Buttercream

Opera Cake

Today I’m sharing my take on a opera cake – this is a classic French bake which is known for its many layers.

I won’t lie, this is a recipe I thought I’d never make again, especially after the nightmare I had with it at college. I found my old college recipe book and it has a few different recipe, including some patisserie – so this month I’ll be sharing some of the recipe I learnt and made at college, including this one.

This cake is a little different as it has multiple layers which are consistent and level – not always easy but when done right, it looks perfect. The flavours that this cake is composed of are chocolate and coffee, which compliment each other perfectly!

If you have never heard of this cake before, I’ll give you a quick run down. It had layers of jaconde sponge (almond based sponge cake), soaked with a coffee simple syrup, sandwiched with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache. Then finished with a chocolate glaze – what’s not to like about this? Especially if you’re a fan of both coffee and chocolate.

In this recipe, I used dark chocolate from the lovely people over at Cocoarunners. Here are a few more products they offer as part of their baking and cooking range – cocoa powder, milk chocolate, unsweetened, nibs and make your own chocolate bar.

If this sounds like your sort of recipe, then why don’t you give this a go… You’ll like it. It’s well worth the time.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Jaconde sponge:

6 eggs, separated.

250g granulated sugar.

125g ground almonds.

125g plain flour.

Coffee buttercream:

250g granulated sugar.

75ml water.

2 tbsp instant coffee.

75g egg yolks.

1 whole egg.

Coffee simple syrup:

250g sugar.

250ml water.

1 tbsp instant coffee.

Chocolate ganache:

100g dark chocolate.

100ml double cream.

Chocolate glaze:

75g dark chocolate.

45ml double cream.

1 tbsp instant coffee.

6g granulated sugar.

5ml liquid glucose.

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Weigh up all of your ingredients, line a your 8 inch baking tin with parchment paper and get any equipment you need, such as a stand mixer and mixing bowls. Don’t forget to preheat your oven to 200˚c/390˚f

To start on the recipe, you’ll want to begin by starting on the layers of sponge. I used the same cake tin 4 times over, as I don’t have 4x 8 inch cake tins, but work with what you have.

Into a mixing bowl, place the egg yolks with half of the granulated sugar and whisk until its lighter, fluffier and doubled in volume. This probably takes the longest, so you will want to get this started and you can continue with the other elements.

Grab another clean mixing bowl, place in the egg whites and whisk until they reach a frothy consistency, then slowly add in the granulated sugar. By the time the sugar has been fully incorporated, the meringue should be smooth, glossy and hold its shape.

Now take the ground almonds and plain flour and soft them together, discarding any bits thats get left in the sieve – repeat this a further 2 times, so you have sieved the dry mixture a total of 3 times. This helps to remove as many of the lumps in the dry mixture as possible.

Now you had the egg yolk mixture, meringue and dry mixture, you’re good to finish up the jaconde sponge. Start by taking the meringue by adding around a 1/3 of the mixture and gently folding it in, being careful not to knock out too much of the air. Repeat with the remaining mixture, only adding 1/3 at a time and incorporating until fully incorporated.

It’s the same process with the dry mixture, so add around 1/3 of the dry into the other mixture and gently fold it in, until its fully incorporated. Try your best not to knock the air from the batter, otherwise your cake will have no rise and not bake correctly.

Place the layers of cake into the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Repeat this process with the other remaining layers of sponge.

Once all your layers of cake have been made, you can make the buttercream (which is super easy to do).

Into a saucepan, place the sugar, water and instant coffee and place on the hob and bring to 121˚c/250˚f.

While you wait for your liquid mix to come to temperature, into a mixing bowl place the egg yolks and whole egg, then whisk until lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Once your liquid mix reaches the required temperature and your egg mixture has achieved the required consistency, you can go ahead and add the boiling liquid mixture into the egg mix over a low speed, then crank the speed up to high once it’s been added. Keep whisking until you’re able to touch the bottom of the bowl with the back of your hand.

Whenever you reach that point, you can then start adding the butter, just few chunks at a time, until incorporated. Repeat this process with the remaining butter until you have none left – if you notice the buttercream starts to look loose, don’t worry, this can happy. Continue to whisk on a high speed and add the butter, this will fix itself as its worked.

Whisk until you have a smooth beige coloured buttercream. Once made, transfer into a suitably sized bowl and place into the fridge until needed.

While you have a little spare time, it’s the perfect time to make the coffee simple syrup. Into a small saucepan, place the water, granulated sugar and instant coffee, give it all a mix and then place on the hob over a medium heat and bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, remove from the heat and allow to cool fully before you use it.

The ganache is the second from last element you will need to make, which is perfect and super easy. Into a bowl, place your chocolate and set aside until needed a little late on. Then into a saucepan place your cream into a small saucepan and place on the hob over a medium head and allow to almost reach a boil.

Once your cream reaches a boil, pour over your chocolate, ensuring the chocolate is fully submerged in the hot cream. Allow it to sit for 60-90 seconds, then stir until you have a smooth and glossy ganache. This can be made in advance and gently reheated, if it’s not spreadable.

The final element to make is the chocolate glaze – which is just as easy as any other component. You will want to make the just as you’re finished assembling the cake.

To make the glaze, melt the chocolate and allow to cool a little, until it’s thickened slightly. Into a small saucepan place the double cream, granulated sugar, glucose and coffee, mix together and place on the hob until it almost reaches the boil.

Once it reaches a boil, add in the chocolate and mix together until you have a smooth and glossy chocolate mixture.

Assembly:

The first stage is to ensure you have your cake, buttercream and ganache made, ready to do the main assembly – ensure you have your palette knives ready.

The stage I missed out of the recipe that you would see on a more standard version. of the recipe is brushing the bottom of the bottom layer with melted chocolate.

Brush the first layer of cake with a generous coating of the coffee simple syrup, then top with a generous amount of buttercream, roughly the same thickness of the sponge.

Then place into a cake tin and get ready to finish the assembly.

