Pope Cheesecake: Chocolate Pecan Toffee Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce

This is a continuation of the Customised Bake Trial that I am sincerely glad I did as I now know the extent of inaccuracy that recipes can have or knowledge level they expect.

This time, I made my own caramel butterscotch sauce with a method that seemed to work, added the pecans in afterwards, then poured it on the base, and placed it in the fridge to cool. Mistake. The lovely oozy caramel hardened into a near impenetrable toffee. I really must research this caramel umbrella practically to fully understand this.

Pecan Caramel

Anyway, in a desperate bid to save my springform from hacking machetes, I baked the base with the toffee layer for 20 minutes to soften it before the cheesecake mix went in.

One of the comments from the client was that it was dense. Although a very kind offer was extended for me to stay and join my colleague client, I opted out, thinking I would come home and snoozeafter not sleeping all night. That didn't happen. It seems I can survive on a half-hour disco nap.

Chocolate Cheesecake Mixture

Back to the matter in hand... the denseness. This may have been due having 100g less of cream cheese than what was required. I may amend that sentence... in my crazed sleep-deprived brain it seems wrong. I adjusted the mixture on the fly, reducing the sugar, chocolate, and egg content, to compensate, but that may well have been the reason. I have tweaked my method, so I got a much better finish on the cream cheese mixture than on the first attempt.

Pre-bake

I was able to procure frozen raspberries easier than I thought I would, and the sauce was delicious. I was tempted to syphon some off for private usage, but decided I would make another batch as I still had more sauce.

Sauce

Overall, I believe the review was good, and I was pleased with the cake... just a shame I didn't have enough cream cheese.

In honour of the client who designed this cheesecake, I will call this a Pope Cheesecake.

Finito

Pope Cheesecake and Berry Fruit Sauce available at Samara's Baked Goods

Chocolate Layer Cake

Recipe Base from The Kitchn: LINK

Hmmm, I am surprised I have not written about this cake, as it seems to be one of my most popular ones... weeeeeell, that's stretching it a bit. It's more a situation that this is a cake whose appearance exceeds the work required to create it, so it was the one I whipped up for a friend's barbecue. From that second attempt at the cake, I make the huge artistic leap to say that it's become somewhat of a go-to cake that I use to show that I care a little bit as it looks a bit more showy than a biscuit.

I, personally, am not the biggest fan of chocolate cake. Certainly not this one, which is of the cocoa variety. According to the preamble on the recipe, there are three types of chocolate cake: flourless, cocoa, and fudgy. The chocolate cakes that I appreciate most are of the fudgy variety. Most definitely. However, its seeming failings aside, this cake is actually quite good. I am very wary of layer cakes as I fear they will not be moist, and knowing the drying effect of cocoa, I was on edge the first time I made it.

I made some tweaks to the recipe that are scrawled somewhere on my paper copy, and going against my general rule of following a recipe exactly once, I just went with my gut.

I have now made this cake three times, and it has delivered each time.

My first attempt was okaaaay, but I ruined it by using icing that I had too much of and was far too soupy. Not wanting to waste the icing, I used as much of I could of the moussy stuff to sandwich and surround the layers. It resulted in a chocolate milkshake-looking cake.

The second attempt was perfection. Until I tried to level it. This is the second time I've attempted such a thing, and both have not gone well. When stationary the cake was a masterpiece. In transit, it slid off it Samara-crafted cake slope. Fabulous. I am considering investing in a wire cake cutter tool, however have not had confidence in the online reviews of the ones I have looked at. Suggestions anyone?

Finished product, naked cake style!

Eagle eyed viewers can spot my leveling attempt!

My last attempt was for my first order from my new online bakery, and was intended to be a 5th birthday cake for my colleague's son. This lucky young'un has a liking for both raspberry and chocolate, so after discussions, we agreed on sandwiching the icing with both raspberry and chocolate frosting. We didn't want to make it too adult/cocoa-ey, so I suggested a milk chocolate buttercream frosting. Grand idea, but ineffective. I used 150 g of precious milk chocolate chips, and it somehow got absorbed by the butter icing flavour, so I resorted to cocoa in order to obtain the cocoa taste, I managed to find some inspirations on making rasberry buttercream frosting, and concocted a rather successful batch of the stuff.

