Twix Cake

This cake is now known to me as The Cake That the Entire Universe Conspired Against. Okay it was more just my foolish mistakes but I'm frustrated at the moment and would rather blame the universe. This week I am celebrating 3 years since I wrote my first entry on this blog. Happy 3rd Birthday raspberri cupcakes! All I wanted to do this week was to conjure up a pretty little cake to celebrate it with you, a cake that is inspired by my Tim Tam Cake, which I made nearly a year ago. But alas, it wasn't meant to be. I wanted it to be a giant cake version of one of my childhood favourites, Twix. A treat that has followed me wherever I have lived in the world and helped to feed my sweet tooth (and my cavities). Sure, I know that people have attempted to make giant versions of Twix bars before, but I wanted this to be similar to my Tim Tam Cake, a tribute cake version rather than a larger replica. I thought it would be pretty straightforward; my favourite yellow cake mixture on the base, a gooey caramel layer on top, sliced into two skinny finger-shaped cakes and covered with a layer of rippled milk chocolate ganache. But no. My first attempt at the cake was much too flat and had to be redone. My second attempt produced a decent cake layer, but then I walked away from the caramel just long enough to completely over-cook it and it turned into a rock-hard layer of impenetrable toffee, which I only realised after I had poured it directly on top of the cake, decorated with ganache and tried to photograph. RAGE. Plus the proportions were still a bit off, so I was determined to make the appropriate adjustments and perfect it on attempt #3.

I baked the cake in a smaller, skinnier tin. It turned out just right. I made the caramel creamier and softer and set it in a separate tin. I sliced everything up, assembled it easily and covered it with a glossy layer of chocolate. Because I wanted to keep that shiny layer of chocolate for photographs I made the mistake of leaving the cake out in the open in my warm kitchen for more than half the day while I was busy with some wedding planning crap. And I returned to DISASTER. My shiny, pretty cake had literally flopped. The caramel had softened slightly in the warmer temperature, which I should have known (and have been kicking myself for ignoring), and because my cake stand is slightly tilted, the caramel layer had started to slide to one side, making HUGE, ugly cracks in the top of my ganache layer. A lot of swearing ensued. Followed by a lot of desperate attempts to press the ganache layer back together with my hands making the situation even worse, which is why you can see that the surface of the cake went from a shiny top layer (as seen in the process photos at the bottom of this post), to the rough, mottled mess that you will notice in the other couple of photos I was barely able to salvage from this situation. Ugh.

The good news is, the cake tastes pretty bloody good. Pretty much as close to being a twix cake as I had hoped. At least it achieved that in taste, even if it failed in looks. Just DON'T leave it out at room temperatures or warmer for many, many hours like silly me. I know it looks like a LOT of caramel on there. I won't lie, there is quite a lot of caramel because I wanted to make the ratios similar to the actual Twix bar, but the cakes are pretty small (together the two cakes are less than half the size of the Tim Tam Cake) and the caramel is salted to help balance it out. I also tried to reduce the sugar in the cake to stop it from being sickly sweet. But still it's a lot of caramel for one mouthful of cake so a small slice of this cake is more than enough to satisfy. I just wish I had some decent photos of it to share with you, I very nearly didn't post this recipe but then I would have had nothing to celebrate this week with. Oh well, it almost seems appropriate that I celebrate a blog anniversary with a little bit of rage and semi-fail cake, I always said that I would share my baking failures along with the successes.

I tend to forget that I have no luck when caramel is involved, and everything gets incredibly messy in my kitchen when there's chocolate. After those three futile attempts at this cake I admitted defeat, there was no way I had the time or energy to try again, especially when I got so close on the last one! Yep, it might be a while before I can fully enjoy a Twix bar again. But maybe you will have better luck than I did, since you can learn from my mistakes. It's a great cake for a Twix or caramel lover, and not too hard to assemble. Sure the caramel can be a little scary for a beginner and you need a sugar thermometer for it, but if you have all the equipment prepared it's very straightforward. And totally worth it when you get to taste that creamy, smooth caramel. Anyway, here's to another year of sharing my recipes (and sometimes a little rage)!