Take the next layer of sponge and brush generously with the coffee simple syrup – top this with the ganache (which should be perfectly spreadable, not too thick or runny). Spread it out until you have a level layer of chocolate ganache. Place this into the cake tin, on top of the cake topped with buttercream, pressing down a little to secure it in place.

Take the next layer of cake and repeat the process of generously brushing over the coffee simple syrup. Top this with another generous amount of buttercream and place on top of the cake with chocolate ganache.

Then take the final layer of cake and brush one side of the cake generously with the coffee simple syrup and then flip this, so the coffee side is on the underside. Press down a little to secure it in place, then place in the fridge and allow to firm up for around 30-45 minutes.

Once your cake has had time to chill in the fridge, make the chocolate glaze and then pour it directly over the top of cake and then spread it out and level it out until you have a smooth and level layer of chocolate glaze.

Place back in the fridge just to firm up – it will make it easy to trim later on. When ready, trim the sides, to get rid of the rough looking sides. Slice up and as an optional finish, pipe the word ‘Opera’ on top of each slice.

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.

Biscoff Cake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s bakemas 2020!

If it’s your first bakemas here, welcome. It is my annual mini-series in which I show you how to make a various Christmas themed baked goods – perfect if you want to impress your family and/or friends or if you’re hosting a festive get together.

I’m sharing my recipe for a biscoff layer cake.

If you haven’t heard or tried of biscoff, where have you been? The flavour is unique – it’s spiced and warm, similar to a gingerbread but in its own league. You can get biscuits and spread and best of all, we use both forms in the cake!

3 layers of biscoff biscuit flavoured sponge cake, filled and finished with a biscoff spread buttercream and the finished with biscoff biscuits… Sounds like too much of a biscoff flavour, right? Wrong, it’s amazingly balanced.

If you know someone who likes or loves biscoff, this cake is honestly for them – show them how much they mean to you by making them this cake!

Anyway, lets get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Cake:

250g butter, room temp.

250g light brown sugar.

4 Eggs.

250g plain flour.

2 tsp baking powder.

pinch of salt.

100g Lotus biscoff biscuits, crushed into crumbs.

Milk (optional).

Buttercream:

350g butter.

700g icing sugar.

200-300g Lotus biscoff spread.

Simple syrup:

100ml water.

100g granulated sugar.

1 tsp vanilla extract.

Decoration:

biscoff biscuits.

biscoff spread

Methods:

Before you get started on any element of the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of the ingredients, lining/buttering and flouring your 3 x 6 inch cake tins, preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and getting any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer and spatula.

To start, make the cake.

Grab a bowl and place in the butter and light brown sugar and beat together until lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency. You will want to allow this to mix on a medium/high speed for around 7-10 minutes, that’s the amount of time I find perfect but always use this as a guideline.

You can then start adding your eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. As the eggs are incorporated, you should notice the consistency change – don’t be alarmed, this is normal.

If you find your mixture is looking curdled, don’t fret. This sometimes happens while you’re adding moisture into the mixture. If it’s particularly bad, add a spoonful of your weighed out flour into the mix and incorporate.

Give the bowl a good scraping down, this is to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Now you can go ahead and add in the plain flour, baking powder and salt, passing them through a sieve first, just to remove any lumps that may be in the mixture. Don’t forget to add in the biscoff biscuit crumbs and then mix everything in until its fully incorporated. Try your best not to over work the ingredients, otherwise this will result in a tough textured cake.

You may find your cake batter isn’t too smooth and a little stiff, add in a tablespoon of milk until you achieve the perfect consistency.

Go ahead and give the bowl a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Then take the cake batter and divide it between your prepped cake tins, I just eyeballed the amounts in each cake tin but for more accuracy, weigh it into each tin. Smooth and level out the batter and then bake in your preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until a tester comes out clean when inserted into the centre.

While your cakes are in the oven, you can get ahead and make the other elements.

To make the buttercream, grab a clean mixing bowl and place in the butter. Then beat over a medium-high speed for around 7-10 minutes or until it is lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Once you achieve that consistency, give the bowl a good scraping down, then add in the first half of your icing sugar. Then you can beat that in on a low speed to start with, working your way up to a high and mix until everything is incorporated. Repeat with the other half of icing sugar.

Just before you finish the buttercream, give the bowl a good scraping down. This will ensure those last bits of icing sugar will be incorporated, it’s also the perfect time to add in the biscoff spread and mix until its fully incorporated.

Now everything has been added and the buttercream is ready, give the bowl a final scraping down. If you’re using it within hours of, cover and keep at room temperature otherwise, cover and store in the fridge.

For the simple syrup, grab a medium saucepan and place in the water, sugar and vanilla extract. Give them a brief mix to combine, before transferring the pan onto the hob over a medium-high heat, allowing to come to a boil. Remove from the heat and allow to cool before you intend on using it.

Once the cakes have baked and been removed from the oven, allow to them to cool fully before you try to work with them – otherwise, it may get messy.

Now that the cakes and simple syrup are completely cooled down and the buttercream is made – you can assemble the cake.

To start the assembly, generously brush the simple syrup over the layers of cake.

Take your board/plate/stand and smear a small amount of buttercream into the centre and place the first layer of cake on top of it and press it down to secure it in place. Top that with some buttercream and spread it out until its level and consistent – repeat this with your remaining layers of cake.

Once the cake has been stacked, you can then go ahead and give the cake a crumb coat – this is just a layer of buttercream that will lock in the crumbs so they don’t ruin your final coat and look messy. Once you’ve applied the crumb coat, place in the fridge to chill for 45-60 minutes or until its firm to the touch.

While you wait, have a clean down and prepare to finish the cake off.

Apply the final layer of buttercream and get it as smooth as you possibly can, then place it back in the fridge for 30 minutes.

I always chill the cake before I apply the drip but thats just for me. I take some biscoff spread and warm it through, until its smooth and melted. Place into a piping bag an then carefully pipe small amounts on the top edge of the cake and let them run down – you can create drips of varying lengths, it looks quite pleasing to see different drips. Don’t forget to fill the top in, so the top has biscoff spread over it too!

