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 Chip Cookie Microwave Pudding + Recipe

Hello!

So I'm evidently riding a bit of a sweet-craving wave at the moment, and felt backed into a corner. I had a decision to make. Make a microwave treat and relinquish the right to dismiss them ever again, or use one of my precious and so recently made Double Choco Fudge Cookies that were posing as Emergency Freezer Cookies? Choices, choices. I decided to save my energy and not fight against the force of The Microwave, thus surrendering what little dignity I had left.

If you don't mind raw yolk, the mixture is good enough to eat!

I didn't want the mighty chocolate-y overload of the Chocolate Surprise Microwave Brownie Cake, so whipped up this warm cookie-style pudding instead. I have to say I have a certain satisfaction of using my nice ingredients for me, but this recipe is way too good not to share. I didn't 'taste the microwave' on this at all, and trust me I was looking, or rather, tasting for it.

Out of the oven

The texture was spongey, and I probably overcooked it by 10 seconds, but it worked. I'm feeling good.

Spoonful

I do urge you to try this recipe, even if you are a hardened cynic like me... this is one recipe that might sway you!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Microwave Pudding

Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 1 serving in a large microwave safe mug that can hold 12 fl ozStorage: batter can be stored covered in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, pudding can be stored covered in the fridge for up to 2 days. Best for a few seconds before serving.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp butter or mild flavoured oil, such as rapeseed
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 3 drops vanilla extract (can be substituted for a pinch of vanillinpulver, or scant 1/4 teaspoon of vanillijnsocker)
• 1 egg yolk (the white will not be used, so either reserve for up to 24 hours in an airtight container in the fridge or discard)
• pinch of sea salt (or any salt!)
• 1/4 cup baking flour (self-raising or plain are both fine)
• 2 tbsp chocolate chips (any type)

Method

1. Melt the butter in your mug in the microwave (should take less than 50 seconds on Medium power if the butter is cold). If using oil, simply add it to your mug.
2. Mix the sugars and vanilla into the butter/oil followed by the egg yolk and salt. Stir again.
3. Add the flour, and mix thoroughly until combined.
4. Add the chocolate chips, and stir to distribute.
5. Heat in the microwave on Medium power for 40 seconds.
6. Check the texture. Continue to heat in 10 second-intervals until you reach the consistency you like. I wanted a fairly firm pudding, so heated for 1.5 minutes.
7. The chocolate retains heat, so eat with caution, it's hot!

Cakey

Double Chocolate Fudge Cake Cookies

Recipe Base from Baker by Nature

I have some left over cream cheese that I want to use, and was certain I had saved a recipe on Pinterest that made some sort of black and white cookie that needed cream cheese. I had a look for it, but instead found a black and white cookie recipe that did not need cream cheese and a recipe for blueberry cheesecake cookies that I am figuring I confused in my mind.

In the oven. Magical

Although the black and white recipe seemed fairly simple, the ratios for both sides of the biscuit were not clear and I did not want to end up baking 70 biscuits.

I did a bit of browsing on my Biscuits, Cookies, and Pretzels board, and found an exciting recipe for quadruple chocolate pudding cookies, however the ingredients included cake mix that I did not have (and to be honest, would be reluctant to buy), so opted for this recipe base instead.

Hot Cake... Cookies!

The author is very particular about her methods but after a disaster attempt with coconut brittle this same day, I was grateful for her level of detail as it gave me the option to ignore or follow what I wanted to.

First Bite

The biscuits have a lovely cakey texture, and are so stuffed with chocolate and cocoa flavour that one is easily a dessert in its own right. I will be adding these to the store, post-haste!

Two bites!

Available at Samara's Baked Goods

Chocolate Pecan Pie Cheesecake with Berry Sauce - Customised Bake Trial

I am very excited about this cheesecake, especially as this is an original recipe for a bespoke order from my store.

My client and I went through my recipe books and settled on a chocolate cheesecake recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery book as a base, and incorporating nutty and fruity elements. We decided to try out a nut base with a raspberry sauce to drizzle over it.

I did some research into nut bases, and found a few gluten free options, but then I found a Pin that incorporated pecan pie and cheesecake.

Cocoa Biscuit Base Mixture

This gave me the idea to make a pecan pie filling to sit on the cocoa base, and top with the chocolate cheesecake.

