Homemade Butterscotch and Daim Layer Cake with Butterscotch Frosting

This Daim layer cake has four layers, with homemade butterscotch sauce in both the cake and butterscotch buttercream frosting. If that wasn’t enough, it also has chunks of crunchy Daim bar. 

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Cake. What would life be like without cake? Hopefully I’ll never have to find out because I tell you, that wouldn’t end well.

Seriously though, birthday season has rolled around again in our house and regular readers will know that any birthday is a flimsy excuse for a fancy cake here.

Celebration cakes

Over the years I’ve made many celebration cakes, usually for birthdays. When my kids were younger, I went over.the.top. And why not? If you can’t make fabulous cakes for your kids’ birthdays, when can you? However, cake decorator I am not.

There will never be any fancy-schmancy frosting going on. I make up for that by being heavy with the sugar and butter. My most indulgent cake ever, was by my monstrously indulgent chocolate overload cake. My son wanted chocolate. And chocolate, he got. 

I’ve also made things like dirt cake, Licorice Allsorts cake, white chocolate mud cake and our favourite, chocolate fudge cake.

This time around, the now 14 year old was persuaded that he wanted nothing more than a Daim cake. Okay, he was in total agreement and there was no arming twisting, but it was definitely my suggestion.

What is butterscotch?

I remember eating butterscotch Angel Delight as a kid. Back in the 1970s, Angel Delight was the dessert, and butterscotch was my favourite. I am also pretty sure we could buy butterscotch sweets (candy) too. But what is butterscotch? 

Butterscotch is a confectionary, and the name was first noted way back in the middle of the 19th century. It was a popular candy, particularly in the north of England, during Victorian times and was usually sold in tins. The ingredients for butterscotch are simple: butter, sugar and treacle. For those of you not in the UK, treacle is the name we give to molasses. The word spread, and butterscotch started to become a thing in the US in the late 19th century. 

These days, when we talk about butterscotch, we are invariably thinking about butterscotch syrup (or sauce), which is one of my favourite toppings for ice-cream. The sauce (which features in this recipe) is made by melting butter and sugar together and then adding cream.  

Isn’t butterscotch just toffee, though? Well, not quite. There are similarities between butterscotch and toffee, and Taste of Home talks us through the differences between butterscotch, toffee and caramel.

The butterscotch flavour in this Daim layer cake is hiding quietly in the background rather than coming out all guns blazing. The cake is not super-sickly sweet, either. With a dense, moist sponge and lashings of rich, sweet buttercream frosting, it tasted ah-mazing. I came up with the idea of using butterscotch because I thought it would go so well with Daim (which is a butterscotch-type sweet), and I am pleased to say, I wasn’t wrong. 

Daim Bar in Desserts

Daim bars are no stranger to the blog, either. No surprises, there. I do live in the land that invented them, after all. For those of you not in the know, Daim bars are one of Sweden’s favourite chocolate bars. Word on the street tells me that if you are close to an IKEA anywhere in the world, you can pick up your own. However, if this is not possible, Skor or Heath bars seem like a suitable substitution.

Daim bars are dreamy in no bake recipes like my Daim and caramel cream dessert and Daim and almond bark. I’ve got a lovely recipe for homemade milk chocolate fudge:

The teeth-breaking Swedish chocolate covered caramel candies absolutely make the cake. However, although Daim is the lead in this show, the homemade butterscotch gets a supporting role worthy of an Oscar.

Making a four layer cake

For this cake, and the first time ever, I decided to make a four layer cake. There’s a reason why I’ve never tried it before. As already mentioned, cake decorator extraordinaire, I am not. I am pretty sure The Cake Girls won’t loose much sleep over it, put it that way.

It isn’t going to win any beauty competitions. I made an absolutely bodge of cutting the cakes in half (knew I would. Just knew it), and it didn’t slice very cleanly, but you know what? Who cares. This blog is all about making it real. Real food for real people. And I know you guys don’t care about silly little things like perfection.

Bottom line: it tasted delicious. That’s what counts. The cake was good right off the bat but the flavour deepened the longer it sat there. It’s unusual for cakes to last long in my house but we were out about, and didn’t get the chance to eat it all. Third day in, the cake tasted better than it did when we ate our first mouthful.

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Homemade Butterscotch and Daim Layer Cake with Butterscotch Frosting

Course Cake

Ingredients

Butterscotch:

• 60g (¼ cup) butter
• 100g (½ cup) brown sugar
• 125ml (½ cup) cream

Daim (see note 1):

• 168g (6 oz) Daim (3 x 56g double bars)

Cake:

• 175g (¾ cup) butter
• 100g (½ cup) brown sugar
• 50g Daim "powder" (see instructions)
• 3 eggs
• 4 tablespoons homemade butterscotch
• 1 tablespoon dark syrup (see note 2)
• 150ml (⅔ cup) milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 100ml (3½ oz) Greek yoghurt
• 200g (1⅔ cups) spelt flour (see note 3)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda

Frosting:

• 150g (⅔ cup) butter (softened)
• 200g (7 oz) cream cheese
• remaining butterscotch
• icing sugar (see note 4)

Instructions

Butterscotch:

• Heat the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan until just melted.
• Add the other two ingredients, and stir to combine.
• Bring to a gentle boil and cook until the mixture thickens and the sugar is dissolved (around 6-8 minutes). Stir occasionally to prevent sticking/burning.

Daim:

• Take 2 x 56g bars of Daim and blitz them in a food processor.
• Remove half when they are crushed but still chunky and set to one side.
• Continue to blitz the remaining Daim until they resemble a powder. Again, set to one side (but separate from the larger bits).

Cake:

• Pre-heat the oven to 175ºC (350ºF) and prepare two 6 inch (18cm) pans.
• Cream the butter, sugar and Daim "powder" together until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the eggs and then the butterscotch and dark syrup.
• Finally, mix in the milk, vanilla and Greek yoghurt.
• In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and baking soda and then stir into the wet ingredients.
• Pour into the prepared pans and bake for around 30-35 minutes. The cakes are ready when an inserted skewer comes out clean.
• Let the cakes cool a little before turning out onto a wire rack, then allow them to cool completely.

Frosting:

• Beat the butter and cream cheese together until nice and light.
• Add the remaining butterscotch.
• Finally, add as much icing sugar as needed to make a thick, but spreadable frosting.

Assembly:

• Carefully cut both cakes in half.
• Spread an even amount of frosting over the top of every layer and place the cakes on top of each other. If you like, give the cake a bit of a "naked" look (as I have) but it isn't necessary.
• To decorate the cake, break up the remaining 56g of Daim aiming for a jagged edge and stick them into the frosting.
• Sprinkle with the retained crushed Daim. I also added a few gold sprinkles I had in the cupboard, but these are optional. Slice and enjoy!

Notes

 

I have converted grams to cups/ounces/tablespoons using online converters. Although I have no reason to believe they are inaccurate, please be aware that I have not made this recipe with imperial measurements.

 

1. If you don't have access to Daim bars, Heath or Skor are good alternatives.
2. I used a very dark syrup we have in Sweden, but you could even use treacle or molasses).
3. You can use spelt or regular flour for this recipe (just use the same amount).
4. Just use as much icing sugar as needed.

 

 

This homemade butterscotch and Daim layer cake with butterscotch frosting was originally published in November 2018 on The Culinary Jumble. The recipe has been updated slightly.