Churros cake and two favorite TV shows gone

I sat down this morning to write this post when I read that two of my favorite TV shows have been cancelled: Resurrection is gone, and we’ll no longer have the lovely Dr. Henry Morgan and his son Abe on Tuesday nights. :(

It was Resurrection, along with the one and only Raymond Reddington, that got my husband hooked on TV series – I’ll always be in the show’s debt. A while afterwards we started watching Forever and loved it – I mourned the end of three great shows alone, but this time my husband is keeping me company in my sadness (and there are lots of people as sad as us over on People magazine’s website).

I saw a recipe for a cinnamon tea cake on this beautiful cookbook and as I read the instructions for brushing the top of the cake with melted butter and sprinkling it with sugar and cinnamon I immediately thought of churros – here in São Paulo it is very common to find them filled with dulce de leche (differently from the ones I ate in Spain), that is why I decided to transform a cinnamon tea cake into a churros cake by sandwiching it with dulce de leche (and according to my brother, this cake really tastes like churros). :)

After reading the news I definitely need something sweet: I’ll head over the kitchen to cut myself a (big) slice of cake and drown my sorrows in dulce de leche, sugar and cinnamon. ;)

Churros cake
adapted from the cinnamon tea cake from this absolutely gorgeous book

Cake:
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (150g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
60g unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup (80ml) whole milk, room temperature

Filling:
1 ¼ cups dulce de leche

Topping:
1 tablespoon (14g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 ½ tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a 20cm (8in) round cake pan, line the bottom with a circle of baking paper and butter it as well.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer, cream butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until light and creamy. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. Stir in the dry ingredients and milk until smooth.
Spread mixture into prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes or until golden and risen and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool in the pan over a wire rack for 30 minutes. Carefully unmold, peel off the paper and cool completely over a wire rack.

Cut the cake in half horizontally using a large serrated knife. Place the bottom half of the cake onto a serving plate and spread over the dulce de leche. Cover with the other half of the cake.
Brush the top of the cake with the melted butter. In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle over the top of the cake.

Serves 8-10