‘Remember, remember the fifth of November! Gunpowder, treason and plot!’
Bonfire Night is one of my favourite nights of the year! I love getting all wrapped up and soaking up the atmosphere as everyone stands together in awe of the huge bonfire and mesmerising fireworks display. A traditional Bonfire Night treat is a sticky sweet toffee apple and so I wanted to make a cake that celebrated this autumnal treat!
This Bonfire Night special is made up of three layers of moist apple and brown sugar sponge sandwiched with lashings of toffee sauce and sweet cinnamon buttercream. The cake is finished with the iconic caramel drip covered with sprinkles and, needless to say, the star of the show – a toffee apple!
I used Jazz apples as they’re renowned for their juicy sweetness (and my personal favourite!) – other varieties such as Honeycrisp, Braeburn and Pink Lady are also good! See my tip below on how to make your own toffee apple!
This recipe makes a 3 layer 6″ cake and will take up to 4 hours to make (including baking and chilling times).
Ingredients
For the sponges:
- 350 g unsalted butter, softened
- 350 g sugar (1:1 soft light brown and caster)
- 5 eggs
- 350 g gluten-free self raising flour
- 1.5 tsp baking powder (make sure this is gluten-free too)
- pinch of salt
- 4 apples, peeled, cored and grated
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
For the buttercream:
- 250 g unsalted butter, softened
- 500 g icing sugar
- 3 tbsp double cream
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
For the decorations:
- 110 g unsalted butter
- 210 g soft light brown sugar
- 2 tsp golden syrup
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 80 ml double cream
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- sprinkles!
- toffee apple (you can buy these in most supermarkets or you can make your own – see below!)
Useful Equipment: three 6″ cake tins, mixing bowl, spatula, hand/stand mixer, small saucepans, palette knife/cake scraper, sugar thermometer
Making your own toffee apple: Remove the stalk from the apple and skewer it with a wooden stick – I used a chopstick! Place the apple in a saucepan and cover with boiling water – this will remove any wax and help the toffee to stick. Dry thoroughly and place on a sheet of baking paper. In a small saucepan, heat 100 g of golden caster sugar and 25 ml of water until dissolved. Add 1/4 tsp of cider vinegar and 1 tbsp of golden syrup. Boil the mixture until it reaches 150 °C. If you don’t have a thermometer, you need to reach the ‘hard crack’ stage – drop some toffee into cold water and it should harden instantly and become brittle. Once ready, quickly dip and twist the apple in the hot toffee and cover with as many sprinkles as you desire! Place on the baking sheet to cool. Can be made up to 2 days in advance.
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 175 °C fan/325 °F and grease three 6″ cake tins lining the base with greaseproof paper.
- Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, whisking after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix to combine.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and fold gently until just combined.
- Add the grated apple and fold.
- Finally, divide the cake mix equally between the three cake tins and bake for 20-25 mins or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool completely in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack.
- For the buttercream, beat the butter until smooth and gradually add the icing sugar until a smooth consistency is reached. Slowly add the cream and whisk with each addition (you may want to add more if the buttercream is still too thick). Finally, add the cinnamon and vanilla bean paste.
8. For the caramel sauce, melt together the butter, sugar, salt and golden syrup in a deep pan over a medium heat and stir until a smooth mixture is formed (this takes about 5 mins). Add the cream slowly (it may spatter!) and whisk until smooth. Heat the caramel for a further 5 mins – it will thicken as it cools. It should be thick enough to be able to run down the cake and set before it reaches the plate!
9. To assemble, place the first cake layer on your serving plate and cover with a layer of buttercream followed by a dollop of caramel sauce. Repeat this for the next layer and then finish with the third. Now that the cake is assembled, cover the cake with a thin layer of buttercream, using a palette knife, and then refrigerate – this sets a crumb coat and makes it a lot easier to add the finishing touches without the fear of a crumby buttercream!
10. Once the buttercream layer is complete, you can drip the caramel sauce over the top of the cake (you can microwave this for 20-30 seconds if it’s too thick) and finish with as many sprinkles as you can! Finally, add the toffee apple upside down to the top of the cake and serve!
This cake will keep for 3-5 days stored in an air tight container.
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