Birthday!

Yup, the blog isn't being updated right now because I have taken the entire Labor Day weekend for my birthday!

Right now, I am baking a cake. I shall share a recipe with you, if nothing else. The Six Layer Toffee Torte. Mom used to make it for me some years, but she's over 1000 miles away, so I have to bake my own cake.

2 2/3 cups flour (I use White Lilly)
2 cups sugar
1 cup (two sticks) unsalted butter (soft)
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla (I find good quality Bourbon Vanilla to be the best)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 1/4 teaspoon instant coffee (I like espresso)
10 1.4 ounces Heath candy bars (or, if you can find them, two bags of the pre-broken Heath bits for baking. COULD NOT find them anywhere in NYC! In fact went to over half a dozen groceries and couldn't find Heath bars PERIOD!)
2 cups whipping cream
3 tablespoons brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350, grease and flour 3 8" cake pans. - I could not find 8 inch round cake pans for love nor money (what the hell is wrong with this city?) only 9 inch rounds. So mine is actually going to end up being a 4 layer toffee torte. Also, I like to line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper for extra guarantee that there will be no sticking.

2. Into large bowl, mix first 9 ingredients on low until just blended, scraping sides down with a rubber spatula.

3. Dissolve 2 teaspoons of instant coffee into one cup of boiling water. Add to bowl, up speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes.

4. Spoon batter evenly between pans. Bake 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean of the center of each cake. Cool cakes in pans on wire wracks for 10 minutes. Then invert onto wire wracks to cool completely.

5. Meanwhile, finely chop Heath bars (good to put them in the freezer for a bit first). In a cup, dissolve the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of instant coffee granules in 1 teaspoon of very hot water. Set aside and let cool.

6. With a serrated knife, cut each cake layer horizontally in half (so you now will have 6 layers (or 4 in my case).

7. With small bowl with beater on medium beat heavy cream, brown sugar and small amount of hot coffee (see #5) together until stiff peaks form.

8. Place one layer of cake on cake plate, evenly cover with about 1/2 cup of whipped cream. Reserve 2/3rds of the crushed Heath bars and set aside. use about 1/5th of the remaining Heath bars and sprinkle over the whipped cream.

9. Repeat layers until you end with a cake layer on top. Then cover the rest of the entire cake with whipped cream and press the remainder of the Heath bars all over the sides and tops until covered.

NOTE: as I'm baking 2 cakes in 9 inch rounds, I am finding that 30 minutes is not enough time in the oven, the centers are still very moist. Added another 10 minutes and will check back again. Best to follow the recipe as written when whenever possible, but living in a land with no Wal-Mart (and neither K-Mart nor Target seemed willing to help me out here with Heath bars or proper cake pans), I'm having to play a little fast and loose.

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Wow, there are over 1,500 hits for "toffee." I don't have time to sit there and look through them all, my cake will be dinging again soon.

Going by looks alone (because I obviously can't taste test or smell over the internet) I like th elooks of this Nantucket Artisan Toffee butter crunch dark by Small Town Girl. That stuff just looks amazing!! And you get 5 oz for $8.00! She has a lot of other sugar-works to look at. Mmm, making me hungry, time to go smash those candy bars and finish this cake!