The cake starts with a cinnamon and ginger spiced vanilla sponge, filled with fluffy vanilla butter cream, homemade Dulce de Leche, candied banana and chopped hokey pokey squiggle biscuits!
Happy Birthday Georgia and everyone else enjoy the recipe xx
2 cups Gluten free baking flour (I use Healtheries Baking mix)*
2/3 cup of corn flour **
1 tsp baking powder**
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp baking soda (dissolve in the milk)
1 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup milk (room temperature or microwave for 20secs)
* Can also use regular flour if not needing to be GF
** Doubled check to make sure these products do not contain Gluten
Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Spray / line two 7inch cake pans.
Beat butter with an electric mixer until smooth and light in colour. Add brown & caster sugar and beat until light and fluffy, add vanilla. Add eggs one at a time and mix well
Add the flour, milk, corn flour, baking powder and ground spices be careful not to over mix, beat till just combined. Be careful not to over-mix as this will toughen the mixture and result in a heavy cake.
Divide the mixture evenly between the two cake pans and bake for 25-30min or till golden. Insert a tooth pick towards the centre of the cake, if this come out clean, the cake is done. Leave to cook for 10 minutes before taking out of the pan and cooling on a rack.
Once the cakes are cool, use a wire cuter (if you have one) or a sharp knife to cut each of the cakes in half - this will create the layer of the cake.
Caramel sauce:
Ingredients
1 cup (200 grams) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick or 56 grams) butter
salt (a pinch for classic caramel sauce or ½ teaspoon for salted caramel)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
In a medium saucepan, mix together the sugar, heavy whipping cream, butter and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let the mixture simmer for about 4 minutes, whisking occasionally.
Remove the saucepan from the heat, add the vanilla extract (be careful, the mixture is hot) and stir. Let mixture cool in the pan for 2 minutes, then pour into a jar.
Let cool to room temperature and refrigerate until ready to use (up to 5 days). Warm it up in the microwave before using.
Vanilla buttercream frosting:
Ingredients:
150g softened unsalted butter
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 cups icing sugar
MAKES 4 cups of frosting - KEEPS 1 week
Method:
Cream the butter for 2-5 minutes till light and fluffy. Add the milk, vanilla extract and half of the sifted icing sugar, and beat for at least 3 minutes or until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the remaining icing sugar and beat for a further 3 minutes or until the mixture is light and fluffy and of a spreadable consistency. Add extra milk if the mixture is too dry or extra icing sugar if the mixture is too wet. If you wish to colour and/or flavour the buttercream then this is the time to do it. Add a drop at a time and beat in until you reach the required colour and/or flavour.
Caramelised banana:
2 medium banana - chop into 1 cm pieces
Butter for frying pan
Method:
Heat a medium-large fry pan and melt a generous amount of butter to grease the pan. Once sizzling place the banana carefully in the pan. Fry for a few minutes until golden brown and flip to complete. Cool in the fridge before using on the cake. note: all banana may not fit in the pan at once so repeat till all it cooked. Can add more or less banana for desired flavour.
Assembly:
You will need the: 1. Caramel Sauce - recipe as above, 2. The ready cut equal layers of the spiced sponge cake, 3. The Vanilla Buttercream all ready to go and 4. Pre-made Caramelised Banana and chopped squiggle biscuits!
Place one layer of the cake on your chosen board, cake plate or turn table. Add the layer of the Caramel sauce and spread around the middle of the cake, leave the edged clean. Pipe or carefully spread the vanilla buttercream around the edges and continue to fill the rest of the layer with icing. Sprinkle 1/2 of the banana and the chopped biscuits evenly over the buttercream and caramel.
Add the next layer of cake and continue these steps for the next layer of cake.
Add the top layer of the cake and ice as desired. Now is the time to add any sprinkles or flowers if you are wanting to use any <3 ENJOY
