Caramel Apple Birthday Cake

Why hello you gorgeous people!

So it would seem that all my assessments are over... for now. AND it would also seem that the weather is grey, wet and horrible, perfect for staying indoors. AND it would ALSO seem that it was my dad's birthday yesterday... so what can I say?

The stars aligned. I just had to bake a great big birthday cake.

This cake is a bit of an homage to the transition of the seasons (it was kind of autumn a couple of weeks ago, but now, it's, kind of winter.) I thought the flavour combination, and the rich earthy tones of the icing and caramel would...

Ah I'm just kidding, I just made this cake because my dad really likes apple cake! And I kind of like caramel. So I googled 'caramel apple cake', and there it was, from "baked" (I really like these guys, it's a shame I didn't know about them when I was in New York last year!)

I tweaked the recipe for the icing (I just used Heather from Sprinkle Bakes' salted caramel icing, and also the hard caramel decorations - from her new cookbook, which is amazing!)

This cake looks really impressive, but really, it's not that difficult. And the apple cake is so soft and light, and SO APPLE-Y!

You can also decorate the cake however you want, I had never made hard caramel before, so I just kind of improvised drizzling the stuff all over some baking paper, and stuck it all over the cake however I pleased! You don't even have to make the caramel or the icing if you don't want to, I think the apple cake would be really nice just made as a loaf cake.

But as a whole, the cake and icing and hard caramel are sooooo good. Did I mention it was good?

Folks, you will need to crumb coat this one. See above.

I just love the hard caramel on top of the cake. The organic shapes look really impressive, and they taste good too! Just like the toffees you used to get from the canteen and school fetes when you were young. I made some little caramel droplets too, which I decorated the base with.

Dad had a really good birthday. I love you Papa C!

Caramel Apple Birthday Cake

Makes a big birthday cake, serves 20

Ingredients:

For the apple sauce:

6 red apples, peeled, cored and chopped.

1 cup apple juice

3 tbsp butter

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

For the apple cake:

4 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 tsp cinnamon

180g (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, softened

2 1/2 cups caster sugar

2 large eggs

4 cups home-made apple sauce

For the salted caramel buttercream:

3/4 cup caster sugar

6 tbsp water

3/4 cup lite thickened cream

3 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups unsalted butter

1 tsp salt

3 cups icing (confectioner's) sugar

For the hard caramel:

1 cup caster sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

Apple Sauce:

In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients, and stir to combine. Cook voer medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until apples are soft. Allow to cool, then mash with a fork or potato masher until all solids are removed. Cool till room temperature.

Apple Cake:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line 3 round cake tins of the same size with baking paper.

In a large mixing bowl, sift flour, soda, powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy and combined.

Add eggs, and mix until combined.

Add the sugar mixture to the flour mixture, alternating additions with the apple sauce. Stir until combined, making sure no pockets of flour are left unnoticed!

Divide the batter between cake tins. Smooth tops, and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Transfer cakes to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Salted Caramel Buttercream:

In a saucepan, stir together sugar and water, bringing to the boil over a medium-high heat. Cook without stirring until the sugar has liquified and has turned a deep amber colour. Be careful of burning it though! You must watch carefully!

Remove from the heat and add in cream and vanilla, stirring to comnbine. Allow to cool until barely warm, yet still pourable.

With an electric mixer, beat sugar, salt and butter until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add icing sugar. Add the caramel, and beat again until misture is light and airy (about 4 minutes). Frosting is now ready to use.

Hard Caramel decorations:

Fill your kitchen sink halfway with icy cold water. Line baking trays with baking paper.

Put sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan and heat over a medium-high heat. Cook without stirring, instead swirling the pan a little, until caramel is a nice amber colour. Remove from the heat and sit the saucepan in the iced water for about 3 seconds to stop further cooking. The pan will sizzle!

