Toffee cake

This is a recipe I got from a very good friend of mine, who usually does it for her Name Day. It's ever so tasty. I haven't done it for many years and managed to burn the toffee a bit, but that was no problem at all.

Ingredients

Cake base

3 dl plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
3 dl caster sugar
6 tbsp boiling water
5 tbsp lemon or lime juice
5 tbsp water

Toffee

3 dl whipping cream
2 dl caster sugar
1 dl syrup
40 g dark chocolate
3 tbsp soft butter (i e at room temperature)

Method

1. Butter a cake tin and line it with dessicated coconut.
   
2. In a bowl, mix the flour and the baking powder well.
3. In a different bowl, blend the eggs and sugar until they go white and fluffy.
4. Add the boiling water, a little at a time to the egg mixture, while still whisking.
5. Add the flour, also a little at a time and incorporate well.
   
6. Pour the cake mixture in the cake tin and bake on gas mark 3 (or 175 degrees C).
7. When the cake comes off the edges of the tin, it's ready, also test with a stick in the middle to ensure that it's baked through.
8. Take the cake out and turn out onto a sheet of baking paper with a little sugar on it and leave to cool completely.
9. Cut into two layers, mix the lemon juice and water and spread evenly over both layers of the sponge cake.
10. In a saucepan put together cream, sugar and syrup and bring to the boil slowly. Put a lid on, as it will splatter. Bring to the soft ball stage (112 - 116 degrees C) and take off the heat and place in ice water to stop it going hotter.
11. Stir in the chocolate and the butter so they dissolve completely.
12. While still fairly hot, spread just under half of the toffee onto the bottom layer, then place the second layer on top. Cover the cake with the remainder of the toffee, both top and sides and leave to cool.

I used extra thick double cream for both the toffee and the decoration. The packet said that it's not good for whipping, but I beg to differ, it worked very well indeed, but you need to be careful and stop at the right moment, or it'll turn to butter. Also I got some gigantic raspberries, they look almost look like strawberries. The original recipe suggests red currants for decoration and the point here being is that the acidity of the fruit will offset the sweetness of the cake itself.

Needless to say, this cake disappeared very quickly.