It was my beautiful partner’s birthday yesterday and so of course here it is another birthday cake. Not any old birthday CAKE though. I was given the theme of the Snickers Chocolate bar. But after a recent heated discussion over what we couldn’t live without if we were to choose between, ice cream, chocolate, cake and lollies last week; I learnt really how passionate he was about his love of ice cream. (This is a debate that we will have to get into at some point though J ) As he informed, he loves ice cream as you can have the goodness of the lollies and the chocolate in the flavour. Fair point – but still not enough to convert me J Anyway, armed with Snickers theme and now is proclaimed love of ice cream I set to make out an exceptional cake for him.
The fundamentals: a snickers bar is just chocolate, nougat, a nutty caramel mixture and then chocolate again. I started to think about these flavours and layering them, because of course one layer was not enough. I decided to go with a chocolate biscuit to add an extra texture rather than just a mismatch of gooey sugar (which I am sure he would still have loved). In essence the pudding mixture acts as the ice cream with two flavours being peanut butter and chocolate. The peanut butter pudding takes on the ‘nutty’ element of the Snickers bar. I was actually quite surprised as to how nice this was just by itself. The caramel sauce and chocolate ganache elements are pretty much self explanatory but they helped bind and finish the layers of emazingly sweet goodness.
The elements aren’t that complex by themselves and really need to be prepared in advanced and set in the fridge a few days before. I think you can go as crazy as you like with the layers and play around with it. For example just do one layer, biscuits as the base, peanut butter pudding, chocolate pudding then covering in the two ganache’s but I really wanted it to be a play on the “layer cake” so that I could n my head justify that it just wasn’t peanut butter, chocolate and caramel ice cream.
Ingredients:
Two Packets of plain biscuits (I used chocolate)
Pudding:
2/3 cup corn flour
1 cup caster sugar
Pinch of salt
5 cups of cold milk (I used skim)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cups dark chocolate, chopped
3/4 cups peanut butter
Caramel sauce:
2/3 Cup of brown sugar
1/2 Cuo of cream
Ganache:
2/3 cups dark chocolate
1 tablespoons heavy cream
4 tablespoons of sifted icing sugar
4-5 tablespoons warm water,
12-14 mini Snickers, chopped
Method:
To make pudding:
1. Combine corn flour, sugar, salt and milk in a blender or food processor and pulse until well blended. Put this mixture in a heat proof bowl and place over (not on) simmering water for approximately 20-25minutes stirring occasionally. Pudding is ready when it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and leave ribbons when pudding is drizzled on top of itself;
2. Add vanilla to mixture;
3. Split mixture in half and add chocolate to one half and whisk to combine; and
4. Add peanut butter to remaining half and whisk to combine.
To make caramel sauce:
1. Place sugar and cream in a saucepan and stir over medium to low heat until sugar is dissolved;
2. Once sugar has dissolved increase heat to high;
3. At this point do not stir the mixture directly. Now and then, using the handle, give the pot a swirl to keep the mixture moving. The mixture will start to bubble;
4. Set aside to cool completely.
Two Packets of plain biscuits (I used chocolate)
Pudding:
2/3 cup corn flour
1 cup caster sugar
Pinch of salt
5 cups of cold milk (I used skim)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cups dark chocolate, chopped
3/4 cups peanut butter
Caramel sauce:
2/3 Cup of brown sugar
1/2 Cuo of cream
Ganache:
2/3 cups dark chocolate
1 tablespoons heavy cream
4 tablespoons of sifted icing sugar
4-5 tablespoons warm water,
12-14 mini Snickers, chopped
Method:
To make pudding:
1. Combine corn flour, sugar, salt and milk in a blender or food processor and pulse until well blended. Put this mixture in a heat proof bowl and place over (not on) simmering water for approximately 20-25minutes stirring occasionally. Pudding is ready when it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and leave ribbons when pudding is drizzled on top of itself;
2. Add vanilla to mixture;
3. Split mixture in half and add chocolate to one half and whisk to combine; and
4. Add peanut butter to remaining half and whisk to combine.
To make caramel sauce:
1. Place sugar and cream in a saucepan and stir over medium to low heat until sugar is dissolved;
2. Once sugar has dissolved increase heat to high;
3. At this point do not stir the mixture directly. Now and then, using the handle, give the pot a swirl to keep the mixture moving. The mixture will start to bubble;
4. Set aside to cool completely.
 |
| Making the ganache over a double boiler |
To make ganache sauce:
1. Place chocolate and cream in a bowl over simmering water. Let chocolate and cream sit for 2-3 minutes to melt without stirring;
2. Slowly stir mixture to combine;
3. Add icing sugar and mix to combine;
4. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing after each addition until pouring consistency is reached; and
5. Set aside and let sauce cool to warm.
To assemble:1. Create a sling by placing a piece of baking paper in the pan with a overhang on each side;
2. Place biscuits side-by-side until bottom of pan is covered;
3. Spread a thin layer of chocolate pudding on top;
4. Place second layer of biscuits on top of chocolate pudding;
5. Spread a thin layer of peanut butter pudding on top;
6. Continue alternating layers with chocolate and peanut butter pudding while separating each pudding layer with a biscuit layer;
7. Pour cooled caramel sauce on top and set aside to set;
8. Pour cooled ganache sauce on top and add chopped Snickers on top;
9. Finish with caramel and chocolate drizzle; and
10. Place cake in refrigerator or freezer for at least eight hours to set or overnight.
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