Set in the fridge just until the drip has firmed up, then take the remaining buttercream and place into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle of your choice and pipe rosettes on top of the cake and finish with biscoff biscuits.

That’s how I make my biscoff cake! It’s quick, easy and looks pretty impressive – why not try it?

Apple Crumble Cake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I’m sharing my take on an apple crumble layer cake – this is the perfect cake to make and enjoy during the long autumnal days/nights.

This cake came to be after experimenting with flavours and preventing waste, plus why not combine a classic apple crumble with cake to make this perfectly seasonal apple crumble cake. Try not to get this cake confused with a crumble topped apple cake, which is equally as delicious.

I’ll be honest with you, this cake was an accidental creation. I had been making a apple crumble no-bake cheesecake and apple crumble cupcakes and had left over ingredients. So, to prevent food waste, I made this delicious cake. If you like sponge cake and apple crumble – you’ll love this cake.

The cake is made up of 2 layers of apple cake (made with fresh and dried apple), filled and coated with a cinnamon buttercream and finished with a crumble topping as decoration – it’s my take on a combination of an apple crumble and cake.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Cake:

200g Butter.

200g Brown sugar (you can use either light or dark, whichever you prefer or have available).

3 Eggs.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

200g Plain flour.

1 tsp Baking powder.

Pinch of salt.

75g Cooking apple (peeled, cored and chopped).

10g Dried apple.

Buttercream:

250g Butter.

500g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Ground cinnamon (flavour to your preference).

Crumble:

35g Granulated sugar.

35g Dark brown sugar.

30g Oats.

50g Plain flour.

60g Butter.

Simple syrup:

100ml Water.

100g Granulated sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Apple Filling:

1 Large cooking apple, chopped into small cubes.

30-50g Granulated sugar (use the amount of sugar that suits you best).

15-30ml Water.

Method:

Before you get started on any element of this recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. I recommend starting by weighing up all of your ingredients, getting any equipment you may need ready, such as a stand mixer, mixing bowls and spatulas. You will also want to preheat your oven to 180˚f/350˚f and line your 6 inch cake tins with butter and parchment paper.

Cake:

To start on the recipe, you’ll want to start on the cake. Grab your mixing bowl and place in the butter and light brown sugar and beat the two together until they are lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency – this takes around 7-10 minutes on a medium-high speed.

You now start adding your eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. If you add your eggs too quickly, you may split the mixture and this sin’t ideal. You will also want to add in the vanilla extract, mix until it has been fully incorporated into the mix.

Don’t forget to give your bowl a good scraping down, this is just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Then you can add in the dry ingredients, passing them through a sieve first. This will help remove any lumps that may be in the dry mixture, meaning you won’t have any lumps of raw flour in your finished cake.

Mix all of the dry ingredients in on a low speed to start with, working your way up to a medium-high speed until the flour has been fully incorporated. Once the flour has been almost fully incorporated, you can add in the apple and mix on a medium speed until they are fairly distributed through out the cake batter.

Give the bowl another good scraping down, just to incorporate any little bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Divide the cake batter between your two cake tins and level it out as best you can using a small cranked or offset palette knife. You can then place them into the preheated oven and bake off for 30-35 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean).

Misc:

While your cakes are in the oven baking, you can make the buttercream and apple filling.

For the buttercream, grab your clean mixing bowl and place in the butter and beat for 5-7 minutes or until it has become lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

You can then go ahead and add in the first half of your icing sugar and beat on a low speed to start with, working your way up to a medium-high until the icing sugar has been fully incorporated. Repeat this stage with the remixing icing sugar.

Now you will want to add in the vanilla extract and mix until it has been fully incorporated. Give the bowl a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Add in some ground cinnamon and mix until you have the desired flavour. The amount of cinnamon is up to you, I like quite a lot as I want to be able to taste the cinnamon.

To make the apple filling, take a large cooking apple and peel, core and cube. Then place into a medium-large saucepan and add in the sugar and water, heat over a medium-high heat and just cook until the apples have soften and the sugar/water have made a thickened syrupy consistency.

Transfer the apple filling into a jar until it’s needed, later on.

Now may also be the ideal time to make the simple syrup, which is probably the easiest thing to make in this recipe. Place the water, sugar and vanilla extract into a saucepan and mix together until they are combined. Place on the hob over a medium-high heat and allow to come to a boil, then simmer until the mixture has reduced and thickened slightly. Allow to cool fully before you intend on using it.

To start on the crumble, you’ll want to place the plain flour, granulated sugar and dark brown sugar into a bowl and mix them together.

Once they are combined, you can then add the butter, which is in small pieces. Once all the butter has been added, you can rub it together until the butter has been incorporated and the mixture has become crumblier looking – now you can add in the oats, stir until they have been incorporated.

Remove the crumble from the bowl and place onto a lined baking tray. If your crumble has lumps that are large, use a silicon spatula to break them down into smaller bits. Bake the crumble in the oven until it’s well coloured – around 10-12 minutes.

Assembly:

Now you have every element of the cake made, you can assemble it. To start, level your cakes – I remove the un-level top of the cakes and generously brush the layers of cake with the vanilla simple syrup I made earlier on.

Then grab the plate/board/stand you intend on using to serve the cake on and onto the centre of it, place a small blob of buttercream and smear it out and place the first layer of cake onto it, pressing down to secure it in place. This step acts as the glue, ensuring the cake is secure and won’t move around while you’re working with it.

Place a decent amount of buttercream onto the first layer or cake and spread out, leaving a slight lip on the outer edge, then add in the apple filling and place the second layer of cake on top, pressing down to secure it in place a bit better.

You can then go ahead and add a generous layer of buttercream to the entire cake, encasing the cake in the cinnamon buttercream. Usually, I’d suggest doing a crumb coat but this cake didn’t really need one as I wasn’t looking for a perfect finish. If you are looking for a more perfect finish, you can go ahead and do a crumb coat before applying the final layer of buttercream. If you do a crumb coat, chill in the fridge for around 45-60 minutes before applying the final layer.

