Naked Cinnamon cake with Milktart Buttercream

I often collect loads and loads of recipes in the hopes that I will one day get to make all the delicious things in them, but the truth is I only get to bake every now and then because time is just not on my side. If I could, I would bake all the time, literally! Baking makes me so happy because you get to make something with your own two hands that you then get to shove in your mouth afterward.

I was perusing The Pretty Blog when I came across a recipe for a Naked Cinnamon cake with Milktart Buttercream icing which not only sounded amazing but looked amazing too. This recipe instantly moved to the top of my list because of these two words – cinnamon and milktart, need I say more?

We were going for lunch to a friend’s house so I decided to try my hand at this cake and I was pretty pleased with the results. The icing was some of the most delicious stuff I have ever used a giant spoon to scrape out a bowl and into my mouth. It’s a combination of homemade custard and buttercream and is so smooth and velvety it’ll make you want to hide in a cupboard so you can eat the whole lot by yourself.

The cake itself was quite dense, which is not a bad thing it’s just that I prefer light and fluffy sponge, but it still tasted really good and that together with the ‘The World’s Most Addictive Frosting’ makes for a great cake!

The recipe comes from the Ilse van der Merwe’s granny, who I think is a genius for combining these two things.

Below you will find the recipe, next time around though I’m going to bake it for slightly less time that I did, as I found the sponge slightly dry and I’m going to make it a 3-layer cake instead of a 4-layer one so that there is more icing to go around because it is honestly the best part.

Thanks Ilse and The Pretty Blog for introducing this cake into my life. I appreciate it!

Ingredients:

• 500ml Milk
• 200g Butter
• 560g (4 cups) Cake flour
• 30ml Baking powder
• 20ml Ground cinnamon
• 2,5ml Salt
• 8 XL eggs
• 500g (2,5 cups) Light muscovado sugar – *I didn’t have muscovado sugar so I substituted it with 2,5 cups of white sugar mixed with just over 2 tablespoons of molasses.
• 10ml Vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C and line two 20cm cake tins with grease-proof paper.
2. Heat milk and butter together until the butter has completely melted – do not boil, then set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together, then set aside.
4. Place the eggs and sugar in another large mixing bowl and with an electric beater whisk the eggs and sugar until light and creamy. Add the sifted dry ingredients and fold in until just mixed. Now add the warm milk mixture and vanilla – fold it in until it’s just mixed.
5. Pour the mixture evenly into the two tins, making sure that they both have the same quantity. Bake for about 35 minutes (I’m going to check it at 30 minutes next time) or until an inserted skewers comes out clean. Turn the cakes out carefully on wire racks to cool completely.
6. In the meantime, make the custard.

Milk Tart Custard:

Ingredients:

• 500ml Milk
• 1/4 cup Butter
• 80ml Sugar
• 90ml Corn flour
• 1 XL egg yolk

Directions:

1. Place 350ml of the milk in a small saucepan with the butter and sugar. Heat until warm but not boiling.
2. In the meantime, mix the remaining milk with the corn flour and egg yolk until well combined.
3. When the milk and butter mixture starts to steam, add it to the corn flour mixture and stir well.
4. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat until thick and glossy.
5. Remove from the heat, then leave to cool completely.

For the buttercream:

Ingredients: