Black forest Gateau

Good Morning! Woooo hooooo! Look what I’ve got for you today guys. The mighty BLACK FOREST GATEAU that has SUMMER written all over it! I hope I am not the only person excited about the cake as early as 7 am in the morning! (Thus all the shouting!)

Gosh, I’ve had this cake on my minds for ages!!!!! If you follow me on Instagram you know I think about cake like 99.9 % of the time but these flavours I’ve been craving for a long, loooong time. Now that I’ve been eating my weight in summer fruits (I love you summer for spoiling me rotten!), it’s time to enjoy them in a different ‘form’ . And you know me well, rule number one when it comes to sweet treats – the more fruit, the better.

So, just right now, I am sitting on the patio, swinging my bare feet, warming my freckles in the sun (OH!It feels soooo good!) thinking how to describe this cake to you, at the same time I am munching a generous piece for breakfast. (That’s what I call authentic recipe writing lol!).

Spoonful one, the rich, chocolatey layer. Spoonful two, the fluffy, delicate cream with a punch of cherry sweetness and a boozy flavour. Next spoonful, melting in a mouth chocolate ganache and a spoonful of the flavoursome, bursting with sweetness cherries and all my favourite berries. It’s the cake I want to make my summer memories with.

I am always picky when it comes to the ingredients that I cook and bake with, not only because of course they are the key to the flavour but also because I CARE about the world we live in. That’s why I’m excited to hear that Waitrose cares too and that all their fruit and veg have LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) certificate to ensure strong environmental standards. And it’s the only supermarket to guarantee this!*clapping hands*
#TheWaitroseWay




Black forest Gateau

For the cake:
300g self raising flour (extra fine sponge flour works best!)
200g caster sugar
300g unsalted butter
4 eggs
60g cacao powder

For the cream:
400ml whipping cream
1 tbsp caster sugar

For the cherries:
300g cherries
50g caster sugar
50ml Kirsh

For the chocolate Ganache:
100ml double cream
100g dark chocolate

Additionally:
200g morelo cherry conserve
200g cherries
handful of blueberries
handful of blackberries
Handful of red currants

PREPARATION:

To make the cake
Heat the oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Butter a 20cm cake tin. In a large bowl, cream the butter with sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until you get light and fluffy mixture. Beat well to get lots of air into the mixture. Add the cacao powder and mix until combined then add the flour and mix it in with a spoon until combine but don’t over-mix it.

Place the mixture in a tin and bake for around 50 minutes, even to one hour. Check it with a wooden skewer. If it comes out clean,it’s ready!

Leave it to cool completely and cut the cake into two layers. Draw the line around the cake with a smaller knife and then use a bigger one to slice it. Hold the top of the cake with your one hand and slice with the other.

For the cherries
Place the pitted cherries in a saucepan with kirsch and sugar. Bring to a light boil and then reduce temperature and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring carefully often, until the cherries have softened but are not mushy.

Strain the mixture, placing the cherries in one bowl and reserved syrup in another.

Use the left over syrup to brush over the cooling cakes.(Prick the cakes with a wooden skewers first)

To make ganache
Roughly chop the chocolate and place in a bowl.

Bring the cream to a light simmer in a saucepan. Once at a simmer, pour the mixture over the chocolate. Leave for 2 minutes, and then stir until smooth and thick. Leave to cool completely at room temperature.

To make the cream filling (make just before assembling)
Beat the cream with sugar until smooth and creamy.

FUN TIME
Prick the cakes with a wooden skewers and brush with the liquid reserved from the cherries. Place the first layer of the cake on a plate or a cake stand, spread a thin layer of the cherry conserve, top it with fresh cream (leaving around 1 cm around the edges, so it doesn’t ooze out when you place the second layer), add cherries and gently press. Place the second layer of the cake on top, spread a layer of ganache and top it up with lots of fresh fruit. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

It’s best to be enjoyed the same day(how can you resist?), however if you need to make it in advance, keep it in a fridge but take it out 30min before the serving to allow to stand in a room temperature.

Enjoy xxx

 

This post has been created in partnership with Waitrose but of course all the words and opinions are honest and my own.

Summer smoothie ‘cake’


Ohhhh Summer! I do love you! Even if in fact British ‘version’ of this season can be more capricious than a teenager.But at least it gives us something to talk about, otherwise I really don’t know how I would start a conversation 🙂

But when the heatwave comes! Ohhh when it comes, nothing matters. Nothing is important. A stack of emails to reply? Nah! It can wait!
House that looks like it has been hit by the tornado. Oh no, no, no, that can wait for the storm! Running errands can wait for the rainy days too. Makes me wonder if I would ever have any work done if I lived in Spain, or Italy….

During these hot days I wave my oven goodbye and you can only find me in the kitchen blending fruits like a mad woman and then spending the rest of the day in the garden spreading my limbs on the lawn, sipping smoothies, munching smoothie bowls or smoothie popsicles and polishing off a smoothie cake. That’s a life, hey? 🙂 A HUUUUGE thank you to VITAMIX here for sending me their incredible machine and for making my life so much easier – honestly the best blender I have ever owned.