The recipe seemed suspicious as it included eggs in a sugary-syrup pecan mixture with melted butter, and this potion was then expected to be boiled! With eggs in it!!! Outrageous. I was seriously torn whether to go with my instinct and omit the eggs, or to follow the rules. The jobsworth won this time. In my mind this was no win, as the mixture puffed up unexpectedly and when stirring it to calm it, I discovered the sugars had melted and burned to the bottom of the pan along with a substantial amount of pecans, and these offensive burnt bits were happily entering the good part like so many bad salmon.

I was in a dilemma again. Should I cut my losses, and make another batch, or was it *just* passable? Miss Thrift won that battle: I plugged on, and tapped into the hope that the predominantly sweet flavours will put up a spirited fight against the burned flavours. If it harms the taste, I will opt for a nut crust for the final product.

Then came the cheesecake mixture. Feeling somewhat deflated from the pecan pie filling fiasco, I wasn't as diligent as I should have been when incorporating the melted chocolate into the cream cheese mixture, and was left with some unattractive chocolate clumps floating about. Something to fix for next time.

Speckly Chessecake

I have finally bought a pan large enough to hold my springform tin for Bain Marie baking, and I made such a hoohah of getting that into the oven, that I disappointed myself. I remembered to wrap the tin in foil - eventually - however I may have been overzealous when filling the pan with water, and I'm worried that the water got into the springform... and my cake! I'll have to watch out for that when it's sliced.

Homemade Blueberry and Raspberry Sauce

The original plan was to make a raspberry sauce to drizzle over the top, and having become accustomed to a frozen 'pick and mix' selection of fruits in Swedish supermarkets, I didn't anticipate there not being any available. Ah, such arrogance. I had to improvise and buy a packet of raspberries mixed with blueberries. I made a simple sauce, and I will make sure I go to a larger supermarket and find frozen raspberries if the client doesn't like this trial.

Baked! What a lovely colour

The author of the pecan pie recipe said that her cheesecake developed a huge crack, and whilst I have not yet been afflicted by this, I made sure to cool the cheesecake in the oven with the door open for an hour to prevent it.

I will see how it cuts tomorrow at work, but I am actually feeling quite positive about this cake, despite the pecan pie filling mistake.

Chocolate Surprise Microwave Brownie Cake + Recipe!

Ooooh, guess what?! No recipe base link this time, as this was my first, and very own original recipe.

I shall concede that the recipe follows the basic rules and ratios of any cake, so originality is a bit of a loose concept here.

So it was a Friday night after a long week. I reserve one guilty pleasure, which is: Friday Nights Off. No work, no guilt, just unadulterated freedom. Obviously that means Netflix and junk food. Small problem. I don't have any junk food outlets in my local area; at best I can get some sushi, which is undoubtedly delicious, but doesn't hit That Spot.

I haven't baked in a while, and this is purely a case of 'the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak'. Like most people in my profession at this time of year, I am dog tired, weary, and somewhat in shock that I am still able to function.

I was craving something sweet and naughty, and really did not feel like going through the rigmarole of baking a huge batch of something or a big cake just to feel so guilty about not presenting it more or less complete at work* and not have any of it. I decided that this was the moment. Hell was about to Freeze Over.

I have a problem with microwaves. Yes, they are a convenient and cost effective way of cooking and heating, but I can't help but feel the heat is half-arsed. The heat seems to leave the food as quickly as it enters it, and I have an embedded impression that if the microwave is allowed to give the food a big zap for more substantial heating, it somewhat 'denatures' ingredients, changes the taste, and consequently, the end result. I tend to limit my infrequent use of microwaves to heating complete food dishes that contain the carbohydrates such as rice and noodles (yes, last night's dinner... if there was a dinner last night).

I also have a distinct memory of wandering into an unintended and ill-advised discussion about 'microwave cakes vs. oven cakes' with a class, and somehow upsetting a student. Sorry! My personal gripe with microwaves is mine, and mine alone.

I must admit that I have become more curious about developing recipes for microwave cakes since I started Pinterest-ing a couple of months ago, and after making emergency freezer cookies for a friend's birthday, I wanted to make her a few sachets of microwave cake mixture so she could simply snip a corner and squeeze it into a mug then bake it in the microwave.

My interest was further piqued after I found microwave cake mixture being sold in my local supermarket. This actually made me rather indignant. I feel that the spirit of the microwave cake is to use ingredients that you are quite likely to have knocking about, and whip up an individual portion of cake that (in my opinion) wouldn't taste quite right after being baked by a microwave, but the satisfaction it provided would far outweigh the work it required to make and clean up afterwards. I didn't check too closely, but I imagine, like ready boxed cake mixture, it would taste generic, without personality, and processed. I am being completely elitist here. I have never used ready made cake mixture. I have an unshakeable belief that it is not thrifty.

Back to the present. Such was my immediate need of something sinful, that I decided that I needed to step over to the dark side, and make myself a microwave mug cake. I had a few rogue ingredients cluttering the fridge that were left over from other bakes, and had no use, so decided to chuck them in there too.

Hubba hubba

This whole event was a double surprise (for me), as I was not only using the microwave, but making a chocolate cake too, which readers of my blog may have realised is not my favourite flavour.

Not the best picture, but it's all full of chocolate-y-ness

Anyway, although I could still taste the 'microwave' flavour on the cake, it was actually quite yummy, and hit the spot. Just don't compare it to an oven cake. It is a different animal, this microwave cake.

Cakey texture at the bottom

*Ok, ok, I do have a sample of batches just for Quality Control purposes, but have had a very small proportion of my own baking, sometimes not tasting recipes entirely. For some reason, I view eating it myself as selfish. Now I write it, I see how ridiculous that it. I made the stuff; I should enjoy it!

Here's the recipe! I don't imagine I will make the same one twice, so please feel free to use this as a base, and have fun with your ingredients!

Chocolate Surprise Microwave Brownie Cake

Time: less than 6 minutes

Yield: 1 serving in a microwave safe mug that can hold 350 ml/12 oz volume

Storage: the batter can be refrigerated for a day, the microwaved cookie can be covered in its mug and kept in the fridge for 2 days. Heat on low for a few seconds before serving.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup self raising flour (plain is fine, just add 1/4 tsp of baking powder)
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp cream (some or all can be substituted for milk or non-dairy alternative)
• 2-4 tbsp milk (some or all can be substituted for water or non-dairy alternative)
• 2 tbsp mild flavoured oil such as rapeseed (can be substituted with liquid margarine)
• OPTIONAL: 1 piece chocolate treat (e.g. a Rolo)
• OPTIONAL: 1-2 tbsp chocolate chips + extra for topping (dark for vegan)
• OPTIONAL: 1-2 tbsp caramel + extra for topping, any variety. Can be substituted with peanut butter or dairy-free alternative for vegans
• OPTIONAL: 3 tbsp maximum whipped cream/dairy-free alternative for topping (spray cream or similar is fine)

Method

1.  Mix the dry ingredients in a small bowl using a small whisk or fork to remove lumps.
2. Add the oil and cream, and mix to combine.
3. Add 2 tbsp of milk and mix. You want a soft dropping texture that takes 3-4 seconds to drop from a spoon. Add 1 tbsp of milk at a time until you reach this point.
4. Add a couple of spoonfuls into a microwaveable heatproof mug, then drop your chocolate treat in.
5. Add more mixture until you have spooned about half of it into your mug.
6. Add your caramel and chocolate chips so that they are evenly spread over the surface of the mixture.
7. Spoon the rest of the mixture into the mug
8. Heat on Medium power for 30-45 seconds at a time until you reach the texture that you want, and being mindful that you must avoid burning the chocolate. Maximum 3 minutes in four intervals. I used a smaller mug on the High heat setting, so had to stop heating it after 2 30-second intervals, as it was about to overflow. The texture at the top was just firmer than batter, but it was baked with a more cake-y texture at the bottom. Be aware of this, to avoid over-heating.
9. I whipped some cream in a small bowl and spooned it over the mug cake, drizzled some caramel and sprinkled some chocolate chips on top. This was purely personal; again, have fun with it!
10. This is very hot, so let cool for a minute, and eat with caution!

Note: If you just want to 'get on with it', and make a simpler cake, mix this directly into your mug, dry ingredients followed by the wet ones, mix thoroughly so it's combined, then add any or all the optional ingredients in afterwards (ensuring the chocolate treat is towards the bottom if you are using it), and only adding the whipped cream if you want to!

