Cadbury delicious snowflake cake by francis Quinn

I am a great fan of the great British bake off I always watch in admiration, I would love to be that gifted when it comes to baking as its something I do love to do. Everything that Francis has done has been so precise and fancy I would love to have even half her amount of talent, after winning the great British bake off Francis has been sharing her top tips and tricks to create a very special snowflake cake using Cadbury chocolate, I haven't actually tried this recipe yet but it would be perfect for any up-coming celebration. 


INGREDIENTS

Cake
·         125g slightly salted butter
·         125g dark muscovardo sugar
·         200g golden syrup
·         50g Bournville dark chocolate, chopped up
·         200g self raising flour
·         50g cocoa powder
·         1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
·         250ml of milk
·         1 tsp vanilla extract
·         1 large egg

Ganache

·         300ml double cream
·         150g Bournville dark chocolate, chopped up
·         150g Dairy Milk Winter Wonderland chocolate
All the milk chocolate trees, taken from 2 x Cadbury Dairy Milk Winter Wonderland trees, chopped up. The remaining white trees are saved and used as decoration around the cake

Decoration
·         6 Cadbury Dream Fingers
·         2 packets of Cadbury White Chocolate buttons
·         2 packets of Cadbury Snow Bites
·         A handful of the white chocolate Cadbury Dairy Milk Winter Wonderland trees
·         Icing sugar to dust

Extras

·         Cadbury Wishes
·         Cadbury Little Wishes
·         The remainder of the white chocolate Winter Wonderland trees
·         Edible silver glitter to dust and indoor sparklers to stick into the top and light up the cake.

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180C /fan160C /gas 4.
Grease and line a deep base 7″/18cm round cake tin or 2 x 7″/18cm round shallow spring form cake tins.
MAKING THE CAKE
TIME: 25 MINUTES

Begin by making the ganache. Place the chopped up chocolate into a medium bowl
Heat the cream in a medium saucepan over medium heat
When the cream is just coming to the boil, pour over the chopped chocolate, and stir until smooth and shiny and leave to cool completely, in the fridge if necessary
To make the cake melt the sugar, syrup and butter together in a medium pan over a medium heat, stirring on occasion with a wooden spoon.
Once everything has dissolved, stir through the dark chocolate till melted and combined
Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool slightly
Meanwhile sift all the dry ingredients into a large bowl
Pour the and measure the milk into a Pyrex jug and beat in the egg and vanilla extract
Pour the syrup mixture from the pan into the dry ingredients and mix through, add the milk and egg mixture and combine everything together
Pour into the lined tin/s and bake in the oven for approx 40/50 minutes if baking in the deep tin and 20/30 if in the 2 shallow tins
The cakes should be springy to the touch and a knife pushed into the centre of the cake should comes out clean
Don’t worry about any cracks on the surface of the cake as they will be covered by the ganache later
Leave the cakes to cool in tin/s before turning out on to a wire rack to cool fully
Once both the cakes and ganache have fully cooled, you can start to assemble and decorate the cake. If you’ve baked a deep cake, carefully slice in half to create two cakes to sandwich together.

ADD THE GANACHE AND CREATE YOUR WINTER WONDERLAND SCENE
TIME: 20 MINUTES TO ASSEMBLE AND DECORATE

Place one of the cakes on to your plate and spoon a third of the ganache on to its centre and spread over with a palette knife
Carefully dot and press in a handful of Cadbury Snow Bites to the ganache, as if hidden in the filling
Place the other cake on top and sandwich together gently
Spoon and spread over the remainder of the ganache over the top and sides of the cake using a palette knife
To decorate place the chocolate finger biscuits on the surface of the cake to create a snowflake pattern and then stick in the Cadbury Dairy Milk White Chocolate Buttons sandwiched together to produce the snowflakes tips
Stick some more of the buttons around the side of the cake to look like falling snow
Scatter around the remainder of the snow bites around the base of the cake and then stick and place in some of the white chocolate winter wonderland trees to look like they’re appearing out of the snow bite landscape

MAKING THE SNOWFLAKE AND ADD THE FINAL TOUCHES
TIME: 10 MINUTES

If you are using the Cadbury Wish Star, then place on the centre of the snowflake on top of the cake and dot the mini Cadbury Wishes Stars, remainder of Cadbury Dairy Milk Winter Wonderland white chocolate trees and Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons amongst the Cadbury Dairy Milk Snow Bites and in and around the cake
Finally dust with icing sugar and if using edible silver glitter. To make the Cadbury Snowflake cake even more sparkly, mini indoor sparklers can be placed into the surface of the cake and and light when it is ready to be sliced.
Some handy tips from Frances Quinn
1)      Chop the chocolate up in a food processor to make it quicker and easier to melt
2)      To save on washing up beat the egg and vanilla extract into the same measuring jug the milk is measured into
3)      Sandwich the chocolate buttons together with a little dab of the chocolate ganache using a paintbrush to act as edible chocolate glue! Make sure you sandwich the flat bases together. This can be done ahead of time and left to set in the fridge.
4)      The cake/s and ganache can be made ahead of time and frozen if needed
5)      If the chocolate ganache has been cooled in the fridge and set too much making it difficult to spread, then the mixture and bowl can be heated for a few seconds in the microwave or over a pan of boiling water to melt and soften slightly
6)      Part of the fun in making the cake was the decorating and this is where the children can get involved.  Get your little budding bakers, breaking up the Cadbury Winter Wonderland trees and let them place it around the cake
7)      If you are making the cake for a special occasion then why not extend this a little further and complement the table surroundings with the cake.  After all, they say you ‘eat with your eyes’.  There are plenty of decorative chocolates in the Christmas shapes that you can use or even fun fairy lights and table confetti to add to the Christmas theme

