I'm not sure what it is about the flavours of Toffee, Caramel and Butterscotch that makes me go weak at the knees, but I know I am not alone in this. They have long been favourites of many people and one only has to look at the proliferation of recipes for Salted Caramel anything on the internet these days to see just how popular that flavor is.
I am going to go out on a limb a bit here and say that these flavours are pretty similar . . . toffee . . . butterscotch . . . caramel. All contain copious amounts of butter, brown sugar and vanilla . . . so a rose by any other name and all that. If there is much difference in flavor . . . it's pretty insignificant. You can drop a few seasalt flakes on top and call it salted caramel, but it's the same basic thing. My opinion only of course!
When I was a girl my father always had a tub of butterscotch wafers in his top dresser drawer, along with his clean hankies, extra wallet and extra reeds and corkgrease for his clarinet. To this day I can go to my mom's house and open the dresser draw and be sent back in time with just one sniff . . . leather, cotton, cork, bamboo, beeswax . . . butterscotch. Those are smells that instantly make me think of my dad. I love them and I love him.
This cake is fabulous. It's got a rich caramel/toffee flavor . . . nice and buttery and studded with chopped wether's soft toffees that melt into the batter giving you little rich pockets of moreish butterscotch . . . it is dense and fudgy.
As soon as you remove it from the oven you poke some holes in it and spoon a brown sugar/vanilla glaze over top, allowing it to soak into the loaf . . . once cooled it has a bit of a crunch. Nice.
Once the cake is cooled you drizzle a butterscotch/caramel like icing glaze over top decoratively and scatter little fudge bits over top of the whole thing. Are you sold yet? I bet your taste buds are tingling just at the thought. Nice, nice with a hot cup of whatever floats your boat.
*Caramel Glazed Toffee Loaf*
Makes one large loafPrintable Recipe
A deliciously moist toffee studded loaf cake topped with a fabulous caramel glaze and lots of fudgy bits! Scrumptious!
For the loaf:210g of plain flour (1 1/2 cups)3/4 tsp baking powder1/2 tsp salt200g of soft light brown sugar (1 cup packed)100g of caster sugar (1/2 cup)115g of butter, softened (1/2 cup)2 large free range eggs, room temperature1 tsp vanilla extract120ml of whole milk (1/2 cup)about 12 soft toffees, cut into bits (remove about 1 TBS of flour from the main measure and toss them with this.)(such as the Werthers soft toffees)
To glaze as soon as it comes out of the oven:100g of brown sugar (1/2 cup)1/2 tsp vanillaboiling water
For the Icing glaze:2 TBS butter50g of soft light brown sugar (1/4 cup packed)1 TBS milk100g icing sugar, sifted (about 3/4 cup)
You will also need caramel fudge bits to garnish
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a large loaf tin, line with baking paper, leaving an overhand to lift out the finished cake. Butter the paper. Set aside.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Cream together both sugars and the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla to the milk. Slowly beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the milk to combine without overmixing. Fold in the floured toffee bits to combine. Scrape into the prepared loaf tin. Smooth the top. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Whisk together the brown sugar, vanilla and enough boiling water to give you a really thin glaze. Poke holes in the top of the warm cake with a toothpick and spoon this glaze over top a bit at a time, letting it soak in before you spoon more onto it, spooning it over all until it is all gone.
Allow the cake to sit in the pan for about 10 minutes before carefully lifting out to a rack to cool completely.
For the glaze, melt the butter and brown sugar together over low heat, stirring, until the brown sugar no longer feels gritty. Beat together with the milk and icing sugar until you have a smooth drizzable icing. You may need a bit more milk. Drizzle this decoratively over top of the loaf and sprinkle with fudge bits before it sets. Allow to set before cutting into slices to serve. Delicious!
