Soft Chocolate Chip Cookie based Chocolate Muffin with Salted Caramel and Peanut Butter centre- A Cake and Bake Show Bakers' Dozen Winner!

Phew! What a busy few months! Its been a while since I've updated you with my baking antics and for that I apologise. No sooner have I invented and created something new than I'm on to the next bake, neglecting to update you all in my frantically greedy crusade for the consummate cake!

I thought I'd take a breather today from cake invention and baking and update you with this greedy little beauty...

The Greedy Girl's Muffin.

So entitled, as it really is one of the greediest, most indulgent creations I've made to date. It refuses to compromise. Soft milk chocolate chip cookie gives way to moist chocolate brownie crumb all encased around an additively gooey salted caramel peanut butter centre.

I kid you not when I said that I ate five in one day just to make sure they were as good as I thought.

They were.

It took some time to perfect this one as the timings for getting the cookie and the muffin just right were not easy things to master. But now that I have done just that, I'm going to do something on my blog that I haven't done before...

...I'm going to share the entire recipe with you so that you can make them for yourselves at home!

The reason for this being that these little moreish beauties, this past weekend, saw me take to the stage at the Cake and Bake Show in Manchester and compete against a fellow contestant to win the Baker's Dozen Challenge judged by ITV's Britain's Best Bakery judges Peter Sidwell and Mich Turner. I was invited to compete on the day after submitting my recipe and pictures online some four weeks earlier.

Here I am! Smiling away in the middle with Peter and Mich whilst someone steals my muffins stage left.

It was all a lot of fun, I met some great people and my dad even got to test out his theory that he looks just like Paul Hollywood, by going back stage and seeing if anyone asked for his autograph (they didn't). Which might be something to do with the fact he ran rampant backstage loudly saying things dad's love to say such as 'you're that woman off the telly aren't you?' to poor Wendi Peters or it could be because he was wearing a neon green bomber jacket. Who knows?

Good lord that jacket is probably hurting poor Wendi's eyes!

A few people after the show asked for the recipe, so in gratitude of the lovely individuals that watched and supported the event on the day (and for those that nabbed the 6 muffins on display when my back was turned for 20 seconds to have my photo taken and are now wondering how to make some more) here is the recipe!

These muffins are best eaten about an hour after they have come out of the oven. Still a little warm, the soft cookie base and chocolate brownie muffin are all the more moreish for it. They still taste great the next day (if they last that long) but I found an hour or two after baking was the ultimate point to quoff these gooey molten delights. I obtained this valuable knowledge through the scientific research technique of eating one an hour after baking and then another each subsequent 30 minutes following on from that for 3 hours (yes thats right, thats where the 5 cakes in ones day confession above came from. I wouldn't normally do such a thing but I needed to research when was best to bake these ahead for the competition. In the end I made them just hours before heading off for the competition)

Without further ado. Here lies the secrets of the Soft Chocolate Chip Cookie based Chocolate Muffin with Salted Caramel and Peanut Butter centre....

This recipe makes 14 muffins with some cookie dough left over for around 4 medium cookies or makes 12 muffins with enough mixture and cookie dough to eat raw out of the bowl while you wait for everything to cook (option two is not recommended but may be worth considering if you only have one 12 hole muffin pan and are a bit peckish. However, I must say I think licking the bowl takes the edge off how lovely any cake is when its cooked as you aren't as hungry, both literally and in anticipation, having smelled how wonderful the mix is so recommend option 1):

Before we even get to what makes up these greedy little muffins, you're going to need an oven thermometer. This is because your oven lies to you. No matter how expensive, fancy and wonderful it is, all ovens lie. Mine is out by between 5-20 degrees Celsius at any one time. This makes a huge difference to the result of this cake, which relies on the muffin and the cookie baking at just at the right time so that they aren't dry and undercooked or raw and, well, inedible (sort of- mmmm raw cookie dough) Yes I know, its all a faff and you wanted to nip to the shops this afternoon, get everything you needed and crack on to make these in time for tea. But unless you've got an oven thermometer- I forbid you. There, I've said it. You'll only ruin it and get very annoyed that the recipe didn't work. Trust me, it really is worth getting these right. Oven thermometers only cost around £5 and are well worth the investment. I got mine from the lakeland shop. I don't know how coped I without it. It like an oven lie detector.

