dark caramel-glazed apple & walnut cakes

• begin by making the decorative caramel walnut squares by chopping the caramels into smaller pieces and place in a small casserole in a hot water bath (bain-marie) to melt them with some apple purée and milk until smooth, then add the chopped walnuts, stir well and pour into a silicone mold with small square cavities and place a half-walnut on top and freeze, unmold them when hardened and place back inside the freezer (wrapped with waxed paper) until ready to use

note : if you don’t have cube-shaped silicon molds (my smaller version has 12 cavities measuring 3½ x 3½  cm each), then spread out the warm walnut caramel mix onto a sheet of waxed paper, let it cool down a little bit, place the half-walnuts on top at equal distances, slice into squares and then freeze …

• preheat the oven to 180°C with the rack in the middle
• for the cake batter, beat the eggs with the golden can sugar until smooth and frothy, then add the apple purée, the vanilla extract and mix again, and finally add the walnut powder, cornstarch, cinnamon powder and baking powder
• brush your larger silicone cube-shaped mold with melted butter and pour the cake batter in each cavity but only half-way up (or half-full) and bake for 25-30 minutes at 180°C

note : my 2 larger silicone cube-shaped molds have 8 cavities each measuring 5 x 5 x 5 cm each) but you can use a mold with round cavities or cupcake molds or a larger cake mold …

note : the cakes will expand upwards quite a bit, then drop back down towards the end of the baking time, that’s when they’re ready !

• as the cakes are baking, prepare the dark caramel sauce by combining the butter, heavy cream and dark brown sugar and whisky at medium-high heat while stirring until it reaches a boil, let bubble for 1 minute, then remove, let cool for 1 minute then whisk in the icing sugar until thicker and smooth and set aside the casserole in a pan with warm water (if you need to reheat it later)
• remove the baked cakes from the oven, let cool for 5-10 minutes before popping each cake out upside-down on a rack (and placed over a baking sheet to rcuperate the caramel later)
• pour the warm caramel sauce on top of each (still warm) cake, recuperate the excess caramel that dripped away and re-pour on top several times until each cake is well and evenly glazed
• remove the frozen caramels from the freezer and place one walnut and caramel square on each individual cake, position correctly if it slides around and let cool completely and serve at room temperature or slightly chilled in the refrigerator.