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?
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.
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