Outback Cinnamon Oblivion

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This dessert is a temperature contrast wearing a cake costume. Warm cinnamon cake, cold vanilla ice cream, hot caramel sauce, all in the same spoonful.

Assemble it more than about a minute ahead and it becomes one lukewarm thing. The ice cream melts into the sauce, the sauce cools onto the cake, and what arrives is a bowl of sweet brown mush that tastes fine and does nothing.

Everything below is about protecting that contrast.

Warm the cake, do not serve it hot

Straight from the oven, the cake is too hot and it melts the ice cream on contact.

Let it cool, then warm a slice for 15–20 seconds in the microwave as you serve. Warm enough to feel it, not hot enough to melt anything on contact.

This also means you can bake it hours ahead, which is the practical version of this dessert.

The caramel must be hot and the bowl must be cold

Hot sauce onto cold ice cream is where the contrast lives. It also sets slightly where it touches the ice cream, which is a texture worth having.

Chill the bowls. A room-temperature bowl warms the ice cream from underneath while you are still spooning sauce on.

Cinnamon needs sugar to bloom against

Cinnamon in a batter is muted. Cinnamon in a sugar swirl is not.

Mixing the cinnamon with sugar and layering it through the batter concentrates it in bands, and those bands melt slightly during baking into a wet, intense ribbon. The same quantity stirred evenly through the batter tastes of much less.

What you need

Cake

• 250 g plain flour
• 200 g granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 120 g butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 240 ml whole milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Cinnamon swirl

• 100 g light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp melted butter

To serve

• vanilla ice cream
• caramel sauce, heated
• toasted pecans, chopped

Method

1. 1. Oven to 175°C. Grease a 23 cm square tin.
2. 2. Cream the butter and sugar 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs, then the vanilla.
3. 3. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt separately.
4. 4. Add the dry and the milk alternately, in three goes, mixing only until combined.
5. 5. Mix the swirl ingredients into a thick paste.
6. 6. **Half the batter into the tin, half the cinnamon paste dotted over, then the rest of the batter and the rest of the paste.**
7. 7. Drag a knife through in an S once or twice. No more — over-swirling disperses it and you lose the bands.
8. 8. Bake 25–30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
9. 9. Cool in the tin.

To serve: warm a slice 15–20 seconds. Into a chilled bowl. Ice cream on top, hot caramel over, pecans last. Take it to the table immediately.

Drag the knife once

Two passes maximum. The instinct is to swirl until it looks marbled, and by then the cinnamon is evenly distributed and you have made a lightly spiced cake.

Ugly, distinct bands are the goal.

Toast the pecans

Five minutes at 180°C or two in a dry pan. Untoasted pecans are soft and slightly tannic; toasted, they are crisp and sweet and provide the fourth texture in the bowl.

Storing

The cake keeps three days in an airtight tin and freezes for three months. That part is fine to make ahead and is the sensible way to do it.

The assembled dessert does not keep for one minute. Build it in front of the people eating it.