Toffee Macadamia Gateaux

My girl and I played a birthday game last evening with her new dessert set, complete with candles and all.  Our repertoir included singing the birthday song, making a wish, blowing the candles, cutting the cake and licking the icing off them :).  We started the game with our own birthdays, but then extended to include her furry friends, and each and every member of our (extended) family.  In total, we must have done about 20 birthday repertoirs before she decided she wanted to be an ice cream man.

I was still on the birthday cloud when my brother told me later that night that he wanted to buy a birthday cake for his girlfriend.  I immediately offered to make him one instead.

Happy Birthday, H.  Many happy returns of the day.  I hope you liked the cake :).


This Toffee Macadamia Gateaux is inspired by the Toffee Almond Gateaux recipe in the Baking Code by Alex Goh.  However, I applied the same Japanese honey sponge cake that I did for my earlier Expresso Walnut Layer Cake. I didn't do justice to the cake, as I am terrible at icing.


You will need:


Sponge cake
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/8 cup honey
1/8 tsp salt
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup cake flour, sifted
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract


Toffee syrup
50 g brown sugar
10 g butter
40 g whipping cream


Toffee cream
All the toffee syrup as per above
200 g whipping cream, whipped
40 g macadamia, toasted lightly and chopped


Preparation:
Preheat over to 160 deg Celsius.  Line a 20 cm round pan with parchment paper.


In a large bowl, whisk two third of the sugar, honey, vanilla and salt into egg yolks.  Place bowl in a large bowl of hot water.  Beat for about 5 minutes, until pale yellow and doubled in volume.  Gently fold in the sifted flour.


In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites.  When foamy, add the cream of tartar and remaining sugar.  Whisk until stiff but not dry. 


Gently fold the egg whites into the flour batter in thirds.
Pour batter into pan.  Tap gently on the counter to remove air bubbles.


Bake for 35 - 40 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for 20 minutes before turning out to a wire rack.  Let cool completely before splitting into 2 layers.


To make filling, combine toffee syrup into whipped cream.
Spread toffee filling on one layer of the sponge, and sprinkle with macadamias.  Sandwich with the remaining layer, and coat entire cake with remaining cream.  Decorate with cream florettes and whole macadamias (coated with the toffee syrup), if you wish.

P/S: I had a great weekend despite a stolen handphone.  Hope your weekend was as wonderful as mine too :).