I think like many Brits, I first discovered the existence of this amazingly creepy cake on The Great British Bake Off. Originally called a Charlotte Royal, the outer layer is made from slices of swiss roll, and the inside is a mix of jelly, custard and cream called a bavarois (or Bavarian cream). But I much prefer the name Brain Cake- mmmmm delicious brains...
What with Halloween being around the corner, I thought I’d give it a try- though for this recipe I would advise just buying the Swiss rolls rather than making them from scratch as they did on Bake Off- unless you fancy adding 2 hours to your bake for something that looks and tastes the same!
I’d also recommend making this in the evening so you can leave it to set overnight. The preparation, cake and the filling should only take about an hour and a half maximum and then in the morning, the decorative glaze on top takes about 15 minutes.
HAYLEY'S EASY BRAIN CAKE RECIPE
You will need:
- 3 Jumbo strawberry or raspberry swiss roll
Filling
- 20 g gelatin powder
- 1 Pint whole milk
- 2 Tbsp vanilla essence
- 8 egg yolks- try not to include any egg white at all (if possible, it can be quite tricky!) as it will add little white blobs to your custard, and if there is a lot of egg white, it will make the custard taste eggy.
- 100 g icing sugar and 50g icing sugar (separated)
- 470 ml double cream cream (cold, straight from the fridge)
- 227g (average sized punnet) of strawberries or raspberries- puree into a juice.
- Red food dye (optional)
- 75g caster sugar
- 125ml water
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot
1. Cut the swiss roll into half inch slices and line a large glass bowl with cling film.
2 . Leaving no gaps use the slices of swiss roll to line the inside of the bowl. Start in the center and work outwards. Feel free to squeeze them in tightly- there shouldn't be any spaces for the filling to leak through. If needed, you can break off little bits of swiss roll and stuff them in the gaps. Make sure you leave some slices to one side to cover the top later (how many depends on the size of the bowl really)
3. If using gelatine, soak the gelatine in a shallow dish with about 3 tablespoons of cold water.
4. Heat the milk over a medium heat and add the vanilla essence. Then add the gelatine to the milk and bring it gently to the boil, stirring continuously. There may be a few little brown blobs of gelatine at first, but if you stir through them and the milk boils, they should all disappear.
5. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
6. While the milk is cooling, whisk together the egg yolks and 100g icing sugar and salt until smooth.
6. Pour the yolk mixture into the cooling milk while stirring constantly.
7. Put the mix back onto a gentle heat, and stir continuously with a fork or whisk. You’ll know when its done when it becomes thick and custardy- to test, dip a spoon in and if it coats the back of the spoon when removed then it’s done. The custard CANNOT BOIL or it will overcook and make it eggy.
8. Put the custard in a bowl and refrigerate for about 10 mins. No more than 15 as we don’t want the custard to set.
9. While the custard is cooling, whisk the double cream on a low setting until it starts to thicken. Gradually add in the 50g icing sugar and then turn the whisk to high until the cream forms soft peaks.
10. With a large spoon or spatular, gently fold in the fruit puree until it combines evenly with the cream. At this stage you can also add a little red food dye to make the filling pink if you wish.
11. Get the custard from the fridge and give it a little stir to break the skin. Fold the custard into the whipped cream mixture until combined.
12. Pour the mixture into the center of the swiss roll lined bowl.
13. Use the leftover swiss roll slices to top the bowl- like a pie top- cover the whole of the bowl-this layer acts as a base for the cake and keeps all the filling in so should also have no gaps.
14. Put the bowl in the fridge overnight- at least 8 hours.
15. To unmold, prepare a clean surface or cooling rack. Carefully turn over the bowl onto the surface, and peels gently at the edges of the cling film- the weight of the cake should hopefully make the cake fall neatly out of the bowl. Then peel off the cling film.
16. Time to make the goo for the brain! Put the caster sugar into a small pan, add the cold water and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar completely dissolves.
17. Mix the arrowroot with 2 tablespoons cold water in a cup and mix until smooth, then pour into the sugar syrup. Bring to the boil again, stirring, then remove from the heat.
18. Pour the the goo on top of the brain cake, using a spoon to spread it evenly around.
19. Wipe the edges clean, and decorate how you like- I used candy corn, as is the season, but its more traditional to use whipped cream and berries.
Happy Halloween!
Hayley xx
