Twix Cake

A couple of months ago I joined a new office at work. Word reached my new colleagues that I had in the past baked cakes and whatnot for the office and I don't think they actually thought I was capable of baking so last Sunday I had some spare time and thought I would have a crack at a new and pretty hardcore sweet treat.


I love Millionaire Shortbread. I love the french type where the caramel is the consistency of warm butter. I love the super market kind which always has a savoury biscuit base. I also love the new Twix Caramel Slices. Because of these facts I decided I'd have a go at a twix-esque cake.

The cake is made up of three layers which are shortcrust pastry then caramel then chocolate ganache. The bottom one is easy. There really is no point in making shortcrust pastry from scratch, it is a massive ball ache and probably won't be as good as the premade stuff. Take a sheet and line the bottom of a glass dish with the pastry making sure you get a good coverage across the bottom of the dish as the pastry will shrink! Cook it for ten minutes or until it goes golden brown then stick it in the fridge to cool.

The second layer is also pretty easy. Stick butter, dark brown soft sugar and condensed milk in a pan on a low heat until the butter is melted and the sugar has dissolved in to the mixture. Then bring it to the boil before reducing the heat and simmering for about 5 minutes stirring continuously. While its still hot you'll need to get it into the dish. Before you pour it over though here is a tip. Remove the cooked pastry sheet from the dish and place a big sheet of baking paper on the bottom and covering the sides before putting the pastry sheet back in. This will make it super easy to remove the cake from the dish once it has chilled. Once your pastry is back in the bottom of the dish with the paper underneath it slop your caramel on there making sure you get a fairly equal spread of it. Don't panic if it looks a bit messy though as this is not supposed to be a pretty delicate cake!


You will want to leave your caramel in the fridge for a couple of hours before starting the final layer, the chocolate ganache. The reason the for this is that we are going to pour warm ganache on to it shortly and if the caramel was already too warm then the two layers might mix or the caramel might split causing butter to run out of the sides. The ganache too is really really easy to make. Stick the cream and the chocolate in a pan and put on a medium heat, stir until all the chocolate has melted. At this point you want to take it off the heat and give it damn good whisking. Don't stop whisking until it looks super smooth, glossy and mega thick. Now take out your chilled base and pour over the chocolate sauce. Put it back in the fridge overnight and you will have your final twix cake, it only needs removing from the dish and cutting in to the requisite shapes and sizes.


I was quite happy with my finished dish. The plus points were that the three layers really worked together well and it was really really rich but in a good way. The negative points were that it looked quite ugly and this was mainly due to the caramel being a little soft so it tried to escape from the other two layers when I applied pressure to cut it. This really really is a super easy cake to make but please don't gorge on it if you are concerned in the slightest about your waistline.


Recipe:

Pastry base
One pack of pre-made pastry

Caramel layer
100g of butter
100g of dark brown soft sugar
2 400g tins of condensed milk

Chocolate layer
200g of chocolate (I used milk but dark would be just as good)
200ml of double cream