Maple pecan layer cake

Last night I baked a maple pecan layer cake out of Cake Days, which is a recipe book made by the talented people who run  The Hummingbird Bakery. I followed the recipe step by step and it cake out looking really nice. I still haven’t tasted it ha! I’m going to round up some cake testers now and see what they think. Is it ok to shove cake in someones face if they don’t like it? Just kidding, I would never do that, that would be such a waste of cake.

Today I have a lot of baking to do for the shop, which means I don’t have time to write out the recipe, but I found it here – thanks copy, paste.

*****I got some Wolvians to taste the cake and they really liked it, I also had a bite, it’s really nice, the maple flavour is nice and subtle and the cake itself is light and spongy. If any of you do try to bake it, let me know how it comes out so we can compare notes xx

PS: Happy ValenTIMES Day.

Ingredients:

For the sponge:

120g unsalted butter, softened

400g white sugar

360g all purpose flour

1 ½ tbsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

360ml whole milk

40ml maple syrup

3 large eggs

100g pecans, chopped

 

For the frosting:

240g unsalted butter

750g icing sugar (yes, it’s true, 750g!!)

60ml whole milk

1tbsp maple syrup

Pecan halves to decorate

 

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 170° and cover the baking pans (20 cm to make 3 layers or 24-26 to make 2 layers) with baking sheet.

Mix together the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt with an electric mixer at low speed until the mixture reaches a crumb-like consistency.

In a bowl mix together the milk, maple syrup and eggs by hand. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with an electric mixer until well combined. Stir in the chopped pecans by hand.

Divide the cake batter equally between the 2 or 3 baking pans (or just use the same 2 or 3 times) and bake for 20-25 minutes (if you make only 2 cakes it can require more time to bake) until the cakes become light brown. Leave them in the pan for a few minutes, then turn out and allow to cool completely.

For the frosting, whisk with an electric mixer the butter and icing sugar until fluffy and sandy in texture, then add milk and maple syrup, mix well and then beat at high speed until it becomes soft and fluffy.

When the sponges are completely cold, place the first layer on a plate, top with 3-4 tablespoons of the frosting, and smooth it down using a palette knife and adding a little more if needed.

Put the second layer on top and cover with frosting in the same layer. Then put the third layer, frost the sides and top of the cake and decorate with pecan halves.