Caramel Toffee Cheesecake

Recipe base here

Although I am a cheesecake novice, I HAD to try this from one of my favourite recipe blogs: yammiesnoshery.com

I love Yammie's style, It's effortlessly beautiful and her photos are inspiring. She embraces the 'nobbly', homemade look, yet her creations are ones you would pay top dollar for. Plus like my baking muse, Nigella Lawson, she doesn't shy away from using the ingredients that without, would compromise the flavour. I'm not used to using cup measurements, but I bought a fun set of cups that I am only hoping are the same size as their American counterparts - it's all about ratio, anyway - and I just convert the butter measurement into grams so I can use my scales.

This was a recipe that had a five components: the toffee biscuity base, melted chocolate topping for said base, the cheesecake mix, of course, toffee topping, and cream decoration. The ingredients list consisted of 13 or so items.

Daim and the Gang!

Just taking a photo of the ingredients all together was a challenge! I rarely do such a stunt, let alone even take all my ingredients out as I dislike being surrounded by anything other than my duvet, but I felt this one was special. And indeed it was,

That would usually be enough to put me off, but I had a guest coming that I wanted to impress. So much so that I KNEW this had to be the recipe, as much I also knew I had to do a test run, such was my lack of confidence in my cheesecake making abilities. This would be the second one I had ever made.

Buttery Biscuit Base
(Masterchef UK fans might get that reference)

Lining the tin! Oh my goodness, what a kerfuffle! That was arduous.
Then I got on with the biscuit base with crushed toffee bits. Once I worked out what Heath bars were, I realised they were similar to Daim bars (or Dime bars, as I'm old skool, innit!).
Simple enough... but it later turned out that I have poor depth perception and made the base way too thick. I improved this for the 'real thing', but I think I need to be governed by the needs of the cake rather than the prescribed amounts of the recipe.

Then we melt the chocolate. I won't lie: it pained me to use so many of my precious chocolate chips just to melt them. Yes, yes, I could have chopped or grated a bar of chocolate, but who has the time?! Chocolate chips are only just becoming a bit more common in supermarkets in Stockholm, Sweden, in the last 15 or so months, and as is so often my complaint, prices for them are not low. I buy them in a suspicious bulk pattern and then hoard them like a dragon over its... erm... loot. I didn't want to say 'hoard' again!

The Hoard! It's melted, melted!
What a cruel, cruel, world!

A-ny-way, Then the caramel... again fairly straightforward American style with cream, very yummy. The knee weakening moment was actually when that caramel was mixed in with the cheesecake mixture. Oh. My. Goodness. If I was more dramatic, which is hard to believe, I would have sat down. That mixture was to die for. Soooooo gooooood. I almost didn't want to bake it. I did, though.

That mixture! Wooh!

Wrapped in damp dishcloths as I have no
tray large enough to hold it

Bekked

The decoration. Oh la la, I royally messed this one up. I didn't read the instructions properly so I mixed the caramel with some whipped cream and made... what?! I'll settle with caramel cream. I cheated and used a spray can for the whipped cream topping, and yes, it was impressive. I learned the hard way that whipped cream sinks, so had to re-spray the next day.

Decorated with erroneous caramel cream

2nd attempt

The sheer weight of it plus the stickiness from the fat in the base made it difficult remove from the base of the tin, so I had to just sit by and cry into my lap whilst my colleagues cut on my tin. With metal knives!!! Oh, the agony! The base was too thick on both occasions to cut through with plastic utensils, so it was an unfortunate necessity.

Attempt #1. The assault weapons, your Honour

Attempt #1 Slice.
Doesn't do her justice, really.

Whilst this is most certainly a show stopper and has had repeated requests for a return, I feel overwhelmed by this cake and it had better be a very special occasion for me to make it again.

Thank you all, and good night!

White Chocolate Snickerdoodle Blondies

Recipe base here

I've tried this recipe twice and whilst it has a lot of potential on flavour, I officially give up with this one as the appearance of the complete bake is not so appetising. It's something to do with the pan size (on a basic level) or the ratios (on a more complicated level). From the attempts I have made, I would say that it is the pan dimensions that are not quite working for me. This is especially ironic as the author makes a point of giving advice on varying pan sizes.

This was pretty much good to eat.
If you want to leave this world happy.

As the recipe is quite a pricey one to make here in Sweden, I feel it would be more fiscally responsible to my good self to find a better recipe base and apply these flavours rather than making this many, many times.

This was Attempt #1. I had messed up on the baking soda and
powder components on this one, but on the next one it was
perfectly measured and it still happened 

If you don't mind the appearance, you must make this. The flavour is well worth it!

