Cinnamon cake, filled with dulce de leche and peanut crispy.

(Em português)

So, what do we have here?

A boyfriend's birthday, a huge jar of dulce de leche from Minas (I think it was 500g, maybe more), and some great peanuts.

For me, it seemed like a good idea to turn it all into a cinnamon cake filled with a peanut crispy and dulce de leche. I adapted this recipe for the cake dough, which came out a bit too dry, but even so it tasted nice, and the result was the cake in the pictures.

We had a lot of people coming over to celebrate with us, so I baked a big cake.

More precisely, I made three layers of cake dough, each one with twice the measures of this recipe.

To make sure everything would work nicely, I didn't dare to prepare more than two recipes at a time.

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

100g softened butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1/3 cup molasses

1/2 cup sour cream*

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon

(Cup measure: 240ml)

I started the dough by beating together the butter and sugars with a fouet until I got a fluffy cream.
Next, I added the molasses and egg, vanilla and cinnamon, sour cream, stirring well.
Then I sifted together the flour/ salt/ baking powder/ baking soda, and added it all to the dough, little by little, stirring with a wooden spoon. This dough is very heavy, like a paste.
I preheated the oven to 180oC, and to bake the amount of batter I prepared, I generously greased and floured three round pans, 20cm in diameter.
Using a rubber spatula to help, I transferred the dough to the pans, flattening it with the back of a tablespoon to have the tops of the cakes uniform in height. (Obs: I dampened the spoon in water to prevent it from sticking to the dough).
I baked it for about 35 minutes, until the toothpick test let me know it was ready.
When I took the cakes out of the oven, I let them cool for 10 minutes inside the pan, then unmolded them and let them cool completely.

* Sour cream: it's a very common dairy product in the USA, but not here in Brazil.
It's a curdled cream. I learned at Ana Elisa's blog how to prepare it:
You mix 1 cup cream with 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and let it rest in room temperature for 30 minutes.
Then, just let it stand in fridge until you need it.

While the cake is in the oven, there's plenty of time to prepare the peanut crispy. I prepared exactly the
amount of the following recipe, and still had some leftover (it's amazing with ice cream!).

1 1/2 cup peeled peanuts

1 1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon butter, more to grase the marble/ pan

I quickly processed the peanuts in the blender, so that they turned into big chunks instead of whole peanuts. I greased the marble counter generously with butter. But, if you do not own a marble counter, don't be sad. You can just use a large pan instead.
I melted the sugar over low heat, with absolutely no water, until it turned brown and liquid. That means: until it's caramel.
I added the butter and peanuts and mixed well, immediately pouring it over the greased marble.
After it cooled completely, I removed the caramel sheet with the help of a spatula, placed it in a plastic bag (it's got to be sturdy) and rolled with the rolling pin to brake the sheet into small pieces.
There you go! Peanut crispy. :)




To assemble:
Well, after the cakes cooled, I cut off the irregular tops. I lined the edge of the serving stand with parchment paper (to avoid smudges while decorating) and started filling.
I spread dulce de leche on the first layer of dough and on the second one as well. With the lower dough layer positioned on the serving stand, I sprinkled the crispy on top of the dulce de leche.
On top of that I placed the second layer of dough, dulce de leche side facing down.
I repeated the process, but did not spread dulce de leche on top of the last (third) layer of cake.
So, anatomy of the cake: dough, dulce de leche, peanut crispy, dulce de leche, dough, dulce de leche, crispy, dulce de leche, dough.

I made sure the three layers were aligned straight.
With a spoon, I put some dulce de leche on the assembled cake side, from top to bottom, then I used the back of a large knife to spread it uniformly. I repeated this ritual until I had all of the cake's side was covered and smooth.


I cut three hearts in parchment paper, and lightly sprinkled with water, to make them adhere to the dough. I placed the little paper hearts over the cake top, sprinkled confectioner's sugar, and carefully removed the paper.
I made a circle of peanut halves on the edge of the cake, using dulce de leche to "glue".
Then all I had to do was to pull out the parchment paper which protected the stand from the mess, and it was ready!
I ended up not taking pictures when we served the cake. But it actually didn't look so nice inside, because there was no contrast in color.
Next time, I'll think of something more colorful. :)

Using the measured I used, this cake serves 25 people.