You also may want to invest in a hand held or stand mixer or ask Peter Sidwell to mix things for you while you talk to Wendi Peters abouts caramel (Its probably less faff to get a mixer).

Ingredients
For the cookie base: (adapted from a cookie recipe in Cookie Girl's 'Eat Me' Book. A really wonderful and inspiring recipe book well worth investing in!)
110g unsalted butter
85g caster sugar
85g light brown sugar
1 large egg beaten
1/2tsp vanilla essence
200g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp of baking powder
100g of milk chocolate chopped into big chunks. I used dairy milk because its my favourite, chopped into uneven big chunks. Pick your favourite bar of chocolate and give it the same choppy-uppy treatment.
 
Ingredients
For the muffin:
100g plain dark chocolate
85g butter
300g plain flour
1tbsp baking powder
150g caster sugar
1tbsp cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate!)
200ml full fat milk (lets not faff around with any low fat nonsense)
1 large egg beaten
1tbsp of crunchy or smooth peanut butter. Smooth is a more subtle flavour as it melts into the mix, with crunchy you get bits of peanut in the muffin even after cooking. Both are yum.


Ingredients
For the Salted Caramel Peanut Butter filling:
A full tin of caramel (this will be innocently sat in a tin next to the cans of condensed milk in the supermarket. Don't be fooled. Its so moreish its lethal. I can't open one of these tins unsupervised or I'll quoff the lot. Possibly even drinking straight from the can without even the aid of a spoon. You've been warned!)
1 tbsp of smooth peanut butter
a little freshly ground sea salt to taste



Chocolate dessert sauce or melted milt chocolate to decorate- optional

Method:

THE COOKIE MIX! 
use all the ingredients listed under cookie ingredients for the next bit (seems obvious but I thought well worth saying as this can get confusing)

Before you begin, line a muffin pan with 12- 14 cases. I played around with the size and found that small muffin cases/large cupcake cases were the right size. Those large muffin wrappers left me with overcooked cookie dough and raw cake mix and any cases smaller than the ones I used meant there was almost more cookie that cake mix!

1. Beat the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy.
2. Add the beaten egg and the vanilla to the mixture and mix until combined.
3. Sift the bicarbonate of soda and baking powder with the flour into a separate bowl. Combine well together and then tip this into the butter, sugar and egg mixture. 
4. Stir this mixture until the flour is combined and a nice cookie dough forms.
5. Tip in your chocolate chunks and mix until they are evenly distributed.
6. Using a tablespoon, scoop out large dollops of the mix and roll into balls and squash with your hand to make a circle big enough to cover the bottom of a muffin case, about 1cm thick. Make 12-14 of these depending on how many muffins you are making. You will have some dough left over. Place your trays of cookie dough lined cases in their trays in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. I'd advise using this time to wash the cookie dough mix off your hands, have a large cup of tea and make arrangements for who will be supervising you opening the tin of caramel a little later. The next step of making the muffin mix takes around ten minutes to complete so you can then crack on with this after around 10 mins of relaxation time. This cooling bit is really important for at least 20 minutes. It ensures you get lovely soft gooey cookies sat on the bottom of your muffins. Mmmm...

MUFFIN
 
Now, you're getting the hang of this I'm sure but I'll still mention that for the next bit, use the ingredients listed under 'muffin ingredients' above.

