Alana
At the beginning of June (this post is rather late) Theresa and I celebrated our birthdays together! We had a big day planned, with as many activities as you could possibly cram into a single day. An important part of our celebration was obviously the cake. A month or prior to Theresa’s birthday we spied the SprinkleBakes recipe for a Maple Belgian Waffle Cake and agreed that it would be Theresa’s birthday cake. Luckily that promise didn’t fall through when we decided to have a combined party!
The first step of making this cake is to make some waffles! I used this Waffle Mix recipe, also from SprinkleBakes, as it was linked in the cake recipe. I have to admit that I got pretty excited when I borrowed Katherine’s waffle maker. It led to waffle breakfast as well as pizza waffles, though the latter was a little bit messy. What I’m trying to say is that I used this waffle mix a few times and had it work out really well each time (regardless of how much Mike tried to cram into that poor waffle maker).
I made my waffles the night before I baked the cake, and they got quite soft by the time I needed them. I think that the waffles should be fresh when you bake the cake, because I found that the soft waffles were tricky to get onto the cake batter and that they didn’t hold their shape as well when they were in the oven. I also didn’t cover the pans part way through baking, so that might have also been a good idea in retrospect.
I was pretty drunk by the time I actually tried the cake, but I think that it could have turned out better. I remember it being a bit drier than I would have liked. That being said, I think that serving this cake fresh with whipped cream would fix that issue. It also helps to cut the sweetness of all the syrup.
Maple Belgian Waffle Cake
Adapted from SprinkleBakes
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup (110g) light brown sugar, packed
- 2 ¾ cups (345 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups (375 ml) pure maple syrup
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ¼ cups (310 ml) buttermilk (or 1 cup whole milk)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 prepared Belgian waffles (store-bought or see this recipe I use)
- 1 cup (250 ml) Pancake syrup or more or less to taste
- 1 pat of salted butter (about ½ tablespoon)
- Whipping cream, plus some extra vanilla and sugar
Directions
- Make your waffles!
- Prepare your cake pans by greasing/flouring them. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar until well combined. While the butter and sugar are beating, sift/whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Beat the maple syrup into the butter/sugar (it won’t totally combine, so until it is mixed enough). Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Alternating between the dry and wet ingredients add the flour mixture and buttermilk/vanilla, starting and ending with the dry. After each addition mix until just combined.
- Divide batter between the three prepared pans. Place a waffle in the centre of each pan on top of the batter, and press it down slightly.
- Bake until golden and a skewer comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. Cover the cake pans with aluminum foil halfway through baking to prevent them from over browning. When done, let cool in the pan for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Place one cake layer on a serving plate. Pour ¼ cup of pancake syrup over the layer, add the next layer and repeat. Pour the remaining amount of syrup on the top (about ½ cup).
- Store covered in plastic wrap. When you’re ready to eat, whip up some whipping cream and enjoy!
Chateau Gateau 