Autumnal Celebration Cake
Chocolate, Merinque, Praline & Marscarpone + toffee crabapples.
I made this cake for a household birthday just as the crab apples came into their glory in May, and posted it on stories and suddenly I had messages galore asking for the recipe. It was just an idea I’d had, amalgamating a few fave recipes into one cake and it was surprisingly absolutely delicious! When I wrote out the recipe, it was a bit long for socials, so we compromised and added it to the blog and the monthly newsletter and that way you can always find it and refer back to it. There is also a downloadable printable pdf at the end so it’s easy to pop it into a recipe folder. It’s not a hard cake at all, it just has a few steps so worth taking the time to work your way through them. Definitely worth it!! Yum!
Any comments or questions, just let me know. ♥
Start with the Chocolate Cake
An old time family favourite, which I think may have originated from an old Marie Claire recipe, and we use it for quick afternoon teas with icing, birthday cakes stacks, cup cakes, and also flavoured chocolate cakes (another whole recipe - but eg rose water or orange essence or coffee or peppermint pelagonium etc
It’s also brilliant because you can make it the day before and it essentially tastes better the next day. Keep it in the fridge well wrapped for up to 36 hours before you use.
180g unsalted butter
150g dark good quality cooking chocolate
⅔ cup strong coffee
(I use an espresso, my mum uses instant coffee - she says the flavour is better!)
225g castor sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 ⅔ cups SR flour
½ cup cocoa
Preheat the oven to 160oC.
Put the butter chocolate and coffee in a saucepan over low heat and stir gently until the chocolate is melted. Add the sugar, stirring until dissolved. Pour into a mixing bowl and let cool slightly, then mix in the eggs and vanilla well. Mix in the dry ingredients. (You probably should sift it in, but I’ve well and truly given up sifting except when making a sponge)
Mix until well combined. The mixture shouldn’t be too wet but is a tad wetter than a normal cake mix.
If yours is a bit stiff or not wet enough, just add a tablespoon or two of milk or water to wetten it a little. Once I made this exact recipe and it was quite a stiff cake mix and I’ll never know why, but a little milk in the mix helped and it tasted exactly the same.
Grease well and line two 20cm cake tins. Split the mixture evenly between the two. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cakes have just come away from the sides and are firm in the middle. You can do the screwer test to confirm. Don’t overcook as it will dry out and not be fudgy at all.
Let them cool in the tins for 15-20 minutes before upending out onto a cooling rack. Let cool completely.
Meringue Cake
Basically a good basic Pavlova with almonds added.
(This is a great pavolva recipe without the almonds and a staple in our family to always have up your sleeve - without the almonds it’s a classic pavlova)
5 egg whites (medium eggs)
250g castor sugar (a good cup)
1 tsp vanilla extract (I cap full)
2 tsp white vinegar (approx 1 cap full off bottle)
120g flaked or slivered almonds - doesn’t matter which
Turn the oven on to 140oC
Use a dry clean frying pan and place on medium heat and pop the almonds in. Gently cook until ever so slightly brown and warmed thoroughly. Don’t take your eyes off them or they will burn! Pop out of the pan immediately to stop them cooking and onto a plate to cool.
Prepare 2 flat cookie trays with a layer of baking paper over them. Using the 20cm tin, trace a circle outline on each using a pencil.
Use a mixer or hand held beater for this next part. Ensure your bowl for beating egg whites is very clean and dry. Separate the eggs carefully ensuring no yoke is in the whites. I do these in 2 cups and then pour the white into my bowl and the yokes into a separate bowl to use later. This ensures no mistakes.
Beat the egg whites vigorously using the whisk attachment, until they form firm peaks (not floppy firm but upright firm) but not beyond this as it could start to split. Keep an eye on it.. Slow the mixer to approx 3-4 medium speed and gradually add sugar over 4-5 minutes. Increase the mixer speed so vigorous again. Beat up to 10 mins until shiny smooth and silky and until when you gently rub the mixture between your fingers you can’t feel any grains of sugar. Add the vanilla and the white vinegar and mix in well.
Add in the toasted flaked almonds and gently incorporate using a spatula.
(Note: If you want to make a pavlova, skip this step & voila you have pavlova! You will get a completely different cook and look when it comes out of the oven but a proper pavlova finish - make coffee cream and use the toasted almonds for the top!)
Using a spatula, gently divide the mix between the 2 trays and shape into the drawn circles keeping within the lines so these cakes are all the same size approximately as the chocolate cakes. They will have flat tops and high sides.
Pop in the up to temperature oven and cook. This could take up to an hour, but keep an eye on them. If they start to brown, turn the temperature down. You can cool them in the oven with the oven door just slightly ajar the same way you do with a pavlova. They will likely sink a bit and go like marshmallow rather than like a crispy pavlova.. This happens when you add the almonds but it’s perfect for this cake.
While the cakes cool or even the night before, make your almond praline
¾ cup sugar
2 tbs water
1 ½ cups natural almonds (not toasted ones for this)
Flat baking tray well oiled across the surface - use just olive oil
Put sugar in a heavy base saucepan and 2 tablespoons of water. Place on medium to high heat. You don’t need to stir it but you can gently swirl at the start if you need to. Let it melt and come to a boil, watching it all the time, then turn the heat down just a little so it’s a rolling boil, not a vigorous boil. Now don’t take your eye off it for a second. It will start to gently change colour across the surface. (If it’s boiling too vigorously, turn it down slightly to stop it burning or catching). Let the colour come through but you want light tan /caramel, not dark leather tan colour and it should smell of toffee not a burnt bitter smell.
