A few weeks ago it was my nephew’s 8th birthday
and as has been tradition for the past few years he asked for a cake instead of
a present and this year’s choices was a Sweetie Cake. Now Mr O is not a fan of
icing and the more traditional “celebration cakes” but he’s a boy who
definitely knows what he wants and likes – last year he asked for banana bread!
I asked him what flavour he would like and came back with caramel sponge; no traditional
vanilla or chocolate for this boy!
I’ve made caramel flavoured sponge before but I wanted to
see could I make it without adding caramel and how different would the flavour
be. Instead I added light brown sugar to the mix and it worked a treat. The
flavour wasn’t as strong, much more subtle in fact but with so much going on
with all the sweeties on top it was ideal.
The only thing I didn’t factor in was cutting a cake that is
laced in sweets – cutting through jellies and toffees is hard!
This is such a simple cake to make though and you can
decorate it however you choose. Mr T actually decorated this one (he said it
was the Uncle’s job) and I’m so pleased with how it turned out. I did debate
about making it into a piñata cake too but even I know my limits with covering
a cake in sweets and adding a load of hyper 8 year old boys into the mix too!
Caramel Sweetie Cake
225g soft light brown sugar
225g stork/baking marg
225g SR flour
2tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1/2tsp vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 160C (fan)
Grease and line two 20cm cake tins.
Cream the sugar and marg until pale and fluffy.
Add a tablespoon of flour to stop the mixture curdling.
Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract.
Add the remaining flour and baking podwer and whisk until
well combined.
Divide between the two tins.
Bake in the oven for 25mins or until a skewer inserted comes
out clean.
Leave on a wire rack to cool.
Buttercream
200g unsalted butter, softened
500g icing sugar
A few tablespoons of tinned caramel
Whisk all the ingredients on a high speed (usually about 5
mins in my Kenwood) until pale and fluffy
To Decorate
Chocolate fingers
A mixture of sweeties of your choice
Cake assembly
Sandwich the two cake layers together with some buttercream and some more caramel.
Coat the outside in the remaining buttercream and press chocolate fingers to the sides before it starts to firm up.
Decorate the top with the sweeties of your choice.
Enjoy!
