Extravagant caramel cake

This impressive four-layer cake is a showstopper. I adapted the recipe from a dolce de leche cake recipe on letthebakingbegin.com. If you don’t want such a tall cake, feel free to garnish a two-layer rectangular cake and serve it in squares instead of sli

Makes 1 large cake • Preparation: 1 hour • Baking time: 12 minutes • Oven temperature: 180°C

CAKE

• 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

• a pinch of salt

• 250ml light brown sugar • 500ml cake flour

1 Line two 22 x 34cm* rectangular roasting pans with baking paper and spray well with non-stick cooking spray. Preheat the oven.

2 Beat the eggs, salt and sugar together with an electric beater or mixer until light and fluffy (it usually takes about 10 minutes to get good volume). Sift the cake flour and baking powder together in a separate bowl. Also mix the yoghurt, condensed milk and bicarb in a third bowl until just smooth.

3 Fold the egg mixture, dry ingredients and condensed milk mixture together until just mixed. The trick is to bring the batter together without mixing out all the air – so use a thin spatula or metal spoon and work carefully. I’d rather miss a few lumps than overmix the batter.

4 Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth each one evenly.

Bake immediately for

10–12 minutes or until a test skewer comes out clean. Because the batter is so thin, it cooks very quickly and you don’t want this cake to bake too dry.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for

10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

• 10ml baking powder

• 250ml double-cream yoghurt

• 1 tin (385g) caramel condensed milk (Caramel Treat or homemade)

• 5ml bicarbonate of soda 5 Make the icing Beat the butter and Tip cottage cheese together until smooth.

First beat the caramel on its own until smooth and then beat it into the butter mixture – this ensures that this decadent icing is completely lump-free. Finally, fold in the cream until just mixed.

6 Assemble the cake Cut both rectangular cakes in half so you have 4 more-or-less square pieces. Spread each layer generously with the icing and stack them on top of each other. Cover the rest of the cake with the remaining icing. Refrigerate for about 1 hour so the icing can set.

GARNISH AND EXTRAS

• 200g butter, at room temperature

• 1 tub (230g) creamed cottage cheese • 1 tin (385g) caramel condensed milk • 250ml cream, stiffly whipped

• 125ml chocolate sauce, store-bought or homemade • Easter eggs and caramel

If you struggle to work with the tall cake, stick one or two wooden skewers through the layers to hold everything together; the icing will set in the fridge and you can remove the sticks before cutting the cake.

7 To finish, simply grate chocolate on top or, as we did, drizzle chocolate sauce all over the cake, then arrange Easter eggs on top and give it a final flourish with a few dollops of piped caramel.

* For a traditional round cake, divide the batter between two 22cm cake tins and simply cut the cooled cakes horizontally to get four layers.