Would it work logistically baking the two together and would it work taste wise? I couldn't really imagine it.
I had seen a recipe for flapjack brownies a few months earlier and thought the idea was fantastic. The only problem was that once I looked at the recipe in detail, there wasn't a 'real' flapjack base, it contained lots of nuts and coconut but no oats and the brownie mixture was a gluten free one with an accompanying picture that looked a little dry and rubbery. I am sure that this recipe must have planted some sort of seed in my mind that resulted in this early morning revelation.
I then excitedly went about looking at recipes and figuring out how I would go about it. To create this!..
A moist chocolate and peanutbutter cake with buttery flapjack base, topped with a peanutbutter and chocolate buttercream and crumbles of peanutbutter and chocolate flapjack!
I found a basic flapjack recipe online and set about making the mixture. As I poured the oats into the pan of melted butter I realised how long it had been since I had last made flapjacks. I don't think I have made them since childhood!!
Mmmm! A lovely warming, comforting aroma of oaty melted butter filled the kitchen!
I then took half of the mixture out plain and added a big dollop of peanutbutter and chocolate chips to the other half.
I took the chocolate and peanutbutter flapjack mixture I pressed this down into a loaf tin and baked for 15 minutes.
I then crumbled this chocolate and peanutbutter flapjack up to sprinkle on top of the cakes later. This is when I found out that I had made a grave error.
I had underestimated how utterly delicious this flapjack was going to be. Once I had tasted a small piece and discovered this, then crumbled up what I needed for cake decoration, I found I had rather a large amount of this flapjack left over.
And it tasted good.
Very good.
Buttery, peanuty, oaty and chocolaty. And still a little bit warm. It was so buttery and moist from the peanutbutter that it wouldn't cut into slices, it just crumbled. So I found myself eating small pieces of this as I went along in my cake-flapjack creation. To such an extent that, about an hour after this had come out of the oven, apart from the crumbly pieces I had reserved for decoration, the quickly dwindling remains had to be placed in the in for my own safety. I really could not stop eating the thing!!!
With the plain flapjack mixture, I placed two tablespoons in each cupcake case and flattened down. I then dolloped the chocolate and peanutbutter brownie cupcake mixture on top so that the cases were just over two thirds full.
These then went into the oven for 13 minutes and came out looking like this...
At this point, I wasn't sure if I had the will power to wait for them to cool and then ice them before eating one. I was also desperate to find out what they tasted like and if the flapjack and cake had managed to bake properly and stay in their separate layers. The flapjack recipe, if made as a whole, should have taken 20-25 minutes to bake, the cake mixture without the addition of peanutbutter, baked alone should have taken 15-17 minutes but with the two baked together and in different quantities than the original recipes they were taken from, I couldn't be sure that either would bake correctly. Plus my oven is always inconsistently hotter than its own stated temperature, which I discovered when I purchased an oven thermometer, which was now broken. So a lot of guess work and crossed fingers was required! 13 minutes felt right and they looked and smelt good!
I resisted the temptation, let the cakes cool and made a peanutbutter and chocolate buttercream to distract myself. This was a basic vanilla buttercream with a dollop of peanutbutter and two heaped teaspoons of sifted cocoa powder mixed in.
Then I swirled the buttercream on top of the cooled cakes and finished with a pinch of the crumbled chocolate and peanutbutter flapjack pieces.
Finally, they were complete!
Now it was time for the best bit. The testing!
I made myself a large mug of steaming hot tea and sat down to do a bit of tasting...
Looks pretty enough on the plate. But had the layers stayed separate and had I managed to bake both the cake and flapjack mixture properly?
I cautiously peeled away the paper case and was rather excited when I discovered this underneath...
The flapjack and cake layer appeared to have stayed separate and both appeared to have baked perfectly!
Then it was time to see what was inside and taste this wonderous creation!
Beautiful!
A crumbly, buttery flapjack base sat firmly beneath a moist chocolaty and peanuty moist brownie cake. All topped with a light and creamy chocolate and peanutbutter buttercream and a moreish sprinkling of chocolate and peanutbutter flapjack.
Utterly delicious. This was sheer indulgence.
Crumbly yet chewy, buttery flapjack in the same mouthful as moist chocolate and peanutbutter brownie cake and creamy buttercream.
I took some of these into work the next day for some of my colleagues. Some of them laughed at my geeky cake creations. However, none of them carried on llaughing once they'd bitten into one. It actually bought me a bit of silence!
You see, with a cake creation like this, you taste all these wonderful flavours and textures, quite separate at first but mixing together in your mouth and you have to think about it for a bit. What on earth is going on? Flapjack and cake and that lovely smooth creamy butter cream. It is quite unlike anything else I have ever had before.
So perhaps this is also a good creation for those who are feeling a little indecisive and would also like a bit of peace and quite. Perfect!
