Baking Bad: Walt's buried barrel dessert recipe

Details

• Cuisine: American
• Recipe Type: Cake
• Difficulty: Hard
• Preparation Time: 50 mins
• Cooking Time: 45 mins
• Serves: 12

Step-by-step

1. Preheat the oven to 175C/160C fan assisted/gas mark 4. Grease two 8 inch/20cm round cake tins. Line the bottom of one with baking paper. Line the second tin with crumpled baking paper, to give an uneven bottom to the cake.
2. Put the butter and superfine sugar into a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer for about 5 minutes until very light and fluffy and pale in colour.
3. Break the eggs into a jug or small bowl and beat lightly with a fork.
4. With the mixer running, add the egg little by little to the butter/sugar mix, beating well between each addition so that the mixture doesn’t curdle.
5. Gently fold the flour into the mix with a spatula.
6. Once well blended, put about a quarter of the mix into a bowl and set aside. This will be the plain-coloured top section of the cake. Divide the remaining mix into two, and place in separate bowls. Colour and flavour one of these with red food colour and strawberry essence and the other with pink food colour and raspberry essence.
7. Put just over half the pink mix into the bottom of one tin, keeping the surface very uneven. Smooth just over half of the red mix on top and allow to blend a little with the pink mix, to give a marbling, layered effect. Rough up the surface, making dips and peaks.
8. Layer the remaining amounts of pink and red into the other tin, then spread the set aside plain mix over the top, this time finishing with a smooth, even surface.
9. Bake for 30-40minutes, or until well risen and a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely
10. Sandwich the two cakes together with a layer of jelly, making sure that the two uneven surfaces are placed together. If the cakes have risen too evenly, cut some ups and downs with a sharp knife.
11. The stage is now set for one of the great scenes in TV history.
12. Paint the barrels with white food colour, to add the details, as shown in the picture above.
13. With a 1 inch/2.5cm cutter, make neat holes in the top of the cake. Remove the plugs of cake and push chocolate liquor barrels into the holes. If you’re having trouble moving them then try rolling them.... They’re barrels, moron!
14. Mould a green cactus and red rocks from the fondant icing and place onto the cake. Sprinkle the surface with the granulated sugar.