Twix Cake
(makes two small cakes, serves 8-10, salted caramel recipe adapted from David Lebovitz's recipe, cake adapted from my regular yellow cake recipe)
For the cake:
90g (about 3/4 cup) plain flour (all-purpose)
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
60ml (1/4 cup) milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
60g (1/4 cup) sugar (preferably caster/superfine)
60g (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 medium egg

For the caramel: (note, make sure you read David Lebovitz's post for tips if you are new to making caramel)
1 cup heavy cream (use pure/pouring cream in Australia)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or bean paste
Heaped 1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes
1/2 cup (160 g) light corn syrup or golden syrup (I used Lyle’s Golden Syrup)
1 cup (200 g) sugar
4 tbsp (60 g), butter, cubed, at room temperature

For the milk chocolate ganache:
200g (7 oz) milk chocolate, finely chopped (please use good quality chocolate)
150ml (2/3 cup) pure/pouring cream (or heavy whipping cream in the US, min 35% fat unthickened)
Optional: crushed Twix bars to place between the cake and caramel, to give it some crunch

Grease and line two 20cm x 10cm (8x4inch) loaf tins (standard sized tin, it actually measured closer to 21x11cm when I checked it) with baking paper. If you only have one tin available, you will have to bake the cake first and then reuse the tin for the caramel. Prepare the cake; preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. Mix milk and vanilla together in a measuring jug.

Using an electric mixer on low speed, beat sugar and butter in a large bowl until blended. Increase speed to high and beat for 2 mins or until pale and creamy. Reduce speed to medium, add egg and beat well until smooth. Alternately add flour mix and milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture (I did it by adding 1/3 of of the dry mixture followed by 1/2 of the wet mixture at a time). Beat until smooth, occasionally scraping bowl with a spatula. Pour batter into one of the prepared tins, smooth top with a spatula and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer into the centre comes out clean and the outside is golden. Cool in tin for 5 mins and then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Prepare the caramel; Place cream, vanilla, salt and butter in a small saucepan and gently heat, stirring every now and then until the mixture just comes to the boil. Cover and set aside, keeping it warm while you prepare the sugar syrup. In a medium or large heavy based saucepan fitted with a candy thermometer, place golden syrup and sugar and place on medium heat, stirring gently until the sugar dissolves. Once the mixture is melted together and the sugar is evenly moistened, only stir is as necessary to keep it from getting any hot spots. Cook until the syrup reaches 150°C(300°F). Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the warm cream mixture (take care as it will bubble up a lot) until it is smooth and even. Return to the heat and cook the mixture to 120°C(245°F). Remove the pan from the heat and stir until smooth, then pour into the other prepared tin. Leave to cool completely (or chill for about half an hour to allow it to set). Cut the cake and caramel layers into two long halves, and place the caramel layers on top of the cake (you may need to trim off some of the caramel to get the proportions right). Place cakes on a cake stand or plate, I recommend placing the stand on a large piece of baking paper to catch any chocolate that might drip off in the next part.

Prepare the ganache; place chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and gently heat cream in a small saucepan until it just comes to the boil, then pour hot cream over the chocolate and set aside for 5 minutes to allow the chocolate to melt. Using a whisk, gently combine mixture until it is smooth (if there are still lumps, place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and stir until they are gone). Set aside to cool, when it has returned to room temperature and is thickened but still easily pourable, use a spoon or measuring cup to pour over the top of each cake, coating each one with a thin, smooth layer. You can use a spatula to make sure it covers the entire cake. With the remaining ganache, wait until it has cooled slightly more and then drizzle thin strips of ganache (I used a whisk) over the tops of each cake to create a rippling effect. Scrape off excess ganache from the cake stand with a spatula and clean off with paper towels. Chill in the fridge until the ganache has set, about half an hour. You can keep the cake chilled in the fridge, but you will need to take it out of the fridge for about 30mins to an hour to let the caramel soften a bit before serving.