1. Put your oven thermometer in your fan oven and turn the oven on to 200 degrees Celsius.- Check after a few minutes to see the actual temperature on your oven thermometer (you won't believe how your oven lies!) To make sure it actually is 200 degrees Celsius at the point your oven tells you it has heated up.
2. Melt all of your plain dark chocolate broken into about 8 large pieces and the butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water on the hob.
3. Once this has melted, set it aside and stir in the Peanut Butter until it melts fully into the mixture.
4. In another bowl sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and cocoa into a large bowl. Mix with a spoon to make sure its all good and mixed together. You want your raising agent to be nice and evenly distributed.
5. In another, smaller bowl swhisk your egg and then pour in the milk and whisk them together.
6. Pour the milk and egg mixture slowly into the, now slightly cooled, chocolate mixture, mixing as you go.
7.  At this point, take your cookie dough lined cases out of the fridge and set to one side and also make sure your oven temperature is 200 degrees Celsius.
8. Next, pour the wet chocolaty mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir until almost fully combined. You should still see streaks of flour. Don't let this scare you as it did me. I'm used to making cupcakes, not muffins. With muffins you don't want to over stir the mixture or you'll get a tough muffin, so, trust me, stir it 8-10 times, then embrace your fear and stir no more!! (Don't listen to that little voice in your head that wants you to stir away all the flour until its nice and neat and even and fully incorporated. This voice is wrong and will ruin your muffin if you listen to it!)
9. Next, dollop around 1 and 1/2 generous tablespoons of the mix on top of the cookie bases until the cakes are almost, but not quite, full.
10. Bake in the oven for 17- 20 minutes. Check at 17 minutes by inserting a skewer into the centre of one of the cakes. When they are done, they should have a tiny bit of mixture left on the skewer but not too much. No matter what they are like at 20 minutes I take them out, you don't want them to overcook and become dry and they will continue cooking a little once out of the oven.
11. Take the muffins out of the tray, still in their cases and allow to cool on a wire rack.

SALTED PEANUT BUTTER CARAMEL FILLING

1. Whilst the muffin are cooling, combine all of your Peanut Butter filling ingredients until smooth. Taste as you go. You won't need much salt, as the Peanut Butter is already salty, you may decide not to add any salt. It should taste sweet with a hint of saltiness and Peanut Butter.

2. When the muffins are cooler, after around 15-30 minute or so, place a cupcake corer into the centre and bring out a chunk of the cake, or you could use a knife to cut a circle of cake out of the centre. Place this to one side and resist the temptation to eat this little warm, chocolaty gooey cake morsel! Then fill the hole with about 2tsps of peanut butter mixture. Top this with the pre-removed cake piece.

3. Drizzle or pipe more salted caramel Peanut Butter mixture onto the top of the cake and, if you are feeling particularly greedy drizzle again with chocolate dessert sauce or melted chocolate.

4. Sit down with a chilled glass of champagne or a warm mug of tea, unwrap one of these beautiful creations, cut down the middle and fleetingly admire the sheer indulgent greedy beauty of what is within before scoffing, interspersed with sips of your chosen beverage.

These really are rather special. They certainly do hit the spot whilst being exceedingly moreish. Soft cookie dough, gradually softer in the centre, interspersed with generous chunks of milk chocolate, gives way to soft moist chocolate brownie muffin, all slathered with a luxurious lashing of Salted Caramel Peanut Butter sauce in the centre. If you bite straight into the muffin without slicing in half first, this wonderful gooey filling pops into your mouth as the most wonderfully unexpected surprise. Like salted caramel but with the added twist of Peanut butter. Its even better!

These cakes aren't the most simple to create but my goodness they certainly are more than worth it when you bite into them or peel back the wrapper.

My dad gave them his own seal of approval when I asked him to try one. He never likes to be 'too' nice (or complementary at all. If he says the word 'hm' in a short and confused manner it means he isn't quite sure what to do as he has rather enjoyed something but 'mmm thats nice' isn't in his vocabulary. When I passed all my GCSE's I recall him saying 'Oh right. Whats for tea?' and we all knew he was very proud.) On this occasion, after sampling a mouthful of the muffin he commented 'hmmm, could be a little moister and I'm not entirely sure its my 'thing' I don't really like sweet stuff'. To which I replied, 'Oh, Ok, would you like me to have the rest then?' In a wild panic, his pupils dilated and he shoved the remaining three quarters of the muffin into his mouth in one go and in between cake crumbs and caramel sauce, attempting to sound nonchalant (which is terrible difficult to do with a huge muffin in your mouth) he managed to mumble 'erm, no that's ok, I'll manage the rest I think. Don't want to be rude'. How very good of him. I did also notice him quoff one back stage when he thought I wasn't looking at the Cake and Bake show and then attempted to blame the theft on the lovely young man that helped me measure out my ingredients back stage. 'I think it was that shifty looking bloke called Nigel' he said putting on his best doe-eyed look. Like I said, those Greedy Girl Muffins are addictive. You have been warned! 

