Category Archives: Recipes

Wedding cake

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Our wedding cake had to be made with ingredients we both loved! We picked our favorite cake at the time (it constantly changes…) and I tried to make a two-tier cake with both of our choices. Choosing the cake, baking it and building the whole thing was not the main worry for me. The issue was the final touches as we don’t really like sugar icing. I wanted chocolate and lots of it!

The plan was to make a Jaffa cake for the bottom cake: Orange infused sponge cake, with my own Seville Orange marmalade in the middle and covered with a glossy dark chocolate ganache. The top cake would be a polenta cake, with strawberry jam and covered with white chocolate ganache. Once built, the cakes was going to be surrounded by home-made white chocolate barks. I added some berries already used for my centrepiece to hide imperfections, 2 heart-shaped pieces of slate on the top and here is the result:

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I regret not to have taken more pictures, this one really doesn’t do it justice at all. And I also didn’t take pictures of the transitions during the making of the cake but this site really helped me and I will try to write as much detail as I can to help you.

RECIPES

Equipment needed:  one or two 23cm and 15cm cake tins, 2 round cake boards the same size as your tins, some wood rods and a palette knife.

I recommend to prepare the white chocolate barks in advance as it will take quite some time and you can store them for weeks in the fridge. I did my chocolate barks following these 3 steps:

WHITE CHOCOLATE BARKS

– Melt 500g of white chocolate in a bain-marie until it has reached 43C and then transferred it to a clean and dry bowl. Have 2 big baking trays covered with baking sheet prepared and set aside, and make sure they fit in your fridge! When the chocolate looks “cooler” and has thickened a bit, pour it onto the baking sheet and spread it with a palette knife to the desired thickness. I opted for thick barks because it was easier to control the hardening of the chocolate. Spread the chocolate to form a rectangle with a width much longer than the height of your cake, I went for 20cm. Place the tray in the fridge.

– Constantly check your chocolate. When it feels like a soft paste rather than a liquid, take it out of the fridge and cut your barks (mine took about 20minutes). The knife will go right through it and it won’t look like you’ve cut anything, but this is more of a “pre-cut” and it will make your life SO MUCH easier when the chocolate has set. With the knife draw a rectangle with curvy lines (so the cake doesn’t look too serious) and measure the width to make barks slightly taller than then cake (15cm for me). Now, if desired, add some little twirls on the barks if desired, or more advanced drawings, but be fast because the chocolate might soften again. Once done, cut the barks and place the tray in the fridge for at least overnight. I tried to draw it to help you with the pattern and the description. I managed to do 40 barks that way, which was enough to cover the whole cake.

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– The next day take your chocolate out of the fridge. The pre-cut marks should still be there and they will be used as a guide to cut your barks. I started with a knife retracing the marks but quickly realised that the barks were detaching themselves quite easily one from another by bending them gently. Once all your barks are detached, store in an airtight container in the fridge for weeks.

JAFFA CAKE with home-made marmalade and dark chocolate ganache

This cake’s recipe is adapted from a recipe in my BBC Good Food magazine (July 2013). They’ve used orange jelly instead of marmalade and milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate. I made two of these cakes and stacked them up on top of each other with a good layer of marmalade in the middle.

For a 23cm cake tin, well greased with butter.

Ingredients:

  • 250g unsalted butter softened
  • 300g caster sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 100g yogurt
  • 300g plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • zest of 4 large oranges
  • For mounting and topping: Seville Orange Marmalade, a pot of clotted cream, 300g good quality dark chocolate, 300ml double cream

I only have one 23cm cake tin, so I followed this recipe twice to create two identical cakes.

Turn the oven on at 140C fan.  Add all the ingredients to a large bowl and mix with an electric hand-whisk until smooth. Pour it all in the tin and bake for 1h until an inserted knife blade comes out clean. Let it cool down for 10minutes, then remove the cake from the tin and leave it to cool down completely on a wire rack. Once cooled, you can keep the cake in a airtight container for up to 3 days.

The cakes will be hidden by the chocolate barks so it didn’t matter if it wasn’t perfectly round and the top perfectly flat. If the cake has created a substantial dome during cooking, then cut the extra to have a relatively flat top and do the same for the second cake. When the cakes have cooled down, stack them up with marmalade in the middle. Make your own Seville Orange marmalade or use some shop-bought marmalade. Be generous as the cake is very sweet and a little freshness and tanginess will be welcome.

