Christmas presents the perfect time to try new recipes to enjoy with friends and family. This year, winner of the Great British Bake Off 2013, Frances Quinn, shares her special tricks of the trade and makes a very special Cadbury ‘Snowflake’ Cake.
Frances says: “My Cadbury Snowflake Cake is its very own winter wonderland, especially when dusted with a flurry of icing sugar and sparkle of edible silver glitter frost to add that special Christmas touch. To create that Christmas scene, I have surrounded the cake with Cadbury Snow Bites, Cadbury Mini Wishes, some classic Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons and finally some delicious white chocolate trees from the new Limited Edition Cadbury Dairy Milk Winter Wonderland bar. It’s a chocolate or cake lovers dream and looks and tastes wonderful but created so that even the ‘beginner’ bakers can have a go. Part of the fun in eating a cake is knowing that you helped make it!”
Each slice with accompanying treats is sure to unwrap some joy this Christmas so delight your guests as you serve up a snowdrift of chocolate. Made with the new and classic chocolates from the Cadbury range and a glass and a half of milk can even be found within the cake recipe itself.
Hidden chocolate snow bites add an extra chocolate hit to the filling of the cake and serve up an extra surprise when the cake is sliced through. Finally, the Cadbury Finger Biscuits not only produce the effect of a snowflake, but help portion out the cake when sliced and served.
Frances says: "It's no secret that I am a fan of Cadbury. The wide range of chocolates gives me lots of textures, shapes and flavours to play with. The new Cadbury Christmas collection was great to use within my new Cadbury Snowflake Christmas cake. I have taken inspiration from their Christmas range to create a festive winter scene with an edible Cadbury snowflake at its centre. A feast for the senses! Merry Christmas!”
Cadbury Snowflake Cake
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INGREDIENTS
Cake
· 125g slightly salted butter
· 125g dark muscovardo sugar
· 200g golden syrup
· 50g Bournville dark chocolate, chopped up
· 200g self raising flour
· 50g cocoa powder
· 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
· 250ml of milk
· 1 tsp vanilla extract
· 1 large egg
Ganache
· 300ml double cream
· 150g Bournville dark chocolate, chopped up
· 150g Dairy Milk Winter Wonderland chocolate
All the milk chocolate trees, taken from 2 x Cadbury Dairy Milk Winter Wonderland trees, chopped up. The remaining white trees are saved and used as decoration around the cake
Decoration
· 6 Cadbury Dream Fingers
· 2 packets of Cadbury White Chocolate buttons
· 2 packets of Cadbury Snow Bites
· A handful of the white chocolate Cadbury Dairy Milk Winter Wonderland trees
· Icing sugar to dust
Extras
· Cadbury Wishes
· Cadbury Little Wishes
· The remainder of the white chocolate Winter Wonderland trees
· Edible silver glitter to dust and indoor sparklers to stick into the top and light up the cake.
METHOD
Preheat oven to 180C /fan160C /gas 4.
Grease and line a deep base 7"/18cm round cake tin or 2 x 7"/18cm round shallow spring form cake tins.
MAKING THE CAKE (TIME: 25 MINUTES)
- Begin by making the ganache. Place the chopped up chocolate into a medium bowl
- Heat the cream in a medium saucepan over medium heat
- When the cream is just coming to the boil, pour over the chopped chocolate, and stir until smooth and shiny and leave to cool completely, in the fridge if necessary
- To make the cake melt the sugar, syrup and butter together in a medium pan over a medium heat, stirring on occasion with a wooden spoon.
- Once everything has dissolved, stir through the dark chocolate till melted and combined
- Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool slightly
- Meanwhile sift all the dry ingredients into a large bowl
- Pour the and measure the milk into a Pyrex jug and beat in the egg and vanilla extract
- Pour the syrup mixture from the pan into the dry ingredients and mix through, add the milk and egg mixture and combine everything together
- Pour into the lined tin/s and bake in the oven for approx 40/50 minutes if baking in the deep tin and 20/30 if in the 2 shallow tins
- The cakes should be springy to the touch and a knife pushed into the centre of the cake should comes out clean
- Don't worry about any cracks on the surface of the cake as they will be covered by the ganache later
- Leave the cakes to cool in tin/s before turning out on to a wire rack to cool fully
Once both the cakes and ganache have fully cooled, you can start to assemble and decorate the cake. If you've baked a deep cake, carefully slice in half to create two cakes to sandwich together.
ADD THE GANACHE AND CREATE YOUR WINTER WONDERLAND SCENE (TIME: 20 MINUTES TO ASSEMBLE AND DECORATE)
- Place one of the cakes on to your plate and spoon a third of the ganache on to its centre and spread over with a palette knife
- Carefully dot and press in a handful of Cadbury Snow Bites to the ganache, as if hidden in the filling
- Place the other cake on top and sandwich together gently
- Spoon and spread over the remainder of the ganache over the top and sides of the cake using a palette knife
- To decorate place the chocolate finger biscuits on the surface of the cake to create a snowflake pattern and then stick in the Cadbury Dairy Milk White Chocolate Buttons sandwiched together to produce the snowflakes tips
- Stick some more of the buttons around the side of the cake to look like falling snow
- Scatter around the remainder of the snow bites around the base of the cake and then stick and place in some of the white chocolate winter wonderland trees to look like they're appearing out of the snow bite landscape
MAKING THE SNOWFLAKE AND ADD THE FINAL TOUCHES (TIME: 10 MINUTES)
- If you are using the Cadbury Wish Star, then place on the centre of the snowflake on top of the cake and dot the mini Cadbury Wishes Stars, remainder of Cadbury Dairy Milk Winter Wonderland white chocolate trees and Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons amongst the Cadbury Dairy Milk Snow Bites and in and around the cake
- Finally dust with icing sugar and if using edible silver glitter. To make the Cadburys Snowflake cake even more sparkly, mini indoor sparklers can be placed into the surface of the cake and and light when it is ready to be sliced.
Some handy tips from Frances Quinn
1) Chop the chocolate up in a food processor to make it quicker and easier to melt
2) To save on washing up beat the egg and vanilla extract into the same measuring jug the milk is measured into
3) Sandwich the chocolate buttons together with a little dab of the chocolate ganache using a paintbrush to act as edible chocolate glue! Make sure you sandwich the flat bases together. This can be done ahead of time and left to set in the fridge.
4) The cake/s and ganache can be made ahead of time and frozen if needed
5) If the chocolate ganache has been cooled in the fridge and set too much making it difficult to spread, then the mixture and bowl can be heated for a few seconds in the microwave or over a pan of boiling water to melt and soften slightly
6) Part of the fun in making the cake was the decorating and this is where the children can get involved. Get your little budding bakers, breaking up the Cadbury Winter Wonderland trees and let them place it around the cake
7) If you are making the cake for a special occasion then why not extend this a little further and complement the table surroundings with the cake. After all, they say you ‘eat with your eyes’. There are plenty of decorative chocolates in the Christmas shapes that you can use or even fun fairy lights and table confetti to add to the Christmas theme
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