Good luck and Enjoy!

Oh... And for those of you that heard on Friday that I got into baking after losing five stone and wanted to make sure that the treats I had really hit the spot and didn't quite believe me. Here's a before and after pic to prove that you can have your cake and eat it! (Did I also mention my dad has lost 5stone too?!) I think its going to be salad for a fortnight for me now after this weekend!

Flapjack based Chocolate and Peanutbutter Brownie Cupcakes

It was a Sunday morning. I had just woken and literally, the first thought that occurred to me, the very first thought was 'I wonder if I could make a flapjack cupcake'. I was struck by the sheer brilliance of this idea! A flapjack and a cupcake!

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...

A heavenly aroma of rich chocolate and peanutbutter and buttery oats enveloped the whole house. Mmmm...

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.

The perfect cake for when you can't decide what you fancy and you want it all. Cake and flapjack.

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!

Cinema Themed cupcakes! Banana, Pecan, Chocolate chunk, Caramel and Toffee Popcorn cakes and Chocolate and Peanutbutter Icecream Scoop cupcakes

There's nothing like a good gathering to set the cake inventing cogs in my brain in motion.

I was attending a hen do, but one with a difference. An outdoor cinema screening on one of the last summer evenings of the year!

After taking quite some time trawling the internet for the cupcake cases I envisaged in my mind I found them! Then I created these...

Banana, Pecan, milk chocolate chunk, caramel and toffee popcorn cupcakes! And also these...

Chocolate and peanutbutter cupcakes with peanutbutter buttercream and sprinkles!

I have never baked with these sort of cases before. They are like small icecream tubs and don't need to go into cake trays to hold their shape like paper cases would (although putting them in one makes it easier to put them in and out of the oven).

First I made the banana cakes. This was based on a recipe for banana and pecan cupcakes. However, when I really thought about it (this didn't take long) I thought they would be much improved with the addition of some milk chocolate chunks. Most recipes are...

Lots of chunky pieces of pecan and milk chocolate chunks to add to my banana cake mixture.

And a bit more chocolate. That's better!

Then, I carefully dolloped the banana, milk chocolate and pecan cake mixture into their cases...

It wasn't long in the oven before they came out, smelling of banana, chocolate and pecan with just a hint of cinnamon. A lovely comforting smell...

I could have scoffed the lot right there. Mmmmm... But there were more delicious additions in store for these rich, moist little cakes!

Next I dolloped caramel on top of each cake.

Then I spread it out evenly over the surface. Do not be tempted to taste any of this caramel at this point! Not even a teensy tiny little bit. PUT THE REST IN THE BIN WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED. Or you will find yourself drinking it straight out of the tin and feeling rather squiffy minutes later (whilst also, at the same time, being aware that if there was another pot of this wonderful stuff in the vicinity you would down the lot) I am like Winnie the Pooh with a pot of honey with this stuff, its VERY moreish and rather dangerous. Treat with caution, you have been warned!

Next, pile some toffee popcorn on top of the caramel.

Then, step back and marvel at how bloody brilliant they look. You might want to skip around the kitchen singing a song about popcorn.

I mean, you don't have to.

You could just eat one.

I was feeling rather smug at this point. This was just what I had imagined! Little popcorn boxes hiding delicious morsels of secret scrummy cake!

I resisted the temptation to try one just yet.

There was more cake that needed making and it was only 10.30am. If I timed this just right I could have a cake only lunch (after all, I needed to test them before taking them to the party that night surely?) and I do love a cake lunch!

So i ignored the warm banana, chocolate, pecan caramel aroma and turned my hand to making chocolate and peanutbutter cupcakes.

This was the same Mary Berry chocolate cupcake recipe I usually use but with two extremely generous dollops of crunchy peanutbutter stirred into the mixture.

And before long, they were baked. Chocolate and peanutbutter scents now enveloped the whole house. Mmmm!!

The decoration took a little longer for these.