A flattering picture

Vegan Banana Cookies

Recipe based on Yammie's Noshery: LINK

I'm not sure how it somehow became a mild expectation, however my second year students seem to believe that at some magical point of the year I will bake something for them.

Last academic year (2014/15), I had a particularly lovely bunch of students in my second year classes, and decided to treat them the smaller class. Not out of favouritism, just unfortunate timing. I knew one of the students is a vegan, so I in order to include her, I had to ensure I made a 'young person appealing' biscuit or something that didn't include eggs.

I found a recipe on one of my favourite haunts at Yammie's, and made a few tweaks to make sure it stayed vegan, and also nut-free. I had attempted a recipe a few days earllier earlier for flourless brownie cookies, hence they were gluten free, and after attempting a vegan version of them, namely replacing eggs with bananas, I was rewarded with flat, unappealing, yet extremely yummy... things.

This time the result was a very soft, squidgy cookie. In hindsight, they were perhaps too soft and squidgy, so I will probably increase the flour content next time.

After all that, the vegan student was absent that day. Pity.

Curious little chappies

Cheeky stowaway emergency freezer cookie

Squidge!

Two different types of dark chocolate

10th December-15

I made these again for one of my smaller classes, and tried to juzz them up by adding a dollop of my homemade caramel... Before baking. As expected, it melted, making them quite unappealing appearance-wise. They tasted amazing though so I'm not abandoning the idea or these actual specimens. I consulted my ...Domestic Goddess bible by Nigella Lawson, and tried making an indent so I could fill the biscuits post-bake, but they smoothed out in the oven, so I decided to skip that extra flourish.

The taste was lovely, definitely one for the recipe collection.

Melted dark chocolate

In the tin

Fresh out of the oven

The stack

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

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

Recipe base: LINK

I have a problem. If I see an interesting ingredient AND it's on some kind of promotion, I get filled with an increasing need to purchase said ingredient.

This happened with a jar of Dulce de Leche on offer in my local supermarket. Keeping in mind that I live in Sweden, whose grocery prices are pretty lofty, and whose price saving promotions are few and far between in my humble opinion. Even when there are offers, the price saving is not usually that great. However! You mustn't look a gift horse in the mouth regardless of the size of the gift, so covet it I did. Well I coveted two. Crafty producers offered two variations: Baking, and Classic. How could I choose?! I decided that as I wanted to use it with cake, I would opt for the baking option.

I went home, found a recipe, made it, was suitably disappointed, yada yada, more about that later.

You would think that the purchase would satisfy my needs, if not dampen them. Well, no, it did not. I am all about possession, and as with Pokémon, I gotta catch them all! The price promotion was still on at least three weeks later! They were really tempting me. I managed to talk myself down from the ledge of hopelessness, and put the jar down. I didn't really need it. Turns out, I had already bought the Classic jar in some sort of Supermarket Sweep blackout. I really didn't know, and happened upon the sneaky pot nestled behind a box of cocoa. Kerazy.

Anyhoo, so I was desperate to justify my initial purchase of the Baking Dulce de Leche so I scoured my usual suspects that I could search by ingredient with, and stumbled across a recipe for iced cupcakes. Huzzahs all around, everybody.

It seemed fairly straightforward except for the coring, filling, de-coring (is that a word?) of the cupcakes. Fiddly, monotonous stuff that I really had no time for, but beggars cannot be choosers: I had selected this recipe based on the limited ingredients at home, so I plowed on.

From memory, the cupcake mixture seemed nice and smooth, however proved to be heavy and close textured after baking. Big disappointment. Still edible nonetheless.

The Army

Reflection: add equivalent of bicarbonate of soda to baking powder for extra lift.

At the coring stage, I had a twinkling of a doubt that seeing as I was not baking the Dulce de Leche, I should have bought the other one, but I figured it wouldn't be much different. Kämpa kämpa. It turns out, I'm a mean corer; I could definitely have left more space for the gooey filling, but I retrospectively justified my actions by figuring that these were not results I could waste expensive ingredients on.

The icing was a bit grainy, maybe because I used the wrong sugar, but I don't quite remember. They were impressively uniform looking once they were frosted, so I surprised myself with my passable icing skills. Alas I did not think this through, so my transportation methods resulted in a few sad squashed fellows. Boo.

Cupcake

I have since invested in a 24-cupcake carrier. It is certainly a beast, however somehow more comfortable to carry than my old case.

Better luck next time... watch out for attempt 2!