The Lolly Bag Cake

 

It was my sister's 15th birthday yesterday, an occasion that called for a cake filled with memories of childhood. Therefore I present to you my attempt at the MasterChef Australia Lolly Bag Cake (here) which aired during the appropiately named kids week. 

I admit that its a little rough around the edges but I was amazed that after a day of prep and sourcing ingredients and a day of cooking and construction I pulled it off.

Here are the layers:

A base of Almond Joconde with a chocolate bottom.

Topped with a dousing of Banana Syrup made from melted banana lollies

A "Freckle" Crunch containing hazelnut paste, wafer biscuits and popping candy! Warmed slightly for stickiness with everyone's favourite kitchen tool a blowtorch

Placed gently on top of the Banana soaked Joconde

Spearmint leaves melted into a sticky mess and mix with lots of butter to make a solid Spearmint Butter Cream

Topped with Jaffa Ganache

Followed by another layer of Almond Joconde

And more Banana Syrup

A layer of "Musk"-Mallow. Melted musk sticks mixed with gelitine and egg whites to make a musk flavoured marshmallow. Absolutely Delicious.

My Sister enjoying her favourite layer.

To finish another layer of Spearmint ButterCream

Trim up the edges

And top it all with a Red Skin Glaze.

I found that the spearmint butter cream was definitely the hardest layer to prepare. The lollies when they melted were very sticky and burnt a little on the bottom of the pan. Secondly getting all the butter to mix in completely was hard, you can see in the images mine still had some lumps of butter. If you are going to attempt a butter cream, it should be easy enough if your butter is very very soft. I think that's where I went wrong. 

The "Freckles" crunch layer was very nice. I would make that by itself, and eat it like a biscuit.  Tip when working with popping candy: make sure what you are mixing it into is cool enough so that it doesn't let out all it's popping goodness before someone gets to eat it. 

Everyone that has tried this cake was very surprised at how well balanced all the different flavours are. All the layers are there for a reason and compliment each other well. If you have the time and energy give it a go. Just make sure that there are plenty of people to share it with. It's a BIG cake.