Sunday 26 August 2012
rum & raisin snickers cake
Ever wondered how the idea of a birthday cake came to be? I've celebrated countless birthdays (mine and others) but have never given it much thought until today while writing this post. According to wiki, the idea was conceived by German bakeries all the way back in the 15th century. And what about those candles, huh? Apparently the number of candles decorating these cakes used to be more than the number of years of the individual's life, to indicate 'upcoming years'. Seems like a bad move there. How many extra candles is enough to prevent the individual from thinking you're wishing him/her a short life?
Well, we stuck with 1 candle for my dad's birthday this year. After a certain age, people tend to prefer that their birthday cakes not look like something the fire department wouldn't approve of. Plus the cake I made was a 7" one, way too small to accommodate that many candles anyway. Hehehe.
After much deliberation, I decided on a 3-layered chocolate cake with rum and raisin buttercream. This was only my 2nd layered cake and I had yet to master the art of cake decoration so I kept it simple, using only ganache and chopped peanuts. I know, chopped peanuts doesn't seem to go with rum&raisin but my dad loves nuts so I had to incorporate some kinda nut into the cake.
Surprisingly, the combination wasn't too disastrous and the Rum & Raisin Snickers Cake (as my bro-in-law calls it) was well-received by the birthday
Note: The entire process took me about 1.5 days because I had to soak the raisins overnight so prepare that in advance
Rum & Raisin Buttercream
(adapted from Bobby Flay's recipe on Food Network)
Ingredients
1 ½ cups
dark rum
1 tbsp
sugar
1 cup
golden raisins
113g
unsalted butter, softened
56g
cream cheese, softened
1 cup
confectioner’s sugar
Directions
- Bring the rum and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan
- Add the raisins, remove from heat and let macerate overnight
- Strain the raisins and set aside
- Bring the strained rum to a boil and reduce to ¼ cup
- Remove from heat and allow to cool
- Beat butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy
- Add sugar and whip until well incorporated
- Add in cooled reduced rum
- Add in more sugar if desired
Chocolate Cake
(referred to here)
3/4 cup plain flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup strong black coffee (steaming hot)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat oven to 175 deg Celsius
- In a mixing bowl (pre-weighed), combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt
- Add in the eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract and coffee and beat at medium speed for ~ 2 min
- Divide batter into 3 equal portions (Use a weighing scale for this. Subtract the weight of the mixing bowl from the total weight and divide it by 3)
- Line three 7-inch round cake tins with baking paper (I use this method. Alternatively you can use non-stick springform pans. If you don't have enough pans, you can choose to bake the layers one at a time)
- Pour the divided batter into the lined cake tins and bake for ~20min or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean
- Remove from oven and leave to cool on wire rack. It should be easy to remove the cake from the tins. Remove the circumference paper first and then invert the cake onto the rack
Chocolate Ganache recipe here
*Assembling the cake
- Place first cake layer on a cardboard cake base
- Slather buttercream on top and cover with rum-soaked raisins, pressing the raisins into the buttercream
- Place 2nd cake layer over buttercream-coated bottom layer
- Repeat step 2
- Place 3rd cake layer on top
- Using a spatula, coat top and sides with a thin layer of buttercream (this is the crumb coat) and leave aside for 1-2h
- Cover the cake with more buttercream, smoothening the top with an angled spatula, and the sides with a bench scraper.
- Refrigerate for 1h
- You can decorate cake as desired from here on. If you opt to use my amateur method then...
- Place cake on wire rack (with a tray below the rack) and pour cooled ganache over cake, letting it flow down over the sides
- Sprinkle chopped peanuts over the top
- Grab a handful of chopped peanuts and, holding the cake with your other hand, stick them onto the sides of the cake.
- Refrigerate for ~1h or until ready to serve
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hello there. i was wondering how many cup or (tablespoons) is 56 grams of cream cheese & 113 grams of unsalted butter? i really am having a hard time about measurements. sorry & help!
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteThe original recipe calls for 2oz of cream cheese and 4oz unsalted butter (I converted it into grams because I found it easier to measure out the ingredients by weight).
2 ounces of cream cheese is supposed to be about 4 tablespoons.
4oz butter = 8 tablespoons.
Hope this helps! :)