The Glasshouse
This pancake day, whilst you have more time on your hands at home, why not attempt something a little different. Our Executive Pastry Chef, Ryan’s ‘pancake cake’ is a real showstopper! Just remember to make your pancakes nice and thick for extra height to your cake.
For the Buttermilk pancakes
- 350g self-raising flour
- 5g bicarbonate of soda
- 2.5g salt
- 40g caster sugar
- 200ml buttermilk
- 400ml semi-skimmed milk
- 2 eggs
- 85g melted unsalted butter
- Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and sugar in a bowl.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the buttermilk, milk, eggs and melted butter. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Do not overbeat – stir just to combine.
- Grease a pan and ladle in the mixture making sure each pancake is made with the same amount of mix- this is very important to the building of your cake.
- Cook the pancakes for about a minute, or until the underside is golden brown and the top is bubbling. Turn them over using a palette knife and cook for another minute.
- Allow the pancakes to cool then be sure to wrap them in cling film so they do not go dry whilst you make the buttercream.
For the maple syrup butter cream
- 3 eggs
- 100g sugar
- 45g maple syrup
- 140g fondant
- 570g very soft butter
- Whisk the eggs until they have doubled in volume, then add the fondant and continue whisking.
- Boil the sugar and maple syrup with 100ml water until it’s 18oC.
- Pour this mixture onto the eggs and fondant mix and continue to whisk until it’s cooled down.
- While you are doing this, gradually add the very soft butter and whisk until you have fluffy buttercream.
Constructing the cake
- Start with a pancake on a cake board or large plate and brush with maple syrup.
- Pipe butter cream evenly over the surface and sandwich with another pancake.
- Repeat this process until the desired height is reached.
- Place the cake into the fridge briefly to begin to set.
- Then with a palette knife mask the outside of the cake with the remaining butter cream.
- Place the cake again into the fridge for 45 minutes to set firm then you can do a final masking to make sure you have a crisp clean surface.
- Before serving leave your cake out of the fridge to come to room temperate and finish with fresh blueberries and lemon zest.