Working really quickly, use a spoon to gather caramel in the sauce and drizzle it over the baking paper, in whatever crazy shape you want. You could go for circles, waves or just "abstract" drizzles like I did. Leave to harden.

Assembly:

Place one of the cooled cake layers on a large plate and level off the top using a bread knife. Spread a little of the buttercream over the top so it fully and evenly covers the cake. Repeat with other layers, stacking one upon the other as you go. Put the last layer of cake bottom-side up, so it is nice and flat.

Crumb coat the cake: Using a spatula, spread a thin layer of buttercream over the whole cake. (See photo above). Place in fridge for 30 minutes until the cake is chilled (this will make it easier to ice later).

Once chilled, evenly spread the rest of the icing all over the cake. Now, with the hardened caramel, go crazy! Stick whatever shapes you have all over the cake. Have fun with it!

Congratulations! And also (if applicable), Happy Birthday!

CWA Damper with Clear Apple Jam

Why hello!

It's a hard life, isn't it? Popping over to New Caledonia pour ameliorer ma francais pendant une semaine, coming back to find that your dear mother has bought you an AMAZING PRESENT - the County Women's Association Cookbook (eeeek!), and proceeding to bake... and bake... and bake.

Ah, what a life I lead - oh wait, school goes back tomorrow. Waah! Too much of a good thing, right?

Seeing as my AMAZING mum bought me the CWA cookbook (of biblical standards in the world of Australian baking), and seeing as it's ANZAC day on Wednesday, I thought I would make something simple, and quintessentially Australian - damper. Damper is so easy to make, filling, and goes with a lot of things - this is why it has remained a traditional Australian food for the past 200 or so years. I can just imagine my Nan making it for her 5 kids while Pop was away at war. 

To accompany this glorious bread, I decided to make an Apple "Jelly", or "Clear Apple Jam". We had heaps of apples, and I adore making homemade jams, so I figured, what they hey? I didn't have a muslin cloth to strain the juice through, so it's just a teensy bit cloudy, but I call that 'rustic'. There's a word for everything, you know! So if you do have a muslin cloth, feel free to strain it so the jam is crystal clear!

The flavour of the jam is so fresh. I love bits of fruit in jam, but I really don't think this one needs it. It has enough self-confidence to get by on its own! It complements the damper perfectly - soft, dense bread with the not-too-sweet jam spread on top - perfect for breakfast, lunch or tea!

To tell you the truth, I could just eat the jam on its own! But for the sake of common courtesy, try to refrain from doing so!

CWA Damper with Clear Apple Jam

Makes one large loaf/ 1 1/2 cups of jam

{Recipes from CWA Cookbook "Jam Drops and Marble Cake", and David Lebovitz' Apple Jelly}

Ingredients:

Damper:

450g self-raising flour

1 tsp salt

310ml milk

Jam:

1 kilo red apples

3 cups water

1 cup caster sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

We'll do the jam first, because it takes longer.

Peel apples, chop into large chunks, and put into a large, deep saucepan, cores and seeds included. Add the water, cover and bring to the boil. Once bubbling violently, reduce heat to a simmer, leave the lid askew, and let cook for 30 minutes, until apples are soft and cooked through.

Using a fine colander/sieve (with or without a muslin cloth on top) set over a deep, large bowl, sit the apples and liquid over it so that the liquid drips through. Leave for minimum 3 hours WITHOUT PRESSING DOWN ON THE APPLES.

Measure out the juice after the time. I had about one cup, but you might have more if you leave it overnight. Pour into a saucepan, add sugar and lemon juice, and bring to the boil.

Chill a plate in the freezer for 5 minutes. Once you've been boiling the mixture for about 5 minutes, turn the heat off. Now the testing begins. Drop a dab of the jam onto the chilled plate, and place back in the freezer for about 5 minutes. If the jam shrinks and is firm to touch, rather than a liquid, your jam is ready! Pour into a sterilised jar and refrigerate.