Turn off the heat immediately once it’s coloured and working quickly now, pour in the almonds and use a metal spoon to combine. You’ll need to work fast now so it doesn’t set in the saucepan. Pour out onto the oiled tray. It will form a bit of a mound but try to pour it out as evenly as possible to get a good mix of almond and toffee.. Beware as you add the almonds and pour as it is super hot and will burn your skin easily and badly if splashed up or your finger gets in the way.
Then, just leave it to cool completely.
Once it’s cooled (totally cold!!) , pop it into a food processor and pulse until it’s a mix of fine and chunky. The largest chunks should be approximately the size of a small fingernail. If you don’t have a food processor, pop it in a plastic bag and gently beat on a solid surface with a big rolling pin to get the same effect. Keep in a glass screw top jar.
Toffee crab apples (can be done night or day before)
Just like doing old fashioned toffee apples. Pick your crabapples in bunches if you can or keeping them attached together in twos and threes. I am lucky I have the original Malus ‘Gorgeous’ in my garden but any red crabapple will do. These are not really edible even with toffee on them as they are quite tart but they look amazing all red and shiny. I toffee them to make them shiny as they come off the tree quite dull. They would work just as well untoffeed if you don’t have time. And I’ve made some suggestions for alternatives at the end if you just can’t lay your hand on crabapples.
I don’t wash the crabapples as they are organic in my garden, but if you do have to wash them make sure they are thoroughly dry before starting this.
½ cup sugar
1 tbs water
Flat tray with baking paper cover on it.
Put sugar and water in a heavy base saucepan. Place on medium to high heat. You don’t need to stir it but you can gently swirl at the start if you need to. Let it melt and come to a boil, watching it all the time, then turn the heat down just a little so it’s a gentle simmering boil, not a vigorous or rolling boil but just below this. You want bubbly activity but just gently.. Now don’t take your eye off it for a second. We want it to go to just clear toffee. I do this by eye and since really it doesn’t matter if it sets, you probably don’t need the bother of a thermometer.. I keep the toffee clear, but it sort of changes consistency and starts to get a bit thicker. Don’t let it colour and if it does start to go caramel colour turn the heat off immediately.
Now work quickly, so have all the crabapples ready at hand, and be very careful as the toffee mix will cause really bad burns.
Tip the saucepan ever so slightly to make the mix deeper and dip crabapples in one by one or in bunches of two or three or fives etc. I left some of mine in bigger bunches. Sweep the apples through the mix to get totally coated and then place on the tray standing up or as much as you can. Keep going until you have them all done.
Then if I need to I just make them sort of stick together in the bunches I wanted. Don’t worry if the toffee is soft or sticky, it won’t matter on the cake, but you’ll get the wonderful shiny effect. Let sit overnight or until totally cool.
When the cakes and everything are cool and you are ready to assemble.
Make the mascarpone icing/filling.
300g mascarpone
(approx - you can add in a bit or have a bit less - it depends on the container you can find at the shops)
4 tablespoons icing sugar mixture
250 mls of whipping cream
2 cap fulls of cointreau (or liquor of choice)
Gently whip the mascarpone with the icing sugar. In a separate bowl, whip the cream until medium to firm peaks. (same as if putting on scones) Add cointreau.
Fold the cream and mascarpone mix together gently until fully combined.
This mix should be enough to put between each cake layer and also for the top as well.
On the cake plate you want to present it on.
1st layer: chocolate cake. Use approx 2 tbs of mascarpone mix and spread across the top.
2nd layer: meringue cake: Again use approx 2tbs mascarpone mix and spread across the top. Sprinkle a generous amount of almond praline.
3rd layer: chocolate cake. Use approx 2 tbs mascarpone mix and spread across the top.
4th layer: meringue cake: Again use approx 2tbs mascarpone mix and spread across the top.
Use the remainder of the mascarpone mix to do a rough coat around the sides of the cake. This can help fill in some gaps between layers, but the idea isn’t to get a perfect even finish. Make it smooth but it doesn’t need to cover everything completely. It’s a ‘naked cake finish’. See the picture.
Do this gently with a knife or long cake spatular, to help avoid getting cake crumb in this layer. The chocolate crumbs will be easily seen.
Generously sprinkle praline over the top of the cake.
Now arrange the crabapples. I used the bunches on the top of the cake and placed a couple on top of each other in the middle to get a bit of height.
Then arrange them around the top and the sides to hide any patchy bits or gaps. And to give an even decorated look.
Voila, you are ready to serve.
If you assemble the cake earlier, (up to 2 hours) leave the apples off and pop it in the fridge to keep the cream good for eating and then just minutes before bring out and place the apples.
Notes: alternatives for crabapple decoration.
Red autumn leaves would work. Wash them thoroughly and get different sizes and shapes to use around the cake and on the top.
I’ve also used leaves to make chocolate leaf decorations and this is really easy to do. (gently melt cooking chocolate to runny consistency and brush on oiled leaves. Lay them on a flat cookie tray covered in baking paper and mould them a little to get realistic interest and then let dry). Mound them up high like a house of cards for interest on top of the cake.
Cook a few whole pears that are peeled and them cored at the bottom, in red wine, sugar, cinnamon mix and they turn red on the outside. Cut them into thick slices and arrange standing up in a swirl on the top of the cake and around the sides.
Use some flowers around around the top of the cake - in reds, oranges and pinks to get an autumnal feel. Or if you are making this cake in summer, use creamy pink roses tumbling down the side of the cake in all sizes and arranged on top.
Whatever you can get your hands on. Just don’t use anything poisonous! Or that has been sprayed. Have fun with it.