days. Here it is:

I also wanted to post about all the lovely baking books I've received lately but I think I'll save that for a separate blog as it's getting late and this blog is getting long.

So bye for now I'm off to break my diet and enjoy a slice of Mocha caramel cake with a cup of tea.

Cupcake Kris

xxxxx