When I heard of liquid chicory, I did not know what to expect. I do not really drink coffee o r any other morning drinks but I was really pleasantly surprised by the caramel yet slightly bitter taste of the chicory. I’m always looking for a little atypical ingredients to flavour my cakes and icings. Bitterness is an unusual flavour, very tasty and that balances very well the sweetness of cakes. And this time, it worked out beyond my expectations: the liquid chicory mixed very well in the icing, giving it a nice caramel colour and a unique flavour that complemented perfectly the chocolate. Add to that a caramel sauce lightly flavoured with chicory and you get a chocolate caramel chicory layer cake that is simply gorgeous.
Those amazing flavours made inspired me so much that I went a little crazy for the decoration. Caramel popcorn, hazelnuts, mini-waffles, milk chocolate Mikados… I used everything that was liying around in my cupboard. And it made quite an impressive cake, that I highly recommend trying!
Prep time: 1h30
Cook time: 15mn
Rest time in the fridge: 30mn then 2h
- 100g butter
- 5 eggs
- 165g sugar
- 100g acacia honey or all flowers honey
- 180g cream
- 65g 70% dark chocolate, broken into pieces
- 165g flour
- 10g baking powder
- 100g ground almonds
- 25g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 125g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
- 4 tablespoons full-fat milk
- 3 tablespoons of liquid chicory Leroux
- a pinch of sea salt
- 750g icing sugar
- 100g sugar
- 15cl double cream
- 50g salted butter
- 2 tablespoons of liquid chicory Leroux
- Decoration items of your choice (here caramel popcorn, Mikado milk chocolate, chopped hazelnuts, caramel wafers)
- Preheat oven to 160 °.
- Melt the butter. Whisk the eggs, sugar and honey until the mixture whitens slightly. Bring the cream to a simmer and pour over the pieces of chocolate. Mix thoroughly to melt the chocolate and stir in the egg-sugar mix. Sift together flour, baking powder, ground almonds and cocoa and fold it in. Stir in the melted butter.
- Divide the dough into 4 18cm diameter tins, lined with baking paper and bake for 15 minutes. Let the cakes cool in their tins for a few minutes before turning out on a rack (upside down to slightly flatten the top). Let cool completely before icing.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter with the flat beater until smooth.
- Add milk mixed with chicory, salt and half the sugar. Mix at low speed for at least 3 minutes then gradually add the remaining icing sugar until the icing is light and creamy.
- Once the cakes are fully cooled, start assembling the cake. Attach a first cake in the center of a slightly larger cake platter (about 22cm diameter) with a little icing.
- Stack the cake by piling up the cakes, inserting a layer of icing between each. Then cover the entire cake with a very thin layer of frosting.
- Place the cake in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Then add a second layer of buttercream, a little thicker and smooth well. Let set for 2 more hours in the refrigerator.
- Pour the sugar in a pan and melt it over medium heat without stirring. Once the caramel takes a nice amber color, remove from heat.
- While the sugar is melting, warm up the cream (using a microwave for example) and off the heat, pour into the caramel and mix.
- Then add the butter, cut into small cubes and the liquid and chicory. Put the pan back over low heat and whisk briskly to dissolve all the pieces of butter. Remove from heat.
- Pour the sauce into a glass jar and let cool slightly.
- When the sauce is warm but still slightly liquid, pour some caramel-chicory sauce on top of the cake.
- Spread it with a spatula to the edges of the cake. Then pour a little caramel sauce near the edge and push the caramel to drop and slide on the icing.
- Decorate the top of the cake with the items of your choice. Enjoy directly or put in the fridge. The cake keeps one week in the fridge in an airtight container or under a cake bell.
[Sponsored article] This article was written in collaboration with the brand Leroux, however, the text of the article, and the recipe for this chocolate-caramel-chicory layer cake and its photos are my own.
Leave a Reply