I used clotted cream to fill the gap around the cake created by the two cakes put together. Clotted cream has a neutral taste and I just love it! Leave the cake in the fridge to cool, it will help the ganache to adhere. Prepare your ganache by heating the double cream in a pan. When the cream starts to form little bubbles (Do not boil it), pour it onto the chopped dark chocolate. Leave the cream on the chocolate for a minute or so and mix well until all the chocolate has melted. Place in the fridge for 30minutes. The ganache should be spreadable, but not too liquid otherwise it will slide off the cake. If you leave it too long in the fridge it will solidify but this is easily reversible by heating it back slowly. Cover the cake with the ganache and if the ganache is too liquid place it all in the fridge for longer and try to spread the ganache again. If the ganache is sticky and stays on the cake, you have achieved the perfect consistency! Keep in the fridge until your top cake is also ready.

POLENTA CAKE with strawberry jam and white chocolate ganache

My paternal grandma was italian and I used to spend my summer holidays in her family’s house in the italian’s Alps near Bergamo. A beautiful region for hiking, climbing and all kind of mountain activities. I started to go to this house when I was probably around 7, and all I cared about at that age was the cows in the field in front of the house that we could milk in the morning. THAT was fun! Growing up though meant that I had to participate to prepare the meals and this is one of the reason why you will find lots of Northern italian recipes on my blog.

Polenta is widely used in the North of Italy, which also gives the name Polentina to the ladies of the North. I have learned many recipes during these summer holidays cooking with my grandma, but as we didn’t have an oven, the only cake we would eat was the polenta cake from the neighbour. I remember this cake being warm, sweet and crunchy with little grains of polenta. This is the cake I tried to reproduce here.

Ingredients for a 25cm cake tin, or 2 smaller 15cm tins:

  • 150g polenta
  • 100g self-raising flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp of baking powder
  • 180g butter
  • 200g granulated sugar
  • 4 medium eggs
  • 1 tsp of vanilla extract
  • 200g yogurt
  • For mounting and topping: Strawberry jam, clotted cream, 150g white chocolate and 150g double cream.

Heat the oven at 180C and grease a 25cm cake tin.

Melt the butter and mix it to the sugar. Whisk in the eggs one by one and the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and the yogurt and keep whisking to have a very aerated mixture. Fill the tin and cook for 35 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. This cake is delicious slightly warm and also very good a little stale dipped in tea 😉

For the wedding though, I split this recipe in 2 and filled two 15cm cake tin. Like for the Jaffa cake I trimmed the top and stacked them on top of each other with strawberry jam in the middle. Some clotted cream to hide the holes, and cover with white chocolate ganache, done the same way as for the jaffa cake.

MOUNTING AND DECORATING

When both of your cakes are covered with their respective ganache, place them on their cake boards. Cut 4 pieces of wooden rod to the exact height of the bottom cake and insert them evenly spaced in the middle: they will provide support for the top cake. Place the top cake firmly on top and place the white chocolate barks around. If the ganache is too cold the barks won’t stick well so make sure the cakes are at room temperature. Starting with the smaller cake, overlap the barks to hide the ganache and finish by the bottom cake. If needed, use a ruban to hold the barks together while the ganache solidifies again in the fridge.

Keep the two-tier cake in the fridge and place it at room temperature a few hours before being served. I went for berries and 2 heart-shaped pieces of slate to decorate it simply. But go ahead and add sparkles, food paint and some proper bride and groom figurines on the top!

Ginger and Whisky Orange marmalade

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This variation of my Seville Orange marmalade is a crowd pleaser. The subtle ginger taste and the smell of whisky when you open the pot are a sign that you are in for a treat.

The recipe is identical to my previous Seville orange marmalade recipe with these 2 additions:

  • 100g fresh ginger, finely chopped
  • 75cl of whisky ( I generally steal a bit of single malt from my husband’s whisky shelf)

Place the ginger in the pan right at the beginning along with the chopped zests, juices, water and muslin bag as explained here. The ginger will also soften and release its flavour during cooking.

