Ingredients

Ingredients for the bread - 7” round tin:

• 500g strong bread flour
• Sachet of dried yeast (about 7g)
• 10g sea salt
• Approx 350-375g warm water (a bit more for brown)
• About 40g melted cooled butter or you can use oil if you prefer

• Butter to spread
• 600g Cream cheese, at room temperature
• For the fillings, you will need four different sandwich fillings that complement each other

Tools

• A stand mixer with a dough hook, or large bowl for by hand
• A second bowl for the proofing
• A piece of lightly oiled cling film (or damp tea towel if you prefer not to use cling)
• Heavy-duty/thick Tin foil
• Baking paper
• Butter for lining
• Round cake tin
• Mixing bowls / spoons / spatulas
• Razor/blade/sharp knife for scoring the bread
• Bread knife
• Palette knife/scrapers
• Equipment
• Large long bread knife
• Flat plate/board cover with baking paper to assemble the cake on for the chilling stage
• Cling film
• Palette knife (a medium stepped/crank handled one is best for getting a neat coating)
• A cake turntable is useful if you have one to make it easier to get a neat coating, or you can use a lazy Suzan, microwave plate, or just use the baking paper on the worktop.
• A little butter for creasing the tin, foil and parchment

Method

To make your sandwich cake:

1. In a large bowl (or stand mixer bowl if you have one), add the flour, sugar and salt. Use your hands to mix and distribute all of the powders.
2. Add the pack of yeast and mix again with your fingers to distribute. Make a well in the dry flour mix.
3. Pour in the oil/melted butter and warm water and if doing by hand, bring together with your hand, use your fingers in a claw shape and drag through until you have a dough. If you need a few drops of water, add it. You need there to be no dry floury bits, but not for the dough to be wet. If doing it in a stand mixer, use a dough hook, mix on slow until the dough has come together, turn the speed to medium-high and knead for 5-7 minutes until very springy and bouncy.
4. If kneading by hand, do this on a work surface and pound, stretch and tear the dough (there are many videos online to see ways of kneading) and work the dough hard for 10-15 minutes until springy and bouncy.
5. Place the dough into an oiled bowl to prove until at least doubled in size. The time will vary depending on your room temperature. Put it somewhere warmer if you want to speed it up, like an airing cupboard. Meanwhile, line the tin.
6. To get the bread to rise upwards and make a cake shape, you need to line inside the tin with a double thickness length of tin foil which wraps around inside the tin, making the tin about double the height to keep the bread in a tall circular shape. The best way to do this is to cut a whole length of foil that will go completely around the circumference of the tin. It needs to be about 6-7” in height, so fold over the foil to give you a thick strip. Grease the tin with butter and place the foil inside, sitting flush on the bottom and extending up from the top so now it looks like a very tall cake tin. It needs to have the strength to hold the rising bread. I use heavy-duty foil. If your foil is thin, you might need to double it up. Once this is stuck in the tin, grease the inside of the foil and line with a strip of baking parchment the same height as the foil. Once secure, butter the parchment. It’s a bit of effort, but this will ensure that you have a perfect loaf of bread that is tall and circular so you can make a savoury sandwich cake.
7. When the dough is ready, turn it out onto the surface (use a tiny bit of flour if you are worried about it sticking) and gently knead and knock out the air.
8. Shape it into a ball and place it into the tin with any joins facing down and the smooth part of the ball facing upwards.
9. Leave to rise covered over with a damp tea towel until it has risen and doubled in size.
10. Preheat the oven to 220/425F/Gas 7. Make sure there is just one oven rack in the oven, giving plenty of room to fit the tall cake tin and foil collar.
11. Place in the oven, and bake for 25 minutes. After this time, lower the heat to 200C/400F/Gas 6 and bake for a further 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven, leave in the tin for a few minutes to cool, then turn out of the cake tin and leave to cool completely. It’s a good idea to let the crust soften before slicing, so once cooled, place it in a plastic bag for a few hours or overnight before filling and icing.

1. Make sure your choice of sandwich fillings are ready before you begin.
2. Use a flat plate or board and place a sheet of baking parchment over this to build the cake on. You will need five circles of bread to create a four-layer cake.
3. Slice the bread from the bottom upwards using a cake leveller or bread knife to cut the bread into five thick slices (you will not use the top humped part, you only want to cut the circles from the straight-edged part of the loaf, so you get a neat cake shape. You can save the top for dipping in soup or eating with butter. You’ll also discard the bottom slice that has the bottom crust on that was in the base of the tin so that you will end up with five thick, neat slices of bread from the central part of the loaf.
4. To assemble, place a small dollop of cream cheese onto the board’s base, place one circle of bread on top, and then butter the bread. Add the first filling of your choice to cover the bread neatly, leaving a small border around the edge so the filling isn’t sticking out over the edge.
5. Top with a buttered circle of bread touching the filling, and then butter the top side before adding your next choice of filling.
6. Repeat until you have a lovely stack of round sandwiches, but do not butter the top final layer. Place this in the fridge for an hour or so to set firmly, covering it over with cling film, so it doesn’t dry out. Get the cream cheese out to come to room temperature.
7. To frost over in the naked style effect, Use approx. 350-400g of cream cheese at room temperature to crumb coat the cake, using a palette knife to fill the gaps around the edge of the sandwich cake, to coat the cake and lock in the fillings thoroughly. You can place your palm on top of the bread to steady the cake and hold it still.
8. Use a palette knife and side scraper to smooth over the edges and leave you a thin coating. You’ll see a little of the crust of the bread showing through as you would with a naked style sponge cake. Add a slightly thicker layer over the top and either leave smooth or add a swirl with a palette knife to finish. Have a look at some of my designs for inspo, but you can decorate these with either edible flowers, growing herbs or even salad and sliced veggies in pretty patterns.
9. Place in the fridge until serving, but allow to come to room temperature before eating. This is best eaten on the day but will last for a couple of days if wrapped up in slices, mind you. It won’t last long. It’s delicious!