Is this a big Tim Tam or a Tim Tam Cake?

Whether we are Australian or not, we love Tim Tam!!! ...and also this BIG Timtastic cake!!!

Inspired by Australian Day and Raspberri Cupcakes, I have baked our Tim Tam cake using a highly rated mix-and-bake chocolate cake recipe from Donna Hay. According to Raspberri Cupcakes, her gigantic Tim Tam cake is also known as a Timtastic Cake in Australian Good Taste Magazine. As mentioned, making this cake is not difficult at all and all we need to do is to bake any of our favourite chocolate cake, make any of our favourite chocolate frosting and assemble them all into this iconic and heavenly Tim Tam shape.

The Donna Hay chocolate cake recipe that I used to bake my Tim Tam cake is exactly the one that Junior MasterChef Australia contestants baked. This recipe is simply brilliant! It is so kid-friendly... that I reckon all 4 years old and above kids including my son can bake this cake. Simple? Brilliant? Kid-friendly? Yup... I have to emphasize this again... All that we did was mix-and-bake.

Size does matter? It does or doesn't really matter here as both BIG and small Tim Tam are equally yummy... After tasting the cake version, I like the bigger one more :p

Comparing to the one baked by Raspberri Cupcakes, I wouldn't say that our Tim Tam cake is an enormous one. In fact, being slightly too tall by its proportion, my cake doesn't seem like an exact replicate of the classic Tim Tam biscuit. To console myself, I think my "fat" cake looks more like the double-choc Tim Tam rather than the classic ones. Ok ok... Looks aside. Whether big or smaller, tall or not, Tim Tam or not, our Tim Tam cake is nice, BIG and Timtastic enough for us to eat.

This is how I made our Timtastic cake...

Small vs BIG Tim Tam

For those who don't know... These are the Aussie iconic Tim Tam!

My son and I were making this kid-friendly stir-and-bake cake

Baking the cakes using Donna Hay's recipe

Trimming the cake

Making cream cheese frosting

Bashing Tim Tam can be quite tough... grab and squeeze is more effective :)

Assembling the cake... First with chocolate ganache

Giving the cake a spread of cream cheese frosting and Tim Tam filling

Sandwich cake with top layer cake and spread ganache all over the cake

Very moist and chocolaty ! YUM!!!

Eat lots of Tim Tam and Have a Happy Australian Day!!!

Mix-and-bake Chocolate Buttermilk Cake mostly adapted from Donna Hay

Makes one BIG Tim Tam cake, 10cm x 20cm

375ml water
180g butter, chopped
6 tbsp Dutch-process cocoa, sifted
(I used Valrhona Dutch processed ones)
450g plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
1 1/2 tsp baking powder, sifted
400g caster sugar
(original is 660g and this amount of sugar that I added is just right for me)
3 egg
180ml buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting mostly adapted from Donna Hay

250g cream cheese, softened
160g icing sugar, sifted
25g cocoa, sifted

6-8 Tim Tam biscuits, finely crushed, depending on how tall you want your cake. I used 8 and that's why mine is so tall :p

Chocolate ganache topping mostly adapted from Raspberri Cupcakes

150ml pouring cream (with 35% fat)
200g dark chocolate (I used Callebaut callets with 54% cocoa)

Preheat oven to 150°C (or 140°C fan forced).

Place the water, butter and cocoa in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the butter has melted. Place flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl, add the cocoa mixture and whisk to combine. Add the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla and whisk to combine.

Divide mixture between two 10 cm x 20 cm loaf tins lined with non-stick baking paper. Bake for 60 mins or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Allow to cool in the tins for 5 mins. Turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

While the cake is baking, make the cream cheese frosting and chocolate ganache.

To make the chocolate cream cheese frosting, place cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 5 mins or until creamy. Add the icing sugar and cocoa and beat for a further 5 mins or until light and fluffy.

To make the chocolate ganache topping, place chocolate (callets or roughly chopped) and cream in a heat proof microwave safe bowl. Microwave mixture with medium power for a minute each time and stir to combine both in gredients. Repeat until mixture is well combined and glossy. Allow mixture cool a little before use.

To assemble, slice the top of both cakes until the surfaces are well-leveled. Please note that I have sliced off the top part of the cake pretty much which is about 1/4 to 1/3 of the entire cake. Place one cake bottom face up and apply a layer on ganache on top. Allow the ganache to set in the fridge for about 10-20 mins.

Place 4 strips of baking paper surrounding the edges of a plate or a serving board. Place the bottom later of the cake with ganache on the plate or board. Layer the cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting and sprinkle the finely crushed Tim Tam biscuits on top of the frosting. Sandwich the frosting with the top layer of cake and pour and spread the rest of the ganache on the top and the sides of the cake. Tip: If the ganache harden a little before this stage, warm the ganache a little using the microwave before pouring it. Allow the ganache to set in room temperature. Remove the strips of baking paper before serving.

Happy Baking
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