Elevate your Plate

Backstory:

It’s Halloween this week and it’s also coming up to my 50th post and so I knew that I wanted to make something big. After thinking of ideas, I came up with theme of a graveyard and so I began to looking for inspiration and cake flavours. Eventually, I decided upon coffee and walnut as the flavour, since it’s one of my favourites. Then came the tombstone trouble, I thought for a while thinking about what these stones were going to be made of and ultimately I chose to use Rice Krispies and marshmallows. Other ideas began taking shape like chocolate soil and Matchmaker fencing and soon it was time to start my cake build. This is how it went…..

Recipes:

Coffee and Walnut cake: https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/mary-berrys-coffee-and-walnut-traybake/

Chocolate soil: (repeat twice to cover the cake)

• 75-80g of dark chocolate chopped into 1cm chunks
• 90-120g of caster sugar (the amount by eye is roughly an inch tall in a small non-stick pan)
• A good splash of cold water

Prepare a baking tray topped with parchment paper. Melt the caster sugar and water in a small non-stick pan. Place on a medium heat and wait until the mixture has just started to change colour (very faint orange). Remove from the heat add in the chopped dark chocolate. Whisk vigorously for 10-15s until the mixture has clumped together. Transfer to the prepared baking tray and wait for it to cool. If some bits are solid, break up the soil clumps with a knife or rolling pin to achieve a ground texture.

Marshmallow and Rice Krispies Tombstones: (makes roughly 8, with each being 6cm tall )

• 300-320g of marshmallows
• 100-150g of Rice Krispies
• a knob of butter
• 250g of grey fondant icing
• White decorating icing

Prepare a baking tray topped with parchment paper and put aside a large bowl. Melt the knob of butter in a non-stick pan. Once melted add in the marshmallows and melt them until they’ve all fully incorporated. Place the Rice Krispies in a large bowl and add in the melted marshmallows on top. Mix well and then spread evenly onto the baking tray. Leave to cool for 30-40 minutes. If not too sticky, then start moulding your tombstone shapes. Put them aside and on a free surface, roll out the grey fondant icing with a rolling pin using icing sugar to help it from sticking. Aim to achieve 1/2 cm or less thickness. Once rolled out, place a tombstone on top of the fondant and work out how much you need to cover it. Almost like wrapping a present. Cut and mould the fondant around the tombstone. Press to seal loose joints together and smooth out edges. Turn the tombstones over to have the the flat side facing up. Brush off the excess icing sugar and write RIP in white decorating icing.

Matchmaker Fencing (1 and half boxes covered the cake):

• 2 boxes of Matchmakers (I used the orange flavour ones)
• White decorating icing

Cut the Matchmakers in half. Spread them out evenly on a plate or tray. Pipe the white decorating icing onto one side of them. Carefully pick one up and place it against the buttercream that’s already on the cake.

Tips and Tricks:

• The making order I followed: Start with the coffee and walnut cake, and whilst it’s baking make the chocolate soil and put it to one side. Move on to the coffee buttercream in the cake recipe. Once the cake has cooled, spread the butter cream on top of the sponge then cover the cake in the chocolate soil. Stick the Matchmaker fence on. Start making the tombstones whilst the cake is chilling in the fridge. Place the tombstones on top of the cake and add any other decorations like cobweb cake toppers on to it.
• When placing the tombstones on the cake, I recommend digging out part of the cake and buttercream to help them sit better.
• The cake tin I used for the coffee and walnut cake was a 20cm square tin
• Use your best judgement for the amounts of caster sugar and Rice Krispies, if you need more, then add more

Recommendation and Rating:

Overall, it was a long but fun baking session that produced a decent cake! The coffee and walnut complimented each other, with the icing bringing the whole cake together. The chocolate soil provided a slight crunch and the marshmallow Rice Krispies were sweet and held really well together in the tombstone shape. Some may say that the coffee flavour in the cake was a bit faint, but personally I quite liked it as it didn’t overpower the other elements. If you want a stronger coffee flavour then I’d suggest using more intense coffee granules. If I was to make this again, I would make more butter cream and cover the cake well to make the chocolate soil and matchmakers stick easier. I’d also make the tombstones smaller, and add more of them to provide greater atmosphere and drama. Additionally, I’d spend more time finessing the fondant around the tombstones, as some look a little clumsy. Overall a few tweaks are needed and so it gets 4 stars!