This little recipe is as easy to make as it sounds, doesn’t require switching the oven on, and it’s super creamy and refreshing! Just what you need when summer comes 🙂

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

For the base:

150g almonds
200g dates,pitted
1 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp almond butter

For the smoothie layer:

300ml milk of your choice
250g mascarpone cheese
500g mixed frozen berries(I used blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, and blackberries) plus extra fruit for decorating
2 ripe frozen bananas, chopped
4 dates,pitted

PREPARATION

Place  almonds in  a food processor and pulse until finely chopped, but don’t let them become too powdered.
Add pitted dates, followed by coconut oil and almond butter and pulse until the mix start to come together.
Place the mixture in a 23cm non-stick, loose-based cake tin and press it flat (I usually roll it with a side of a small jar to do so). Place in a fridge to chill.

Pour the milk in the Vitamix, add mascarpone cheese and frozen berries, chopped frozen bananas and dates and blitz it together, starting from the lowest speed, slowly moving the higher speed.Use the tamper to press the ingredients onto the blades. In around 60 second, the sound of the motor will change. Stop the machine, the mixture should be beautifully smooth by then. Scrape the mixture onto the base, smoothing it evenly with a back of the spoon, cover it in a cling film and place in a freezer for couple of hours , or until completely frozen.

Move it from the freezer for 20-30 minutes before serving (otherwise you won’t be able to slice it!)  . Decorate with more berries and enjoy!

Chocolate,fruity cake


I’m not really a Winter person.Well I’m not sure if anyone is!Sure I love the leap into New Year, making exciting plans about the months ahead, dreaming about new destinations to visit and goals I would like to achieve. But the fact that the nature is still dormant and the nights come way too early,and are way too long,makes me want to curl up under the quilt and wake up in the Spring!

March makes me happier. It makes me excited. Everyday I’m on the outlook for the first blossoms, and although I know it will take some time until  I’ll sit down in the garden,swinging my bare feet and warming my face in the sun, I can feel that Spring is finally in the air!

But I decided to learn to be patient(no,it’s not easy!!!) and to accept the world the way it is(not easy either!!!),not to hate this the least likeable season, indulge myself in the cosiness and try to find a way to fight the winter blues.

I was fed up with early evenings and long nights so…..I lit the candles around the house and cooked special dinners to celebrate this time we could spend together. I couldn’t stand the cold weather and gloomy days so I baked, I experimented more in the kitchen and I added chocolate to almost everything. Well, chocolate always helps! I missed the light that would allow me to take pictures all day long, and somehow I lost the inspiration, so I redecorated the studio to breath new life into it, and into me. Oh,how it helped! Sometimes, the simplest things, like changing the colour of the wall, works it’s magic and injects inspiration you’ve been looking for and suddenly you can’t help but spend all day with a camera in your hand. Huge thank you to the Pixers team to help me choose the perfect design of this Pixerstick that turned my boring studio into a beautiful creative space and made me believe that redecorating can be easy, hassle and mess free.It’s far the most favourite wall in my house!What’s even better,I can always peel it off and stick it on another wall in the house!(Yes it’s a sticker!How cool is that!)





So now LET’S EAT THE CAKE!

Recipe:

For the base:

300g self raising flour(preferably self rising fine sponge flour)
350ml natural yoghurt(room temperature)
100g cane caster sugar
2 eggs(room temperature)
125g butter,melted and cooled
6 tablespoons cacao powder
pinch of ground nutmeg

+butter for greasing

For the cream:

200g dark chocolate(I used 85%), broken into smaller pieces
150ml double cream + additional 60ml
60g sugar
250ml mascarpone
2 TBSP cocao powder

Additionally:

Around 700g blueberries, blackberries and cherries
40g dark chocolate, chopped

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190C.Grease 2 x 19cm round baking tins(or one!)Sieve the flour into a bowl.In a separate bowl place eggs,yoghurt,butter and sugar.Add nutmeg and cacao powder and mix all the ingredients until smooth.Pour it over the flour and stir with a spoon,the mix should look lumpy and may have the odd fleck of flour still visible but don’t be tempted to overmix the batter.Divide into two baking tins smoothing the tops with a spoon.Bake for around 30 minutes or until tooth-pick comes out clean.

You can also bake it in one tin for 45 minutes or until tooth-pick comes out clean and then cut it in half after it cooled down.

For the cream, boil a little water in a small pot and place a metal bowl over it so that it doesn’t touch the water.Turn the heat down to minimum and place dark chocolate pieces in the metal bowl. Mix from time to time until melted, then take it of the heat and let it cool down.

In a separate bowl whip 150ml double cream with sugar until thick. Don’t over mix it, you still want the cream to have a smooth consistency.

In another bowl, whip mascarpone with cacao powder, add whipped double cream and melted chocolate and mixed with an electric mixer until combined, for around a minute. Pour over double cream and whip to desired consistency. Add more double cream if needed.

Now all the fun – assembling the cake!

Place one of the cakes onto a serving plate. Add the cream and spread it out evenly, but leave a 1-2cm gap around the edge so when you place the second cake on top, all the cream won’t ooze too much out around the sides. Top the cream with blueberries, blackberries and cherries(just remember to pit the cherries that go into the middle layer!). Then place the second cake on top and repeat again with the cream and the fruit.Add some chopped chocolate on the top of the cake.

Enjoy xxx

*This post was created thanks to collaboration with Pixers (which I am really grateful for!),however all the words, opinions, recommendations are honest and totally my own(of course) 🙂