Make sure you keep the sides smooth and have a little more buttercream on top of the cake, so you can use a small cranked/offset palette knife to make a swirl on top of the cake. This is probably the simplest and easiest way to decorate a cake – well I think so anyway. Feel free to decorate however you like!

To finish the cake off, I use the crumble mix around the outer edge of the cake just to add some decoration, colour and texture. You can incorporate the crumble a different way, if the way I mentioned doesn’t suit you.

That’s it. You can eat the cake straight away or chill in the fridge for a short while before you enjoy it.

Halloween Cake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Although halloween this year may be a little different, there’s no reason not to celebrate. That’s why I’m sharing my recipe for a super simple halloween themed cake.

This is the perfect cake to make if you’re doing anything for halloween, it’s got the perfectly festive colours of purple, green and orange. It starts with 3 layers of coloured vanilla cake, sandwiched and finished with a standard vanilla buttercream and its then decorated with a white chocolate drip, buttercream rosettes and meringue decorations.

I’ll be honest, this cake is a remake of a cake I made back in 2017… I didn’t like the cake enough to share until this year when I found the old pictures and thought I could remake it and make it better. I added a white chocolate drip and meringue decorations.

This would be the perfect cake to make if you have a large household or are able to share it with your friends and family, especially if they celebrate halloween.

Anyway, lets’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Meringue decorations:

2 Egg whites.

Granulated sugar (double the weight of the egg whites).

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Cake:

375g Butter, at room temperature.

375g Granulated sugar.

6 Eggs.

2 tsp Vanilla extract.

375g Plain flour.

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder.

45ml Milk.

Food colouring paste (or gels).

Buttercream:

450g Butter, at room temperature.

900g Icing sugar.

1-2 tsp Vanilla extract.

Simple Syrup:

200g Granulated sugar.

180ml Water.

10ml Vanilla extract.

Decoration:

White chocolate spread (for the drip).

Methods:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some preparation. Weigh up all of your ingredients, line or butter and flour your cake tins/line your baking trays with parchment, preheat your oven to 130˚c/265˚f an 180˚c/350˚f (for the cakes), then grab any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer (or hand mixer) and mixing bowls.

Meringue:

To start on the recipe, I like to make the meringue decorations as they take some time to bake. Start by grabbing your clean mixing bowl and placing the egg whites into it, then beating them until they are fairly frothy.

You can then go ahead and add in the granulated sugar, roughly a tablespoon at a time, allowing the sugar to be incorporated before adding anymore sugar.

Once you have all of the sugar incorporated, you’ll want to check if the meringue is ready. Take a small amount and rub it between your finger and thumb, if you feel any granules of sugar, continue to whisk until you can no longer feel any granules of sugar.

When ready, place the meringue mixture into a piping bag fitted with a round piping tip and get ready to pipe. Onto the first lined baking tray, you can pipe small meringue kisses (and top them with sprinkles or other bits, if wanted) and onto the other tray, pipe a squiggle which should look like a ghost.

Place the trays into a the 130˚c/265˚f oven and bake for 40-60 minutes or until they peel away from the baking paper. Once baked, leave somewhere to cool until needed later on (store in the fridge if you intend on using them at a later date).

Cake:

To start on the cake, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and grab a mixing bowl. Into the mixing bowl, place the butter and granulated sugar and beat them together until they are lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency (this normally takes about 7-10 minutes). The mixture should be smoother, lighter and fluffier (if you can see or feel any granules of sugar, continue to mix until you can longer feel them).

Give the bowl a good scraping down, this is just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

You can then add in your eggs, roughly one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. Try your best not to add in too much egg at anytime, otherwise you may curdle or split the mixture.

Then you can go ahead and add in the flour and baking powder, passing it through a sieve, just to remove any lumps that may be in the dry mix.

Mix the dry ingredients until they are fully incorporated, then stop, try not to over mix the cake batter too much (otherwise the baked cake will be tough in texture).

Into three separate bowls, add 15ml of milk and a colour into each (make sure the colour is very concentrated. Then divide the cake batter between the three bowls and incorporate the milk and colour into the cake batter – once the cake batter is coloured and ready, transfer into your lined (or buttered and floured) cake tins.

Spread and level out the cake batter as best as you possibly can, then place into your preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until well risen and when a tester is inserted into the centre, it comes out clean.

Buttercream:

The buttercream is super easy to make. Start by grabbing a clean mixing bowl and placing the butter into it, then beat on a high speed for 7-9 minutes or until the butter has become lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Once the butter has achieved the perfect consistency, you can go ahead and add in half of the icing sugar and mix o a low speed to start, working your way up to a high speed. Repeat this for the remaining half of the icing sugar.

Just before you finish mixing, add in the vanilla and mix until its been fully incorporated.

Crumb coat the cake with a layer of buttercream, then separate the buttercream equally between three bowls and colour each of buttercream with purple, green and orange. Cover and set aside until needed later on.

Simple syrup:

Place the water, sugar and vanilla extract into a saucepan and place on the hob over a high heat and allow to come to a boil. The mixture should thicken slightly once done.

Allow to cool before using.

Once its cooled, level your cakes and brush over your layers of cake.

Assembly:

To assemble the cake, start by taking your plate/stand and dolloping a small amount of buttercream onto the plate/stand and spreading it out. This is just to secure the cake cake in place, so it doesn’t move while you’re decorating it.

I like to start by placing the purple layer of cake onto the plate/stand, then top with vanilla buttercream and jam (repeat this stage with the remaining cake).

You can then go ahead and give the cake a crumb coat, this is just a thin layer of buttercream used to lock in all of the crumbs, so none get into your final layer of icing and ruin your decoration.

Place in the fridge, just to allow the buttercream to firm ups around 40-60 minutes will be fine.

Take the coloured buttercream and place into piping bags, this will make it easier to work with the decoration.

when you’re ready to apply the final layer of buttercream, you can do it however you like but I like the correspond the colours inside with the colours outside, so I will do purple, green and orange (in that order). I start by placing my cake on to a turntable, so I can spin the cake and get a more level and consistent layer.

