Apple and Salted Caramel Cake

This week a very good friend asked if I could make a cake for them. I was absolutely delighted to do so and the requested cake was Apple and Salted Caramel

I had never actually made an apple and salted caramel cake before so I decided to do a little research. I found a delicious looking recipe on the Brown Eyed Baker and I must say that her cake looks amazing. However, naturally I had to make a couple of little adaptations and I am very happy with how it turned out. Firstly I wanted to make the cake lighter and more summer appropriate, so less spicy. I also wanted to include fresh apple to make it taste more fresh. Finally I came up with my own easy to make icing and some interactive decorations

Chocolate apple of mystery!!

Two delicious layers of apple cake were covered in frosting

before three little apples were placed on top

Excuse the on location picture quality

And the apples, well let me show you how they work.....

Fun right?!

Apple Salted Caramel Cake (adapted from BrownEyedBaker)

Apple Cake (enough for 2x9" Cake layers)

340g Butter
400g Caster Sugar
75g Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
500g Cake Flour (Plain flour with 8 tbsp replaced by cornflour)
1 tsp Baking powder
2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs
4 cups grated apple in 2 lemons worth of lemon juice

Salted Caramel Icing (enough for this cake)

280g Salted Butter
560g Icing Sugar
60ml Caramel Sauce

Caramel Sauce recipe that I used

Instruction

1- Preheat oven  to 180'C and grease and line your cake tin

2 - Beat together the butter and sugar, beat in the vanilla extract

3 - Sieve together the flour, baking powder and soda and spices

4 - Beat the eggs together

5 - Add portions of the eggs and flour to the butter alternating between the two, leaving a portion of flour

6 - Add the grated apple and the remaining flour.

7 - Divide between 2 9" cake tins. Wrap the tins in tin foil to protect and bake for 45-50minutes.

8 - Allow the cake to cool in the tin.

*Note - This is a very soft and light cake and needs to cool completely in the tin to be workable but the texture upon eating is just perfect!!*

9 - Beat together the butter icing sugar and caramel sauce for the frosting.

10- Ice the cake - First do a crumb coat - there will be crumbs. Although I think a naked cake version would also be awesome

Finish the icing and make the chocolate apples.

To make these I used half circl moulds and dark chocolate. I found the bet technique was to paint the chocolate onto the mould to achieve even layers. Then set and melt the edge to get two half circles together

I made a hole in the top and filled with more caramel sauce. Then filled in the hole with a pretzel stick.

Then when the cake is ready to be eaten, just cut the apples and enjoy the show!!

So that's it! I hope you enjoy and try it out for yourself!

New year, new you?! thoughts and healthy dessert

It is the second week of January and it definitely feels like it! Some of the new year motivation subsides and the dreary January blues might be settling in. Yet everywhere we are still surrounded by advertisements, tweets, instagram pictures and television shows about how to lose weight and 'detox' after Christmas. Which is...................great, I guess, it's good for people to feel motivated to make healthy choices. I don't really believe in 'detoxing' but I think that's a subject for another post, or possibly another blog. However I do believe in making healthy choices and particularly healthy substitutions. This weeks post is one of my favourite dessert substitutions.

This bowl of deliciousness can be made super healthy. The biscuit here is garnish but without it this dessert contains no added sugar, no fat but tonnes and tonnes of flavour. It tastes like apple pie and ice-cream but without any (unnecessary) guilt. The 'ice-cream' is actually just 0% fat greek yoghurt with vanilla mixed in.

On to the 'apple pie.'

4 Stewing Apples
2 Lemons
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp all spice

1-  Preheat oven to 180'C. Roughly dice the apples

2- Cover in the lemon juice as you go to prevent browning

3- Add the spices and mix well

4- Place in a ceramic bread tin and cover with tin foil.

5 - Bake for 30-40 minutes on the middle shelf.

The apples before they go into the oven

When you take the apples out of the oven, they will look as if nothing has happened

The apples post-cooking

Now here you have to just trust me...and stir. These apples will then turn into the apple pie filling below

It's that simple!!

As you can see I find this recipe perfect as it is. However if you find that you need more sweetness, or less bitterness then I have two suggestions. First, try adding a tiny pinch of salt. It sounds weird but apparently salt and bitter tastes use the same receptors on the tongue so salt can block out the bitterness. Then if you still need a little sweetness you can add honey or agave nectar.

This recipe makes new year's resolutions or healthy choices that much easier to stomach! Dessert is a very important part of a healthy diet! Healthy for body and soul! I make this throughout winter and absolutely love it. I would definitely recommend you try it, enjoy some January guilt free deliciousness and I will see you next week =)

Welcome to winter

November is still fall in the states but here it's considered the first month of winter and oh boy can we tell?! It is freezin'!! Strangely it never ceases to surprise me when the temperature appears to shift dramatically overnight and all of a sudden it's a new season. That's definitely what happened here but I am not complaining because I love, love wearing comfy hoodies and winter scarves!

