Hazelnut and Caramel cake

Let me get it straight, it's not the most beautiful cake, but it's not TOO bad for my first proper bake for about a year. So, here comes the first recipe of 2015! It is a fairly long recipe to guide beginners through one step at a time. 

I'm going to describe the instructions for one thing at a time and then describe how to assemble the whole thing together last. Make the sponge and the creme patissiere first as these take a long time to cool. 

Ingredients

Genoise sponge

• 4 eggs
• 125g caster sugar
• 125g plain flour
• 25g butter (melted and cooled down)

1. YOU NEED AN ELECTRIC WHISK
2. Line the bottom and sides of a 23cm round baking tin with baking parchment
3. Pre-heat oven to 190 degree C (or 165 for fan oven)
4. Put the eggs and sugar together in a large mixing bowl
5. Whisk until the egg is thick and leaves behind a trail a ribbon when the whisk has been taken off, this step can take a long time, so put the mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water to slightly warm up the bowl (take care not to heat the egg too much or you might as well be making scrambled eggs)
6. Sift flour and add it to the egg to one side of the bowl (not in the centre, as this makes mixing more difficult)
7. Gently fold in the flour to the egg
8. Add in the butter and gently mix again
9. Bake for 30-35 minutes
10. The cake should rise start to detach itself from the baking parchment on the sides of the tin
11. Test with a clean skewer and the skewer should come out clean if the batter is completely cooked
12. Remove cake from cake tin and take off all the baking parchment (careful not to damage the cake)
13. Turn the cake upside down and let it cool on a wired rack, turn the cake every 5 minutes to avoid the cake from sticking to the rack (repeat at least 4 times)
14. When the cake is cool, slice it in half horizontally

Creme patissiere

• 250ml milk
• 60g caster sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 40g plain flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Heat milk in saucepan until it simmers
2. Combine egg yolks and caster sugar and whisk until smooth
3. Add flour to the egg and whisk again until smooth
4. Add hot milk a little at a time to the egg and whisk the entire time
5. Once all the milk has been added, return the entire mixture to the saucepan and leave it on medium heat
6. Whisk the mixture continuously until it thickens (it should be quite thick at this stage)
7. Add the vanilla extract and whisk for another 1 minute
8. Remove the creme patissiere from saucepan and transfer it to a large bowl to cool down to room temperature

Chantilly cream

• 250ml double cream
• 50g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Mix all the ingredients together and beat with electric whisk until it thickens

Caramelised hazelnut

• 100g hazelnut
• icing sugar

1. Heat the hazelnut on a hot frying pan for a few minutes
2. Take it off and rub off the skin of hazelnut
3. Return the hazelnut to the hot frying pan and sprinkle icing sugar over the hazelnut
4. Heat until sugar has dissolved and coated the hazelnut
5. Take off lightly caramelised hazelnut off the heat to cool down
6. Reserve 15-20 hazelnuts on the side and roughly chop (or grind) the rest

Caramel decorations

• 150g granulated sugar

I have previously dissolved the sugar in a small amount of water first to make the caramel, but you can't stir that as it contains both dissolved and undissolved sugar, so stirring will mix the both together and form a lumpy sugar mixture instead of a smooth caramel. I have adopted the dry method this time. You will have to work quickly with the caramel decorations. 

1. Heat sugar in a saucepan (preferably not black in colour so you can tell the stage of caramelisation) over medium heat
2. Stir occasionally (yes you can do this when the sugar is not dissolved in water beforehand)
3. Once caramel is a dark shade of yellow (or a very light brown colour), turn the heat off
4. When the caramel is still runny, use a metal spoon and sprinkle the caramel over a piece of baking parchment in the shapes you desire and let it cool to harden
5. To make the hazelnut spikes, allow the caramel to cool down slightly in the saucepan so it is more viscous and less runny
6. Pierce the hazelnut with a skewer/tooth pick and dip the hazelnut into the caramel
7. Cover the hazelnut with caramel and lift it up and hold it for a few seconds so the excess caramel starts to drop down
8. Move the hazelnut spikes and let the spike hang over the edge of a table and hold the skewer/tooth pick down with a heavy object

Assembly! (Finally)

1. Fold in the chopped hazelnut, Chantilly cream into the creme patissiere
2. Cover the bottom half of the genoise sponge with the hazelnut cream, be generous with the amount you put in
3. Put the other half of the cake on top 
4. Pipe the cream over the top in any way you want and decorate with the candied and spiked hazelnuts