I pipe on all of my layers, so they are like rough levels, you can always straighten them out if they aren’t as straight as you’d like. Then take a cake smoother/scraper and level the icing all amount the cake, so it will all become smooth and level out. You may need to go around the cake a few times, just to perfect the finish.

Place back into the fridge and allow the buttercream to firm up for a bit, about 40-60 minutes should be ideal.

After the time in the fridge, you can finish the cake. I like to do the drip first, so I melt the white chocolate spread in the microwave for a few seconds until its more liquid, then place the melted spread into a piping bag and drip it from the top, down the side of the cake. You can use more spread to create a longer drip or less if you want a shorter drip. Don’t forget to spread some of the chocolate spread on-top of the cake.

You’ll want the place the cake back in the fridge for 10 minutes, just for the drip to firm up.

Once you’re ready to finish the cake, you can go ahead and take the remaining buttercream and place it all into a piping bag fitted with an open star nozzle, then pipe your rosettes onto the top of your cake, pipe as many or as few as you’d like – it’s up to you.

Then finish by placing the meringue decorations all over the top of the cake, you’ll know where a cake need some decoration.

Vegan Oreo Chocolate Cake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

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Easy Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

For today’s recipe, I’m taking a classic and making it vegan – the humble vanilla cupcake. A fluffy vanilla cupcake topped with a delightful vanilla buttercream – what more could you want?

I though, seeing as its veganuary, why not make a simple yet staple recipe? Vanilla cupcakes are easily one of the most popular cupcakes flavours out there, so it should be available for vegans!

I’ve been testing different recipes and them all ending up with different results but none of them were perfect. Some required oil, others a vegan spread and after a few attempts, I had enough of weird textures and flavours, so I took my own vanilla cupcake recipe and made some minor changes and finally found a recipe that was going to work for me and I’m sharing it with you today!

As with some recipes, they require you to buy bits and pieces you wouldn’t usually use but not with this one, the only thing you’ll need to buy different is some oat milk (that’s my favourite alternative to milk, but feel free to test other types of milk). We use the milk in place of the eggs and it works perfectly in this recipe – trust me.

As always, you should take extra precautions with ingredients and making sure they are fully vegan before you use them!

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

175g Vegan spread (I used PURE, its vegan and gluten free – available at Heron frozen foods stores).

175g Granulated sugar.

175ml Oat milk (you can try other alternatives, I haven’t so can’t recommend any).

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

175g Plain flour.

1 tsp Baking powder.

Pinch of salt.

Buttercream

125g Vegan spread (I used PURE).

125g White Vegetable fat (I used Trex).

500g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Methods:

Before you get into making the cupcakes, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, weighing up all your ingredients, line a cupcake pan with cupcake cases and getting any equipment you may need ready to use.

Start by getting yourself a mixing bowl and placing the spread and sugar into it. Beat the two together until they are lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Give the bowl a scraping down and start to add your oat milk in a little at a time, no matter how slowly you add the milk, the mixture with split and this is okay on this occasion. This will happen as you’re adding a lot of liquid into a mix which can’t handle it, it will be corrected once the flour is added.

Once all of the oat milk has been added, you can go ahead and sift in the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix on a low-medium speed until all the dry ingredients have been worked in. You’ll know once the batter is smooth and doesn’t show a trace of a single ingredient.

Don’t forget to line your cupcake pan with cupcake cases and transfer the cake batter into a piping bag (for convenience). Fill the cupcake cases just over half the way full, this is the ideal amount.

Place into your preheated oven and bake for 20-22 minutes or until well risen and a tester comes out clean (all ovens are different, so times may vary between each oven).

While your cupcakes are in the oven baking, now would be the ideal time to make your ‘butter’ cream!

Get yourself a large mixing bowl and place in the vegan spread and trex and beat them together until they are lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency – this doesn’t take too long usually.

Add in your first half of icing sugar, beating on a low speed to start then working your way up to a medium high. Repeat with the second batch of icing sugar.

Once all the icing sugar has been added, add in your vanilla and beat until its fully incorporated. Transfer the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle (I went with an open star nozzle).

Once your cupcakes are fully baked (test by inserting a tester into the centre, if it comes out clean, they’re fully baked) remove from the oven and allow to cool fully before you finish them off.

Now you have your fully baked and cooled cupcakes and buttercream ready, you’re good to finish the cupcakes off by decorating them.

Pipe as much or as little buttercream you’d like on the cupcakes, repeat until you’re finished. Finish the cupcakes with some vegan friendly sprinkles (these are available online).

That’s it, you’re done! A really quick and easy recipe showing you how to make vegan vanilla cupcakes and to be honest with you, you can’t even tell they are vegan!

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my Instagram and Twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below.

Birthday Cake (Rainbow & Vanilla)

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s not my birthday today but I’m showing you how to make this two-tiered birthday/celebration cake.

This cake is two tiers, the bottom one consisting of a rainbow cake and the other a vanilla cake (originally it was going to be a sprinkle cake but the sprinkles wasn’t that colourful and baked into the cake), filled and finished with a vanilla buttercream.

The rainbow cake is colourful on the inside but the outside, has a plain sprinkle buttercream and the top tier

This cake was made for my cousins 18^th birthday. I would have experimented with flavours if this was for myself but unfortunately, my cousin is a picky eater and is a lover of all things plain. I’m not exaggerating when I say the most exciting thing she’ll eat is plain pasta with mayonnaise…

Taking into consideration my cousins preference in food, there was not going to be any jam or fillings in the cake, thanks Emelia!

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

8” Rainbow Cake:

Rainbow colour pastes (red, orange, yellow, green, blue & purple or your choice of colours).

750g Butter

750g Granulated sugar.

9 Eggs.

750g Plain flour.

22g Baking powder.

2g Salt.

135-150ml Milk (I used whole milk but feel free to use your milk of choice).

2 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract.

6” Vanilla Sprinkle Cake:

225gg Butter.

225g Granulated sugar.