I mixed up buttercream, added two generous tablespoons of smooth peanutbutter and then split these into three bowls. To the first I added pink dye to, the second a little cocoa powder and the third, I left as it was.

Then I set about, what I thought would be the simple task of using a sorbet scoop to create little ice cream scoops.

This picture gives the misleading impression that this was rather simple, but really the teaspoon in the background was also used along with the sorbet scoop to help create these little 'icecream balls'.

After rather longer than I'd anticipated, I had topped all of the cakes and finished them off with sprinkles!

Hooray! Now its time for lunch!

Cake testing lunch! My favourite!

First the banana, pecan, milk chocolate chunk, caramel and toffee popcorn cakes!

Just as pretty outside its little striped case as it was inside. If not, more so, with the caramel having oozed into the slightly warm cakes at the point they were decorated and also down the sides.

And the inside?

Mmmm! Moist, rich banana cake with intermittent pieces of pecan and still molten milk chocolate chunks of differing proportions in each mouthful. Delicious on its own but all the more addictive when in the same mouthful is a layer of caramel and a bite of toffee popcorn. Utterly delicious!

This cake made me think of cosy autumnal evening. A hefty wedge would be delicious with a large mug of steaming hot tea after facing the wind and rain of a blustery day outside. A hug in a cake. Or a great treat to eat instead of your usual tub of popcorn at the cinema whilst sitting back to watch your favourite film. In the same way that watching an old favourite film is comforting and relaxing, so was this cake, like a hug from your grandma when you were little. Instant relaxation that envelops you and paints a big smile on your face.

Next was the chocolate and peanutbutter cakes.

These really were delicious. The chocolate cake on its own is a very moist recipe as it uses a large amount of melted chocolate in the mix. This was made even moister with the addition of chunky peanutbutter in this recipe. Because I used chunky peanutbutter rather than smooth the peanutbutter flavour came through in texture as well as flavour. The rich cake, almost bordering on brownie-like texture was wonderful with the light peanutbutter buttercream. This topping was a delicate, sweet flavour that made the cake luxurious in flavour and texture. I really couldn't stop myself eating this one and when I took them to the party, they vanished in minutes.

So how was the cinema themed hen party?

I set out my cakes in the garden as the sun went down, along with the other snacks. Here they are...

And here is the magically decorated garden, ready for our viewing of the Labyrinth!

It may be a good time to mention at this point that this was a Labyrinth themed fancy dress party! I don't want you thinking that as standard I normally spend my Saturday evenings with human sized owls and people in big billowy white shirts and 1980s wedding dresses (not that there's anything wrong with that but it would probably make my weekends sound a tad more unusual and interesting than they actually are)

So as we sat down to watch the film on a balmy evening in early September, relishing the last of the summer weather, sipping wine and relaxing in the magical atmosphere, each taken back to the first time we watched this magical film, still believing in magic and either in awe of or repulsed by David Bowie's trousers (depending on who you asked), we indulged in our little popcorn bag cakes and icecream tub cakes. I tested a couple more as well, just to be sure that the exposure to the night air had not altered their quality, flavour or texture in any way. They were fine. Actually I had three. Just to be sure.

But most importantly of all, the beautiful Bride to be liked them! And that is true praise indeed given her appreciation for a good bit of cake (much like myself!)

Garden party cake with a difference!

Chocolate, Hazelnut and Praline Triple layer cake topped with Caramel Spiked Hazelnuts

Another family gathering and I needed an impressive cake as a centre piece.

I wanted to try something a little different but it needed to be pretty and preferably contain chocolate. After the success of my chocolate and peanutbutter triple layer cake (probably my favourite cake in terms of texture and flavour, that I have made to date) I decided to combine chocolate with another nut. This time the hazelnut!

And here she is in all her glory!

The sponge contained ground hazelnuts and grated dark chocolate. This gave the vanilla sponge a lovely nutty, chocolaty flavour.

To make sure that the sponge was super moist, each layer was brushed with a home made amaretto syrup before assembling. I had tried to get hold of some Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur) but there really was none to be found! It didn't seem to affect the flavour of the cake. It just made the light sponge extremely moist. The syrup was essentially sugar and water simmered until the sugar had fully dissolved, left to cool and then with the addition of a few tablespoons of amaretto.

