Disasters and Delights

Last week I decided I wanted to make some white chocolate raspberry blondies to take into work so I looked online, found a recipe and eagerly got going.  As they were baking the smell was incredible and they looked delicious when they came out of the oven.  Ten minutes before I had to leave for work and once the blondies were completely cooled I took them out of the tin to cut them up. This is when the disaster occurred...they were completely raw inside!!! I couldn't understand it.  They had been in the oven for longer than the recipe stated as it was a smaller tin and the skewer had come out a tiny bit gooey just as brownies should be.  I decided to put them back into the oven for another 20 minutes as my mum was home and could take them out again for me. When I returned home from work that night I went back to cut them hoping they would be ready but the edges had completely dried out hard and the middle was still really undercooked. What a disaster! I was gutted as they had used up quite a lot of chocolate and raspberries and I hate throwing food away but they were completely inedible and I was really down as I slid the whole lot into the bin.

So the next morning I decided I had to take something into work and found a recipe by John Whaite (winner of the Great British Bake Off) for a white chocolate and raspberry cake.  I adapted the recipe slightly and the resulting cake was a mini beauty.



My work colleagues were so happy when I arrived at work that afternoon as they were almost finished their shift. Plus it was Friday and who doesn't want cake at 4pm on a Friday? Two of them said it was their most favourite thing I had baked for them so far with one of them even taking a second slice home to have later that evening...cheeky bugger!

Johns original recipe is for an 8 inch cake but I scaled it down by half to make a 6 inch cake and took out the raspberries from the sponge to use raspberry jam in the filling instead.  Also I adapted the basic chocolate buttercream recipe from April Carter book Decorated that I spoke about in my previous post here.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream

Cake

100g butter, chopped in small cubes
50g white chocolate, broken into small pieces
2 large eggs
100g caster sugar
100g self raising flour

Buttercream

100g butter
160g icing sugar
40ml double cream
30g white chocolate, melted

raspberry jam to fill
fresh raspberries to decorate

Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the base of a 6 inch round, loose-bottomed cake tin. Put the butter and chocolate in a heatproof mixing bowl, set over a pan of barely simmering water and allow to melt slowly, stirring occasionally.
When the butter and chocolate have melted, remove from the heat and allow to cool for 1-2 mins, then beat in the eggs and sugar with an electric whisk. Fold in the flour gently.
Gently pour the mixture into the tins and bake for 20-25 mins or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool in the tins for 10 mins before turning out onto a wire rack.

To make the buttercream, beat the butter until soft and creamy. Beat in the icing sugar, double cream and melted chocolate until smooth and creamy.

To construct, cut the cake in half horizontally. Spread the inside of the top half with raspberry jam and the bottom half with one third of the buttercream. Sandwich the two halves together and cover the top and sides of the cake with the remaining buttercream. Decorate the top with fresh raspberries.