4 Eggs.

225g Plain flour.

7g Baking powder.

Pinch of salt.

45-60ml Milk (Whole or your preference).

60-80g Rainbow sprinkles.

Simple Syrup:

250g Granulated sugar.

250ml Water.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Buttercream:

700g Butter (at room temperature).

1,600g Icing sugar.

Vanilla extract (as much or as little as you like).

Finishing:

White chocolate spread (for the white chocolate drip).

Methods:

Before you go ahead and start on the recipe, it’s best to do some prep. I’ll list it for you.

Start by weighing up all your ingredients.
Butter and flouring the 8-inch and 6-inch cake tins, line them piece of parchment/greaseproof as well.
Preheat the oven to 180˚c/350˚f.
Add the food colour to the milk, this helps you not to overmix the cake batter and loosen the consistency to be more spreadable.

Rainbow Cake:

Before you get started on making the cakes, you’ll want to add your milk into each bowl, add the food colouring pastes and give a good mix until the colour and milk are very well combined. Set aside until needed later.

To start on the cake, place the butter and granulated sugar into your mixing bowl and beat them together over medium-high speed until they have become lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Once that has been achieved, add your eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. The mixture will become looser in consistency, this is normal.

Give the bowl a good scraping down, this is just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from early on.

Now you can add all the dry ingredients, passing them through a sieve to remove any lumps that may be in the dry mix. Incorporate them in on a low speed to start, working your way up to a medium-high.

Once the dry ingredients are fully incorporated, you can then give it a final mix, just to incorporate any bits that haven’t been fully worked in and then transfer it into a large bowl and weigh it, then divide that amount by 6 and weigh that amount into each bowl of coloured milk. Give it all a good mix until the colour has been fully mixed in.

You can then transfer the cake batter into the prepared and lined 8-inch cake tins and bake in the oven for around 25 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean).

Now that the cakes are baked, allow to cool in the tin for a short while before transferring onto a cooling rack.

Once the cakes are fully cooled down, you can then level the top off with a cake leveller for the best accuracy and trip the sides to make the sponges as level as possible. Set aside until needed later.

Vanilla/Funfetti Cake:

Into your mixing bowl of choice, place the butter and sugar, beat together over a medium-high speed. Beat them together until lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Now you can add your eggs, one at a time beating well in-between each addition. As you add the eggs, the consistency will chance, this is normal.

Give the bowl a good scraping down, this is just to incorporate any bits that hadn’t been fully incorporated.

Add the dry ingredients, passing them through a sieve to remove any lumps that may be in the dry mix. Mix on a low-medium speed to start, working your way up to a medium-high until the flour is fully incorporated.

If the consistency is a little stiff, add a tablespoon of milk at a time to get it to the right consistency, normally around 3-4 is about right.

You can then add your sprinkles, and fold them in until they are equally dispersed in the batter.

Take the weight of the cake batter and divide it by 3 and separate the cake batter between the 3 cake tins. Level them as best you possibly can, using a cranked/offset spatula.

Place into the oven and bake for 30 minutes or so (or until a tester comes out clean).

Once the cakes are out of oven, allow to cool in the tins for a bit before removing from the tin and allowing to cool fully on a cooling rack.

Take the cooled cakes and level the tops off with a cake leveller and trim the sides to make them all as equal as possible.

Simple Syrup:

To make the simple syrup, into a medium saucepan, place the sugar, water and vanilla extract and give a brief mix.

Place on the hob over a medium-high heat until it reaches a boil, then take it off the heat and allow it to cool down fully before you use it.

If you don’t intend on using it once its cooled down, store it in the fridge in a container with a lid.

Buttercream:

Place the butter into your mixing bowl and beat on its own for 7-10 minutes until its lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Once it’s become lighter and fluffier, you can give the bowl a good scraping down and then you can add half of your icing sugar and give it a good mix for around 4-6 minutes. The icing sugar should be fully incorporated before you add the other half – repeat with the remaining half of icing sugar.

Now all the icing sugar has been incorporated, you can add the vanilla extract and beat it in until its fully incorporated.

Store in an air tight container in the fridge if you don’t intend on using that day.

Assembly:

To start on the assembly of the cake, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve got all the elements of the cake made before you start.

Simple syrup all your layers of cake now, it will save you faffing about in a little while when you’re assembling.

Get yourself a 10-inch cake board and place it onto your turntable. Take a small amount of the vanilla buttercream and spread it out in the centre of the cake board and place the purple layer of cake

Continue to sandwich the cakes together with a good layer of buttercream.

You can then give the cake a thin coat of buttercream, this is known as a crumb coat. It simply locks in the crumbs, so when you apply your second coat of buttercream, there are no pesky crumbs in the final coat.

Chill the cake in the fridge for around 45 – 60 minutes, or until the buttercream is firm to the touch.

At this point you’ll want to dowel the cake – I recommend checking out the amount of them you’ll need using an online chart. The chart I used was from college and got thrown away in the clear up of this cake.

Take some of the buttercream and add 50-60g of rainbow sprinkles to it and fold them in using a spatula.

Then apply the final layer of icing to your rainbow cake, be as liberal with the buttercream as you can scrape away any excess and use it to pipe the rosettes. Once you’ve applied the final coat and smoothed it out using a cake smoother, you can then place back in the fridge to firm up again for 45-60 minutes.

Repeat for the vanilla cake that’s going on top, but don’t add sprinkles to the buttercream, instead add a small amount of food colouring and dye the buttercream pink (or whatever colour you’d like). Make sure the 6-inch vanilla cake is on a 6-inch cake board, it’ll make it easier to move the cake around.

To secure the 2 cakes together, you’ll want to use a small amount of either buttercream or royal icing. Spread a small amount on top of the larger cake, right in the centre, then place the smaller cake on top and press it down a little just to secure it in place.

You can place this back in the fridge if you’d like or you can melt the white chocolate spread down and use it for the chocolate drip.

Pipe rosettes on top of the 6-inch cake and you can make any other changes from here, to personalise it to suit the person you’re making it for.

