Cranachan Cake

All the breakfast staples.

This recipe comes from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. I am still not sold on the reverse crumb method that the author seems to love as I think it makes the cakes rubbery, but this one was fine. I have doubled the recipe to make 3 x 8 inch cakes. I have also added vanilla extract and more whiskey to the recipe. It was necessary. The sponge looks dense and crumbly because it has toasted oats, and because it was cut with a bamboo knife from a take away. This is an excellent breakfast cake.

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

1 cup/100g rolled oats

4 cups/480g plain flour

2 4/5 cups/560g sugar, caster or granulated

2 Tbsps baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

160g unsalted butter, softened

240ml whole milk, at room temperature

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs

6 Tbsps whiskey

For the Raspberry Cream:

200ml double cream

1 Tbsp icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

65g raspberries

For the Whiskey Buttercream:

340g unsalted butter, at room temperature

400g icing sugar, sifted

80ml whiskey

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1 tsp honey

c.60ml double cream

For Decoration:

150g fresh raspberries

Instructions:

For the Cake:

Preheat the oven to 150˚C.

Spread the rolled oats on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 6-10 minutes until golden.

You will smell them, when you smell oats, take them out.

Set aside and leave to cool.

Raise the oven temperature to 175˚C.

Grease and flour 3 x 8" cake pans.

Into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter, and mix on slow speed until the mixture resembles sand.

Slowly pour in half the milk and the vanilla extract, and mix until incorporated.

Whisk the eggs into the remaining milk and then pour it slowly into the flour mixture, continuing to beat until evenly incorporated.

Scrape down the side of the bowl at least once.

Mix in the toasted oats.

Divide batter evenly among the three pans, and bake for c.20 minutes, until a cake tester/toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Allow to cool in pans for c.15 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack.

Drizzle c. 2 Tbsps of the whiskey over each cake layer, and leave them to cool completely.

For the Raspberry Cream:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, add the cream, sugar and vanilla and beat on medium speed until the cream starts to thicken.

Add the raspberries and continue beating until the cream thickens into a spreadable whipped cream.

Do not overmix, this is crucial.

For the Whiskey Buttercream:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high until light and fluffy. Sift in the sugar, and beat until combined.

As you can see from the photo, a tea towel works wonders at staunching sugar waves.

Slowly add in the whiskey, honey and vanilla, then slowly add enough cream to make a spreadable frosting.

For the Assembly:

Spread a thin layer of icing in the centre of your cake board, and place your first layer on it.

Fill a piping bag about halfway with the whiskey buttercream, and pipe a dam around the edge of the first layer.

You do not need a tip, and you could even use a plastic bag and snip off the corner.

Spread the raspberry cream over the first layer, up to the dam.

Repeat with the second layer.

Place the third layer of cake on top, and spread a thin layer of the whiskey buttercream over the cake to seal in crumbs.

Refrigerate the cake for c.30 minutes.

Spread a thick layer of buttercream over the cake, and decorate as you wish.

This is what the raspberries are for, arrange the raspberries in a ring around the cake.