So lesson learnt: real milk chocolate does not flavour buttercream icing.

Now as much as I bluffly profess that I have no time for frou frou, decoration, and such like, this is more a testament of my abilities than of the visions I have in my head of what I want to create. This is one of those times that I will hide behind that proclamation. I pictured a towering masterpiece with clear and straight levels of cake and two tone icing. That is far from what the reality was.

Looks like something from Ghostbusters 2!

Luverly.

Whilst I was very confident in the cake and all the flavours, I have to admit that the final piece was a let down.

You see? You see?! It was better on the test run!

I made the mistake of using a ready made decorating tube or what turned out to be a thick, sticky, sugar paste, that I have never used before. And will probably never use again. My test 'piping' was passable enough that I wouldn't have minded that being on top of the actual cake. My real attempt looked like a child of the age displayed on the cake did it. I was as embarrassed to the extent that I could be (which is not much). To try to distract from the main debacle, I added some fresh raspberries covered in a white chocolate mix, which did nothing for their appearance, but did everything for the flavour, sprinkled some dried raspberry flakes and icing sugar over the top. It helped marginally, if that.

Reluctant frou frou

Side-ish view

Reflection:
Pipe writing with softer more suitable flavoured and perhaps dyed icing with my own piping tools
Pipe the icing between layers for a neater finish

I have a chance at redemption! My colleague has asked for a repeat order, with the addition of marzipan! I'm not confident on the flavour combination, but faint heart never won fair lady!

29th November 2015 UPDATE
Well... it was neater, however my mental images of piping a Cumberland style coil of icing for neatness didn't quite work, and I have a LOT to learn about marzipan. I'm not even convinced what I was using was marzipan. I wasted maybe half the packet. Learned it was delicate so didn't quite work with my strenous rolling, and that I should probably invest in a good size pastry rolling mat for ease of application.

As the original plan was to cover the whole cake in marzipan, I filled the layers with raspberry buttercream icing only. I also decided to try and beat the cake levelling system by placing the top cake layer upside down so that its flat bottom would create a level surface for icing. Yeeeeh, that didn't quite work. The top layer decided to have a bit of a breakdown, or rather just started to break so I had to carefully flip it over and use the domed surface.
Then I had to go to Plan B, and just roll out a top layer of marzipan and then cover the cake in the chocolate icing. There were no good raspberries in my local supermarket (they were all mouldy), so I there was no real juzzing to be had either. I tried, though, I did try. I tried to do stripy icing for the writing, and it disaster. Then I tried two tone sugar paste with blue and yellow, and it all melded together into a very pale green in the bag. Every day, there is so much to learn!

Yes, yes, the writing has not improved

Available at Samara's Baked Goods

Mini Zingi Loaves

Recipe based on 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' by Nigella Lawson.

So after having my recipe book for so long, I have finally decided to invest in mini-loaf tins. Along with a couple of 6-well donut tins, and a cupcake carrier case. No one cares about that, but I had to say it.

When selecting which mini-loaf tins to invest in, I was wavering between getting individual mini loaf tins (approximately 1/2 of a regular loaf), 6-well tins (approximately 1/3 of a regular loaf), and a 8-well tin (around 1/4 of a regular loaf). I was overwhelmed by the choice alone, so had to let Nige decide for me. In this book, she uses the 8-well tins, so they were what I opted for.

Now as I mentioned, I had invested in donut tins, and I have been having a lot of fun with them (I will update my blog as soon as possible), and realised that my other new purchase was not getting used, so I changed my plan of making more donuts, and debut homemade mini loaves... to myself.

Lovely whipped batter

As Ms. Lawson was my deciding factor for the tin, it only seemed fitting that the recipe I used first, was the one that swung the vote: Mini Lime-Syrup Sponges.