You can decorate this cake however you like, I just went with my typical look on the cake.

That’s all for this week guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back next week with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my Instagram and Twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below!

Coffee and Walnut Cake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I’m showing you how to make a simple but classic coffee and walnut cake, this is always a winner when made. What are you waiting for?

I know it’s not officially the start of Autumn (unless you follow meteorological season) until later in the month but as soon as August end and September starts, it’s basically autumn… Don’t even come for me.

A coffee and walnut cake may not be the most seasonal cake, especially seeing as its made all year round by most but the colours that make up the cake are for me seasonal… I’ll be honest, this cake isn’t my favourite but I know others who enjoy it.

If you haven’t tried this cake before, I’ll tell you a little about it. It’s a sponge cake that is flavoured with coffee and has walnuts in it, filled and topped with coffee flavoured buttercream and an optional finish is to pipe rosettes on top and top them with some more walnuts.

Almost 3 years ago, I made this cake in cupcake form. I’ll link the coffee and walnut cupcake recipe, if you’re interest in it.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Coffee:

15g Instant coffee.

45ml Boiling water.

Cake:

175g Butter.

175g Plain flour.

3 Eggs.

2-3 tbsp coffee mixture.

75g Walnuts, chopped.

Buttercream:

200g Butter.

450g Icing sugar.

2-3 tbsp coffee mixture.

Methods:

Coffee:

To make the coffee mixture, you’ll want to add the instant coffee into a bowl and boil the kettle of water until its boiled.

Into the bowl with the instant coffee, add in the boiling water and give it a good mix until the coffee is fully dissolved in the water. Set aside until cool enough to use.

Cake:

To start on the cake batter, you’ll want to get yourself a mixing bowl and into it place the butter and sugar. Beat the two together on a medium-high speed until they are very well combined.

Scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl, this is to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in earlier on.

Now you can start adding your eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. Don’t add the eggs too quickly, otherwise you may scramble the mixture.

Next, you can add in the coffee mixture and mix it in just until its incorporated. If the mixture scrambles here, don’t worry too much, the dry ingredients will fix it.

Give the bowl a good scrape down, again this is just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in.

Add the dry ingredients into the bowl, passing them through a sieve first. Doing this removes any lumps in the dry mix and helps to create a lighter cake texture. Mix on a low-medium speed until the dry ingredients have been fully worked in.

Once the dry ingredients are fully incorporated, add in the chopped walnuts and mix until they are fully incorporated.

Split the cake batter between your 2 x 6-inch cake tins and level it out using a cranked/offset palette knife. You can then place the cake tins into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes (or until a tester when inserted comes out clean).

Buttercream:

To make the buttercream it’s easy. Place your butter into a mixing bowl and beat it until its lighter and fluffier in both colour and consistency.

Then add half of your icing sugar and beat it well until its fully incorporated, repeat with the other half of the icing sugar. Add in the vanilla and give it a good mix until it’s fully incorporated.

At this point you can add your coffee mixture, roughly a tablespoon at a time, you will want to add the right amount so not only the flavour is there but the consistency doesn’t change too much. That’s why I recommend using 2-3 tablespoons, you can vary the amount.

Once you’ve made the buttercream, you can use it or store it in the fridge for a few days.

Assembly:

Take your cooled cakes out of the tins and set aside while you transfer the buttercream from the bowl into a piping bag. Using a piping bag is my personal preference, feel free to spread it out on the cake using a cranked/offset palette knife, whichever method works for you.

Take your first layer of cake and pipe or spread over a generous amount of the coffee buttercream, then layer the second layer of cake on top, pressing down slightly to secure it in place. Then on top of that, you can pipe or spread out the buttercream and add walnuts (oh and I added chocolate sprinkles purely for decoration but this is completely optional).

You can decorate this cake however you like, I just went with my typical look on the cake.

Vanilla Cakesicles (Cake Popsicles/Cake Pops)

by bakingwithelliott 14 Comments

Today I have the simplest recipe for these pretty trendy cakesicles or cake-pops, let’s get started, shall we?

Today’s recipe is for a large cake-pop, which is made in a popsicle mould rather than a cake-pop mould. Who doesn’t mind a bit more cake? Seriously.

The recipe I’ll be sharing is for a simple vanilla sponge cake and vanilla buttercream, which when combined make the perfect ‘dough’ for the cake-pops. I opted for white chocolate to finish them, but feel free to use either milk or dark chocolate if you’d prefer. As an optional finish, I drizzled a small amount of melted dark chocolate over, but again, this was optional. Use whatever you’d like to finish them off.

There is nothing difficult about this recipe as you cake make the cake with either a stand mixer, hand mixer or with a wooden spoon. The only thing I didn’t have before I made these cake-pops was the popsicle mould, I ordered one on eBay for £3.99. If you need one, I recommend you check out eBay beforehand.

As with all my recipes, before you get started, you’ll want to do some prep work. Get your ingredients measured/weighed up, prepare your tin (if you want to, I didn’t but you know your tin) and get any equipment you may need ready. Taking these few extra steps can lower the chance of making a mistake.

Ingredients:

Cake:

250g Butter.

250g Granulated sugar.

250g Plain flour.

1 ½ tsp Baking powder.

½ tsp Salt.

4 Eggs.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Buttercream:

125g Butter.

250g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Finishing:

200g White chocolate, melted.

50g Dark chocolate, melted and in a piping bag.

Method:

Before you get into making the cake or buttercream, you’ll want to do some prep work. Weigh up all your ingredients, line your tin (if you need to), preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and get any equipment you intend on using ready.

To start on the recipe, you’ll want to make the cake. Get yourself a mixing bowl and place the butter, granulated sugar, plain flour, baking powder, salt (passing the dry ingredients through a sieve, to remove any lumps that may be in the dry ingredients), eggs and vanilla.

You can then go ahead and beat this on a low speed to start with, building your way up to a medium-high speed for around 60-90 seconds, by this point the mixture will be very well incorporated and you shouldn’t be able to see a single trace of any ingredient. If the mixture is looking a little stiff add a around 1-2 tablespoons of milk (or more if needed) to help loosen the mixture.

