Toffee cake with toffee buttercream

It was my cousin's 16th Birthday and a good friend's birthday last week. One on Wednesday and another on a Saturday. 

Initial plan was to a cake for my cousin and cupcakes for my friend but since my cousin, Saras had plans made earlier I only gave three slices for ate the rest! Pretty greedy. And as for the cupcakes plan, my friend wasn't around so I cancelled my plans of making the cupcakes.

This beautiful cake has been on my wishlist to bake since I saw it. The recipe had crushed hazelnut candies on top but when I opened my packet of hazelnut and roasted it, it tasted rather bitter and didn't taste right. So I just followed my instinct and threw the whole batch of nuts away! :( I used Valhorna crunchy chocolate pearls as decoration and it tasted pretty good.

Another mishap I encountered while making my buttercream was I accidentally cut my finger with a very sharp knife and the finger was bleeding profusely. It was 12 midnight when I made the buttercream, no one was awake so I had to clean and dress the bloody wound by myself. Didn't make much difference cause the plaster kept coming off. Anyway, I manage to clean myself up and wear gloves to finish my cake. I couldn't just leave everything out at 12 midnight. But I enjoyed making the cake in the middle of the night. Pretty relaxing, quiet and cooling.

Anyway back to this wonderful cake.

Source : Rima from  Bisousatoi who got the recipe from Carrie of The Patterned Plate. Originally from The Birthday Cake Book by Fiona Cairns.

So here goes!

Toffee Cake:

280g unsalted butter, really soft

280g self raising flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

5 large eggs

160g golden caster sugar

120g light muscovado sugar, I couldn't find my carton of it so I substituted it with regular light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Note: 

I was lazy so I used two 8 inch round baking pans and sliced the into half horizontally with a serrated knife giving me a four layer cake.Baked for about 30-40 minutes.

1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Butter and line the bottoms of three 8inch round baking pans.
2. Sift flour and baking powder in a large bowl/stand mixer bowl and put all the other ingredients in. Beat for a couple of minutes until you have a smooth batter.
3. Divide batter equally into the three prepared pans and bake for 15- 20 minutes.
4. The cake is ready when it's well risen, golden and a skewer placed in the middle comes out clean. Turn out of the tin after a few minutes then leave on a cooling rack to cool completely

Toffee Buttercream:

Toffee sauce:

80g unsalted butter

60g light brown sugar

2 tablespoons glucose

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon cream

1. Put butter,sugar and glucose in a saucepan over low heat and cook until it turns a deep amber colour. 
2. Remove from heat and add cream and extract while stirring continously. 
3. Leave it aside to cool completely.

Swiss meringue buttercream:

150g egg whites

250g caster sugar

290g unsalted butter, slightly softened

1. In heatproof bowl, place egg whites and caster sugar over a pot of water over medium heat.( Double boiler) Whisk occasionally until sugar as completely dissolved.This may take a while.
2. Using hand held or stand mixer, whisk the mixture on medium-high speed until mixture becomes marshmallowy and cooled down.
3. Touch meringue to feel the temperature. 
4. Add butter cubes,one at a time,and mixing it well after each addition. 
5. If mixture looks runny, Place in the fridge for about 15-30minutes, depending on how warm the meringue is.Remove from fridge and continue to beat until you get a nice creamy mixture. 
6. If mixture looks good, just continue mixing until you get a creamy mixture, it may look curdled in the beginning but it will start looking better as you continue beating.
7. Add toffee sauce and give it a good quick whip.

Last but not least, Happy Sweet 16, Saras & Happy 26th, Jegan!!!!! <3