above is the finished result it looks absolutely delicious don't you agree?

Each slice with accompanying treats is sure to unwrap some joy this Christmas so delight your guests as you serve up a snowdrift of chocolate.  Made with the new and classic chocolates from the Cadbury range and a glass and a half of milk can even be found within the cake recipe itself.
Hidden chocolate snow bites add an extra chocolate hit to the filling of the cake and serve up an extra surprise when the cake is sliced through. Finally, the Cadbury Finger Biscuits not only produce the effect of a snowflake, but help portion out the cake when sliced and served.

Frances says: “My Cadbury Snowflake Cake is its very own winter wonderland, especially when dusted with a flurry of icing sugar and sparkle of edible silver glitter frost to add that special Christmas touch. To
create that Christmas scene, I have surrounded the cake with Cadbury Snow Bites, Cadbury Mini Wishes, some classic Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons and finally some delicious white chocolate trees from the new Limited Edition Cadbury Dairy Milk Winter Wonderland bar.  It’s a chocolate or cake lovers dream and looks and tastes wonderful but created so that even the ‘beginner’ bakers can have a go.  Part of the fun in eating a cake is knowing that you helped make it!”

I cant wait to have a go at baking this super cake. I absolutely love Cadbury, the cake looks dreamy and would make a fabulous addition to any celebration! I would love to hear how you have got on with baking this cake.

this recipe was sent to me from cadbury no changes have been made to the recipe

Unwrap the joy of Christmas with Cadburys #Review

Christmas just would not be the same with out Cadbury, This year Cadbury are doing things a little bit differently, they have launched there advertising Christmas campaign you have probably already spotted it on the television. The 60-second advert shows an entire London street, including real homes, fully wrapped in Cadbury branded paper, with local families waking one by one and discovering their neighbourhood ready to be unwrapped. The story aims to evoke the magic and mimic the excitement that Christmas morning brings for families.

This will be the first ever Christmas campaign Cadbury have brought about can you believe it? Its really hard to believe these super chocholatiers have never had a Christmas campaign before but then the word Cadbury speaks for its self  we all know how wonderfully delicious it is.

This year all the old favourite chocolates are back on the shelves oozing festivity and Christmas cheer. There are Roses and Miniature heroes for those of us that like to have that fabulous tin of chocs, to hand round to our guests when they visit over the Christmas period.
There are also tubes of freddo faces and Cadbury dairy buttons an excellent idea for a stocking filler that kids are going to love.

Also look at the dairy milk in the picture above, this year its a dairy milk with a twist, not in flavor but check out its woolly jumper design, with recent influx of retro jumper designs even Cadbury wants to get in on the latest trend! this definitely makes dairy milk the best dressed chocolate this year.

There is also a huge range of selection boxes and selection packs to choose from- great for gifts and some extra sweetness in the cupboard .
As well as all the classic brands from Cadbury there are also some new limited edition products about town this year-

The Cadbury Dairy milk mousse snowman, The snowman mousse has a soft vanilla centre, its not the aerated one like some of the Cadbury chocolate its a smooth very soft and fluffy with a deliciously creamy white chocolate, mixed with vanilla, rather than it just being all vanilla flavourerd. The snowman mousse is surrounded on the outside by classic Dairy Milk chocolate. Its taste's delectable and it is very moreish I don't think there was enough in one bar, I could have quite easily have eaten another couple. I really enjoyed it!

Also available for Christmas, is this limited edition winter wonderland dairy milk, The chocolate bar is made up of, Christmas tree shaped white and milk chocolate flavoured chunks - perfect for sharing with family and friends.


Don't Forget to buy your Cadbury chocolate Advent calender! We already have ours well the boys do At least I think I may treat myself to one as well as ever there is an array of Cadbury calenders to choose from a Christmas countdown for everyone.

As I said at the beginning Christmas would not be the same without Cadbury. Why not Unwrap some joy with your family - stock up!. Remember some of these products are special edition and limited edition so shop early! looking around the supermarkets, there are a lot of special offers around on Cadbury products definitely worth having a look at!

I was sent a selection of Cadbury joy for the purpose of this post all opinions expressed are honest and remain my own.