Damper:

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees celsius. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the milk and mix with a butter knife to a dough, not too sticky and with no flour remaining.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and lightly knead to a smooth round. Place on the baking tray, and cut a cross in the top of the dough. Bake for 30 minutes on the bottom shelf of the oven.

Spread warm damper with jam!

Two Almondy and Oaty Breakfasts

Greetings my lovelies!

Well, January is almost halfway done, and the clock is a-ticking ever closer to the start of the school year. Gah! I'm trying to remain calm though - enjoy the holidays while they last, I say! Rowing has also restarted for the year, which is good and bad. I think I may have gotten too used to sleeping in! Whenever I have a break from rowing, I always take my extra sleep for granted, and then I get angry at myself when I no longer have the freedom. Such is the nature of the human psyche, I suppose!

My sister's birthday was a success - she got her L's and has started driving! My Dad tells me she's a good driver, but I think I'll have to be the judge of that! (Because, I, as a superior P-Plater, know absolutely everything there is to know about the rules of the road.)

Also I have been stressing about taking down the Christmas tree. I think I'm doing it tomorrow. I've put it off for ages, because I get depressed when I have to box away all the cheeriness for another year. But never fear, because supermarkets have already started selling Easter Eggs! Oh dear.

So I'm not sure if I've ever disclosed this on my blog before, but cereal and muesli are pretty much my favourite foods. They're AMAZING. You can eat them any time of the day, and I frequently do. They're just the complete package! Wholesome, tasty, and pretty to look at. And so versatile!

So yesterday I thought I'd whip up a couple of my favourites and share with you lovely people! The photography and recipes are quite simple after the exhaustion and extensive celebration that was the birthday cake post of last week. But I think the simplicity reflects the nature of these delicious breakfasts/anytime foods. They really aren't anything fancy, just yum!

So hopefully these recipes will turn into your staples too!

P.S. Will you just look at that lovely golden colour of the granola! Sigh... until next week, kids!

Before...

...and after!

{Bircher recipe adapted from Donna Hay's 'No Time To Cook', Granola recipe adapted from Joy the Baker}



Bircher Muesli 

Serves 4

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sultanas

1 1/2 cups good-quality apple juice

2 cups traditional rolled oats

2 medium red apples, peeled and grated

1 cup natural or dry-roasted almonds, roughly chopped

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp maple syrup

1 cup thick natural or vanilla yogurt

Blueberries and Milk, to serve (Optional)

Method:

In a large mixing bowl, soak the sultanas in the apple juice for 10 minutes. Then add the oats, and combine so that all the oats are able to soak in the apple juice. Leave to stand for 10 minutes.

Add the grated apple, almonds, cinnamon, maple syrup, and yogurt to the bowl, and stir to combine. Either serve immediately, with the blueberries on top, and milk to pour, or cover with clingwrap and refrigerate overnight (I admit it is thicker and tastier the next day, but by no means is this necessary - it's delicious straight away nonetheless!)

Toasted Almond and Hazelnut Granola

Serves 8

Ingredients:

3 cups traditional rolled oats

1 cup natural almonds

1 cup natural hazelnuts

3/4 cup shredded coconut

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Pinch of salt

4 tbsp unsalted butter

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 tbsp maple syrup

1/3 cup brown sugar

Method:

Line a baking sheet with baking paper, and place the almonds and hazelnuts on it. In a preheated 180 degrees celsius oven, toast the nuts for 10 minutes, or until fragrant.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, cooled and roughly chopped nuts, coconut, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter, oil, maple syrup and brown sugar together until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is starting to bubble. Give one last big whisk, and pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients, tossing together so as to evenly coat the oaty mixture with the melted mixture.

Spread the mixture either into a large baking dish, or two lined baking trays, and pop back into the 180 degrees celsius oven. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden. Twice during baking, remove the granola from the oven and stir with a wooden spoon.

Let cool and store in an airtight container for up to two weeks. Serve over chopped mixed berries and yummy yogurt, or with milk.