Give the bowl a good scrape down, this is just to incorporate any bits that haven’t been fully incorporated into the mixture. Then add the cake batter into your 8 inch square cake tin and spread it out as evenly as possible, bake in your preheated oven for 30-35 minutes.

While the cake is in the oven baking, it’s best to do the buttercream. To start on the buttercream, get your mixing bowl and add in your butter and beat on a medium-high speed for around 5-7 minutes or until lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Once this has been achieved, you can give the bowl a good scraping down, then add in your first half of icing sugar and beat until its fully incorporated and repeat that stage with the second half of icing sugar. Once that’s all added and mixed in, you can add in your vanilla and mix until incorporated. Place the buttercream into a bowl and place in the fridge until its needed later.

Allow your cake to cool down fully before you intend on using it, otherwise when you add in the buttercream it will melt it and make a horrible sloppy mess… Which nobody wants. I allow my cake to cool down in the tin for around 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and allow to cool fully on a cooling rack before I intend on using it.

After about an hour, I take my cake and break it in half, crumbling it between my fingers until I have got it to the perfect consistency. You will know once you’ve achieved this as it will look like breadcrumbs or have a sandy texture to them – you can also use a food processor which will do the job equally as well.

Now you can add in your buttercream and work the two together either by hand or using your food processor/stand mixer, start with a smaller amount of buttercream and work in more if you need to (it’s easier to add buttercream than to take it away). The perfect consistency is pliable and holds its shape well, you’ll know when you’ve got the perfect consistency – trust me on that.

Take your silicon popsicle mould and place a good amount of your cake ‘dough’ and place it into the mould and press it into place, flattening using your fingers/palm and repeat this step for the remaining cake-pops. Place the mould into the fridge (or freezer if you’re in a rush). Repeat until you have used all your cake ‘dough’ up.

Once all your cake-pops are chilling/firming up, place your white chocolate on a double boiler and melt the chocolate. Once your chocolate is fully melted, you can start to dip each of your cake-pops, one at a time then once dipped, place onto a cake board or cooling rack (whichever you have or works best for you). Allow them to solidify fully before you finish them off.

To finish them off I add a drizzle of dark chocolate but feel free to use whichever chocolate suits you best.

Salted Caramel No-Bake Cheesecake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

If you like salted caramel and cheesecake, this recipe is the one for you. Today I’ll be showing you how to make salted caramel cheesecake, let’s get started shall we?

I’ll be honest, I love salted caramel but if you don’t, feel free to make the caramel without the salt and you’ll have the basic caramel sauce recipe covered. This cheesecake has the perfect amount of sweet and salty, it balances pretty well (again, you may want to alter the amounts, I don’t consume huge amounts of salt normally so a little goes a long way for me personally).

Anyway, this cheesecake is as easy as any other I’ve made on my YouTube channel or blog before. If you don’t own a food processer or stand mixer, don’t worry, it can all be done with other tools. Example, when you’re crushing the biscuits for the base, feel free to put them in a Ziploc bag (or similar) and crush them by using a rolling pin, it takes a little longer than using a food processor but yields as good as result and the same goes for the filling. If you don’t have a stand mixer, no worries, you can use a hand whisk – this works just as well, it just requires a little more time and mixing. I used a hand whisk this time around, so feel free to do it whichever way suits you best.

I don’t make the salted caramel sauce in this video but already have a video up on it, check it out here.

Cheesecake:

250g Digestive biscuits.

100g Butter.

600g Soft cheese.

100g Icing sugar.

2 tsp Vanilla extract.

150ml Salted caramel sauce.

300ml Double cream.

Finishing:

200ml Double cream.

1tsp Vanilla extract.

25g Icing sugar.

Salted caramel sauce, in a piping bag.

Sea salt flakes, optional.

Method:

Before you get started, do your prep work, weighing up the ingredients, lining your tin and getting any equipment you need ready.

Take your digestive biscuits and crush them up, I used a food processor but feel free to use Ziploc bag and rolling pin (whichever works best for you).

Once you’ve got them looking like crumbs or to a sandy consistency, you can add the butter which has been melted and mix until the two ingredients are fully incorporated.

Scoop the mixture into your glasses (or the base of an 8-inch round cake tin and compress using a cup measurement or something similar and set in the fridge until needed later) and feel free to compress the mixture a little using the back of a spoon, set in the fridge while you make your cheesecake filling.

To start on the filling, place the soft cheese, icing sugar, vanilla extract and salted caramel into a bowl and beat until they are fully incorporated, this doesn’t take very long.

You can then add in the double cream and whisk until the mixture is thicker in consistency, it should be able to hold its shape well and be a beige-brown colour once it’s done and ready to be used.

I placed the cheesecake filling into a piping bag and piped it into my glasses, this is the most convenient way to do it but you can just scoop up the mixture and place it into the glass if that works for you (if you’re using a 8-inch cake tin, feel free to scoop or pour the mixture into the tin and level it out using a cranked/off-set palette knife and smooth it off the best you can), you can set these in the fridge to set/firm up for a couple of hours (overnight works really well).

When you intend to serve the cheesecake, you’ll want to finish them off. To make the whipped cream that goes on top of the cheesecake, get yourself a medium sized bowl and add the double cream, vanilla extract and double cream and whisk them together until the ingredients are fully incorporated and the cream holds its shape well (don’t over whisk the cream, otherwise it will have an unpleasant mouthfeel, it may turn grainy). Place the cream into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle (or whichever you like) and place in the fridge until you intend to use it, you can also place some of the salted caramel into a piping bag, ready to drizzle over the top.

Pipe your whipped cream on top of each cheesecake, I went right in the centre of the cheesecake but you can be abstract about it if you’d like.

Drizzle/pipe over the slated caramel sauce, use as much or as little as you’d like and as an optional finish you can sprinkle over a small amount of salt, just to enhance the ‘salted’ element of the cheesecake.

Buttercream

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