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Happy Canada Day

                                    

Canada is often forgotten as a country that brings fabulous things to the world.

They made Kiefer Sutherland ....

Yum!

Michael J Fox

Double Yum

And lets not forget the Mounties!

Just too much yum for one blog! 

Alas, these fine male specimens are not my favourite Canadian creations. Where would the world been without good old fashion, sweet and delicious Canadian Maple Syrup! Without question the best syrup in the World! 

So to celebrate Canada day, I decided to use their best export and make Canadian Maple Cake. 

My inspiration for this cake came from my Mum’s Ginger Cake recipe. I substituted the Golden Syrup for Maple Syrup and topped with a Maple Cream Cheese Frosting, which just included adding a ¼ cup of Maple Syrup to my favourite Cream Cheese Frosting recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. 

The spiciness of the cake really brings out the flavour of the Maple syrup. 

The recipe makes enough for 2 loaf cakes. On this occasion I made one loaf cake and 2x11cm Mini Cakes. You could halve the recipe to make just one cake, but its so popular with my friends and family I always make the full quantity.  

Maple Cake - Ingredients

- 1 cup of Maple Syrup

- 1 cup of water

- 2/3 cup of soft brown sugar (packed tightly into the cup)

- 250g (or a std pack) of butter

- 31/2 cups of plain flour

- 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda

- 2 tbsp of ground ginger

- 1 tsp ground nutmeg 

- 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Maple Frosting - Ingredients

- 100g butter

- 1/4 cup of Maple Syrup

- 150g of cream cheese

- 500g Icing (Confectioners) sugar

1. Put butter, syrup, sugar and water in
a saucepan and heat until the butter is
melted through

3. While the mix is cooling, preheat the
oven to 180 degrees and grease and line
 your baking tins, or grease and flour
if your using spring
release tins. 

4. Sift dry ingredients together

 

5. Combine syrup mix and dry ingredients
with a metal spoon until smooth. 

6. Fill tins to about 2/3 full and bake for
approx 40 mins. Could be shorter or longer
depending on the strength of your oven.
Skewer test it from about 35mins gone, every
10mins until the skewer comes out clean.

7. Leave cakes to cool on wire rack.

                                                                                         

AND FOR THE FROSTING ...

8.Whisk the butter, maple syrup and creamcheese for 1 min until smooth, before sifting in the icing sugar and mixing for 2mins.  The right temperature is the key getting the best texture of frosting , so the butter should be at room temperature and the cream cheese cold and straight from the fridge. 

9. Cut the cakes in half and generously fill the middle with the frosting,  then top the cakes with even more frosting. 

 The cakes came out really well, quite crispy on the outside, but this added a nice bite to the rest of the cake which was delightfully soft. The Maple Syrup really improved the texture of the frosting so is something I would use again, perhaps on a Carrot or Coffee and Walnut Cake.

I know this recipe is good, really good. How you ask? Nanna Burlesque said so, so there! 

Would you believe Nana Burlesque is 91 this year! Now thats how you rock glamour in your 90s! 

Go Canada!