After the layers had been drizzled with the syrup I assembled the cake.

I made a rich chocolate fudge frosting to go in between the layers and on the outside of the cake. I also made some praline by making home made caramel, dropping hazelnuts into it and whizzing up to a fine power when solidified.

So this...

Turns into this...

This sweet, nutty powder is then sprinkled on top of the chocolate fudge frosting in between each layer.

This soaks up the chocolate fudge frosting and really, just melts into it. You can't detect that there is anything other than a slightly different flavoured frosting to the outside of the cake, when you bite into a slice. The frosting in the middle just takes on a sweeter, nuttier, hazelnut praline flavour.

I built up the layers and smoothed the chocolate fudge frosting onto the outside of the cake. It looked a bit like how I would imagine Miss Trunchbull's cake looked in the book 'Matilda' at this point. So I piped some of the frosting onto the bottom to neaten it up.

Then came the tricky bit.

This is the bit where I sustained a caramel burn on my hand and realised that no mater how pretty and tasty spiked caramel hazelnuts are, I'm not entirely convinced I could be bothered to make them ever again.

First was the creation of the caramel.

Its just sugar and water. How difficult could that be? It turns out, its not that simple.

Its knowing when to take the caramel off the heat, too soon and its not caramel, not soon enough and it burns. I made two attempts. The first caught and burned and the second wasn't quite caramel enough but did set and tasted yummy. That'll do for me.

To make the caramel spikes you carefully insert skewers into your hazelnuts.

Then, when your caramel is ready, quickly dip the hazelnuts into the mixture, attempt not to burn yourself with the boiling hot caramel but ensure you are doing this quickly enough so that the caramel doesn't completely set before you get chance to dip all of your hazelnuts. Then, leave these hanging off the edge of your work surface with something heavy on top of the sticks to stop them falling off and lots of foil/paper/tea towels underneath to make sure you don't ruin your kitchen floor.

You may also wish to ensure that your kitten is not allowed access to the kitchen at this point as these searingly hot strings of caramel look like an awful lot of fun to a kitten. (a kitten and caramel related accident was thankfully averted. My little kitty did wander into the kitchen but thankfully I noticed him before he noticed the fun new caramel strings that were now hanging enticingly in the kitchen. Phew!)

Gosh that looks fun!

Then you let them harden. Several will fall apart, not look quite right or the spikes won't have developed. If you make sure that you do a lot more than you intend to use, you should have enough to top your cake. You should also make more than you need so that you can pop one in your mouth every now and then to keep your strength up during the mammoth task of constructing this dobber of a cake.

Then you need to cut the tails using scissors to the length you want them to be.

Then, hold your breath and remove the hazelnuts from their skewers and try and avoid thoughts like 'if this doesn't work now after all this I'm going to be really miffed'. Actually, I had no problems at this stage but really wasn't sure how easy it would be to get them off the sticks.

Then simply pop them on top of your cake!

Mmmmmm! Yum!

Then you just have to wait for your guests to arrive before you cut yourself a slice (its polite apparently)

Now time to try it...

The cake itself was very moist and rich with a lovely hazelnut and chocolate flavour. The fudge frosting in between the layers melted in the mouth and was a wonderfully rich and sweet hazelnut praline chocolate flavour. This contrasted well with the chocolate fudge frosting around the outside of the cake. The frosting was smooth, intensely chocolaty and very moreish and was the perfect partner to the extremely moist but light hazelnut chocolate cake.

The spiked hazelnut was also delicious to pop into your mouth. The sweet caramel encasing the whole hazelnut. Utterly delicious!

Of all the cakes I've made, this is certainly up there with the chocolate peanutbutter triple layer cake. Its rich, moist and sweet with a multitude of flavours and textures in each bite. Rich indulgent chocolate fudge frosting, moist but light hazelnut chocolate cake and sweet, nutty praline chocolate frosting. Mmmm... delicious.

Mmmmm... indulgent, rich, light, decadent triple layer chocolate, praline and hazelnut cake. The perfect addition to any tea party!