During these colder months one is more inclined to answer the call of the couch and the cake which while we all know is immensely enjoyable may lead to a certain sense of guilt. Well here at TVandCookies it is an aim to make it possible to have dessert any and every day and this is one of those recipes! This banana apple bread is a delicious slice of winter flavour without the guilt trip that cake can so often involve, in fact with these mini versions you can have and eat your whole cake! Another nice element of this bake is that it uses up otherwise less appetizing fruit and I now look forward to seeing browning and black bananas on my kitchen counter.

Spiced apple mini eclairs - a little bite of seasonal joy

I love this time of year. The changing colour of the leaves, the chill in the air, everyone wearing hats and scarves and getting to wear wool tights. It's an exciting season! There are also so many wonderful culinary delights to explore; freshly picked apples, pumpkins, squash and big beautiful sweet potatoes. That said however, it can also be quite a hectic time. The start of school and college, sports clubs and societies getting into full swing, protecting your house/car/health/kids for the winter and of course the many wonderful holidays to prepare for. It can feel like you are running from one thing to the next and it's wholly possible to miss many of the beauties that are on offer as you go. 

I think it is important to take a day or at least a few hours to yourself and immerse yourself in all that the season has to offer. It was in this very spirit that I embarked on my latest baking project. Following a brisk and energetic walk in the park where I admired the many colours of the leaves and inhaled the wonderful scent of cold air, I was inspired to capture some of the tastes of the season in a tiny sweet bite and eclairs are something I haven't made for a while. They also require some time and concentration which is perfect when one is determined to experience me time. The outcome was even better than I had expected. The sharp apple contrasts perfectly with the creme patissiere and the salted caramel rounds out the experience. Needless to say it is ill-advised to eat too many but if I'm honest that didn't stop me. Ah well, guess I'll just have to take another walk.

Just one won't hurt!

Spiced Apple mini- Eclairs

Choux pastry
 300ml water
115g unsalted butter
130g  plain flour
pinch of salt
4 eggs

Apple filling
4 cooking apples
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves

Creme Patissiere
3 egg yolks
50g white caster sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp plain flour
300 ml whole milk
1/2 tsp nutmeg
75ml double cream

Caramel
175g White Sugar
175g water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter

Preheat your oven to 200'/400'/Gas mark 6. To make the eclairs put the water and butter into a saucepan and heat until the butter has melted. Bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and mix in the flour and salt. When the mixture has formed a dough, return to the heat and continue to mix for a minute of so to dry out the dough. Remove from the heat and gradually add one egg at a time, mixing thoroughly and quickly to ensure that the egg doesn't have a chance to cook before it is mixed in. Your arms will hurt doing this but persevere - it is worth it. Once all the eggs are in, scoop your mixture into a piping bag and pipe little 2" lines of dough onto a lined baking tray. Bake for 10-15 minutes and do not open the oven until they are done as this will affect the rise.

To make the apple filling, peel and chop your apples and mix the pieces in the lemon juice as you go to preserve the colour. Put your apple slices into a dry saucepan and put the spice on top. Do Not Mix yet. Let the apples start to stew and release juices for a minute, then mix. Continue to mix and heat until the apples have achieved the appearance of apple sauce. Remove the cloves and blitz with a hand-held blender to ensure all the lumps are gone.

• You will notice there is no sugar in the apple filling. There will be enough sugar in the rest of the recipe and the tart taste works well so trust me.

To make the creme patissiere, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until light and fluffy. Bring the milk and nutmeg to a boil in a pan. Mix the corn and plain flours into the eggs and beat thoroughly. Once the milk has boiled, carefully pour about 1/4 of it onto the eggs and beat thoroughly. You can then pour this egg and milk mixture onto the rest of the milk. Continue to whisk and heat for another few minutes until the consistency is thick but smooth. Place in a clean bowl covered in cling-film which you push onto the surface of the creme. Once cooled, whip the cream and fold into the creme patissiere.

Start the caramel as your piping your eclairs, it will help you to avoid the tempting mix. Using two piping bags fill one with apple and one with creme patissiere. For the apple bag top it with a small injection piping nozzle and use a wide nozzle for the creme. Inject the nozzle of the apple bag into the end of the eclair and pipe along the bottom on the eclair, repeat this with the creme and you will feel the eclair fill up and become heavier. Keep an eye on the caramel and swirl if necessary. Repeat this process with all the eclairs and leave to stand.

When the sugar has turned a golden brown add the butter and salt and stir until incorporated. Spoon over the eclairs just before serving. Enjoy