Story Line

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”  – Pablo Picasso

 

A few years ago, I have come across a fabulous caramel mud cake recipe in Woman’s Weekly Magazine. Something about caramel flavour and the mud cake texture mixed together appealed to me. Reading the recipe, I could only think thick caramel! I thought the recipe will come out amazing. I was right! When I tried the recipe it was superb! However the recipe instructed frosting with a white chocolate Ganache, which blends very well with the caramel flavour. I decided to leave the ganache out, and go for a lighter version of this cake and make one that only celebrates the caramel flavour.

 

Presentation Matters

I love cake bites and find them very elegant to serve. It is always nice to serve the cake as a whole, but on occasion I like to serve cake in a more stylish and elegant presentation. Cake bites always help you do that. Cutting the cake into equal bites and minimally decorating them will make the dessert very elegant. This method works with almost all cakes. All you need to do is cut the cakes into any shape you like using cookie cutters. I always prefer to use simple shapes and find them very elegant (squares, triangles, circles and rectangles). However, you can choose any shape you want and you can even go by theme!
A dainty piece of cake bite is too delicate to be over decorated! Don’t go overboard. Think simple and minimal instead. After all we are going after elegant. I have topped this cake with Chocolate shapes as you can see in the photo. Placing chocolate decorations vertically over the cake gave it length making it even more elegant. The taste of the dark chocolate enhances the flavour of the caramel too. Should you wish to taste only the caramel then simply leave out the chocolate decorations.

You can however make my delicious Caramel Sauce (recipe on this link) and drizzle it over this cake for a caramel explosion! Yum!

This recipe is adapted from Women’s Weekly Magazine

Ingredients

Serves: 24
  • 225g all purpose flour
  • 75g self-raising flour
  • 220g firmly packed brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 185g butter, chopped
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup raw honey / golden syrup
  • 180g white eating chocolates, chopped
  • 1 tsp Vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp Salt

Preheat your oven to 300F. Line a standard size Jelly Roll sheet pan with baking paper, set aside.

In a medium sauce pan, combine the milk, syrup, sugar, chocolate pieces and chopped butter. Cook over low-medium heat while continuously stirring. Do not leave the mixture or he chocolate will burn. Once the mixture is smooth and everything has incorporated well, remove the sauce pan from and set aside to cool for 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, sift in the flours.
In a separate large bowl, beat the eggs together. Gradually add the cooled chocolate mixture to the eggs and whisk to incorporate. Once all the chocolate mixture has incorporated into the egg misture, add the sifted flours and whisk well to combine.

Pour the batter onto the prepared sheet pan and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hr – 1 hour and 15 minutes. When done the cake will be firm and will appears set at the centre.

Cool the cake completely in the sheet pan. Once completely cooled, cover and refrigerate for 1 at least hour before cutting into pieces.

Top the cut pieces with piped chocolate decorations.
To make these decorations, melt some chocolate without over heating -just until the chocolate is all melted). Place the chocolate in a piping bag. Pipe the desired shapes on parchment paper and leave to set overnight. Once the decorations are set, make an incision in the cake with a sharp small knife, carefully place the chocolate in the opening without breaking the piece.

Place the cake bites on a nice platter, I like to use tiered platters for cake bites, but you can go for any platter or cake stand you like. Serve cold.

These cake bites are a perfect option for pass around cocktail parties, for afternoon tea get togethers and for any type of entertaining. They are also a fabulous addition to your Desserts Buffet.

 

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