Syrup... somehow eclipsed by those
gorgeous loaves in the background!

I didn't have lime at home, but I did have an organic (non-waxed) orange, and a lemon, so I used the zest and juice from the orange, together with some of the juice from the lemon. It turned out that I did not need the lemon juice, but it did add a certain lightness to the flavouring.

I decided to make a double batch as 8 mini-loaves to take to work just wouldn't do, and thank goodness I did! I'm unsure whether I neglected to read it, or it simply wasn't there, but how full should the wells be?! Yes, yes, I understand the concept of dividing the batter equally across 16 wells, however with my non-fan, and quite frankly, dodgy, oven, I am limited to baking one tray at a time, so I fill them accordingly.

Syrupped!

I decided to fill the wells approximately 3/4 full, and as you can see from the pictures, they rose magnificently. Too magnificently.

And on the inside...

Taste and texture were perfection... and they may have been even stickier if the loaf size was more appropriate.

Definitely one to be tried again.

Available at Samara's Baked Goods

Strawberry Shortcakes/Passion Fruit Shortcakes

Based on a recipe from Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess.

I've made these once before about a year ago so felt it was a good choice to make as a birthday gift for a friend. I had to smuggle them into the club (yes, you heard me right), and they are better served warm, but they survived (just) and still tasted great.

I found some delicious Belgian strawberries at the bargain price of 20 SEK (~ £2) at the street stalls that are common in Stockholm and was sold a cake box from a local cake shop for 5 SEK so was feeling pretty smug. At the same time, I was also slightly indignant as the same shop had sold me two cake boxes of the same size two months earlier for 15 SEK each.

I had to go to The English Shop to get pastry cutters, and weirdly enough, couldn't find the required 6.5 cm size, so had to choose between a 6 cm ring or 7 cm. I opted for the smaller size in the end.

I was able to make a baker's dozen from the dough, and ahem, 'rounded it off' to a proper dozen, just for testing purposes, of course!

The strawberry sauce was lovely, and I would say that the optional balsamic vinegar is actually essential.

Strawberry ones

The whipped cream was a bit of a challenge as Swedish cream doesn't whip as easily as the English type, so I added a couple of teaspoons of vannilinsocker to help it along, which it did, although it was still too soupy for my liking. I would say that only half of the cream is needed; 125 ml rather than 250 ml.

I will be trying this again with the suggested alternative of passion fruit to strawberries for another friend's birthday as I know she loves the fruit (as do I!)

Keep your eyes peeled!

Nightmare to make! Doing double quantities wasn't a good plan!

Sticky Fruit Flapjacks

Based on the Sticky Plum Flapjack Bars recipe from BBC Good Food (LINK).

I have actually made these before, and they turned out fine, if not a little juicy, most probably because I used frozen fruit.

I've been in the mood for a chewy flapjack, so decided to give this recipe another go.

Everything was fine. The bake was perhaps a little bit over at 45 minutes, but otherwise I would say it went well.

The disaster struck when I misguidedly left the flapjacks to cool completely in the tin. After turning it out, I could not slice them at all, without it breaking into misshapen unsightly pieces. I wrapped up the remaining unsliced block in foil, and it did soften a little bit after a couple of hours, but it was still not soft enough to slice adequately.

I felt that this was a waste of ingredients, so will be cautious before making this again.

Blueberry Cake

Recipe based on The Hummingbird Bakery Recipe Book.

The batter was lovely and smooth, and I thought I would make it extra special by using my precious handpicked Swedish blueberries that a colleague and I had collected, and then put into the freezer (after washing them of course).

Despite the recipe recommending that the cake go into a 25cm ring tin, I found the batter quite plentiful, and barely fitted into my 26cm ring tin.

The cake took over an hour to bake, and developed a large unsightly crack on the top (something I am becoming more accustomed to seeing when following recipes from this book), which then became oozy during its bake.

I was unhappy with the way the cake turned out; it was quite a damp one, and I've never been a fan of that type (which is probably why I don't like fruit cakes), so didn't feel it was worth my while to ice it.