Add the whisky at the last minute just before filling your jars when the marmalade has cooled down a bit. The alcohol will rise the temperature of the mixture and might make it bubble a little bit. Mix it well and fill your jar as explained here.

Seville Orange Marmalade

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January is depressing so get in your kitchen and filled these empty cupboards with jars of delicious home-made marmalade. It is the only month you’ll find the Seville oranges so we’ve got to make an effort. I always buy more and freeze them, just in case I run out during the year…

HOME-MADE SEVILLE ORANGE MARMALADE without added pectin (to make about 5 x 500ml pots)

  • 1.4 kg seville oranges (available only in January)
  • Juice of 2 lemons
  • 2.5 kg granulated sugar
  • 2L water

Place a sheet of muslin in a big bowl and have a large chopping board ready. Rinse the fruits well, dry them, cut them in half and juice them. Keep the juice aside for now and place the pips in the muslin (do not throw them away as they are filled with natural pectin). With a sharp knife, chop your halved peels in quarters and try to remove as much pith as you can from the zest (I usually do this by making a little slash with the knife in one corner and peel it off by hands). Conserve the pith and add it to your pips in the muslin. When all your peels are “pith free” you can decide what style of marmalade you want. You can go classic and cut the zest in thin slices, or traditional and cut the zest in bigger chunks. I went for thin slices first but quickly realised what a long and painful process it was. And most importantly, the slices fall off the bread when dipped in tea…I decided for my next batch to use the small attachment of my food processor and process all the zest quarters to end up with little fat cubes.

Take the largest pan you have, a jam pan preferably. I used my Le Creuset big casserole pan. Place 2L of water, the juices and the chopped zest in the pan. Close the muslin bag very tightly and add it to the pan making sure it is immersed. Simmer for about 2h or until the zests feel soft. During this time, the pectin from the pith and pips will be released in the pan so it is important not to overlook this step otherwise your marmalade will never set.

After 2 hours, take the muslin bag out and let it cool slightly on a plate. Add the sugar to the mixture and mix well to make sure it is dissolved properly. At this point, if you don’t want your fruits to loose too much colour, you can add jam sugar with pectin already added instead of granulated sugar. I like the deep orange colour of this marmalade so I usually use normal sugar. Place a few wooden spoons in the freezer to cool down to use for testing the setting point.

When the muslin bag is cooler, squeeze it hard between your hands to release an opaque sticky liquid which is the concentrated pectin coming from the pips and piths. Squeeze it all out, add your natural pectin to the pan and increase the heat. When the mixture is boiling hard, keep it going for about 25minutes. Start testing the setting status by placing a little marmalade onto a cold wooden spoon and leave in the fridge for a few minutes. The marmalade is set when there is a skin that sticks to your finger when you touch it.

Then turn off the heat and leave it to rest while you prepare your pots. The pots should be clean, it’s even better if they just come out of the dish washer and still warm. Skin away any white scum at the surface of your jam and fill your pots to the top. Clean the rim of the pot with kitchen paper and place the lid on firmly, then turn your pots upside down to provide total sterilisation (you might hear a little pop when the air is released from the pot). When cooled, clean the pot and label. I love stacking my marmalade pots in the pantry! It is such a rewarding sight!

TROUBLESHOOTING:

Runny marmalade! If the marmalade is not set when it is cooled, do not panic nothing is lost yet. It happened to me when I did tangerine marmalade, I thought I reached the setting point but it turned out I rushed through it and wasn’t quite there yet. A runny marmalade is not the end of the world, but if you were planning to give it as gifts then here is what I did. Open all your pots and pour everything back in the pan. Now you have 2 choices: either start again where you’ve stopped: Boil and test the setting point again, or buy some pectin packets (not jam sugar but pure pectin packets). The first option might caramelised your marmalade a little more and might take the flavour of the fruit away a little bit but you will create a beautiful dark old-fashion marmalade. The second solution will be fast but you have to go to a big supermarket to find pectin packets. If you choose the second solution, use only one packet and do not add it straight to your pan! Mix the pectin to a few tbsp of sugar and then add it to the mixture. Boil it for 10/15 minutes and test the setting point. You should reach it rapidly without “caramelising” your marmalade too much.

Tarte Tatin

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This is one of my favorite dessert, even if I can’t dip it into my tea…

This upside down tart is rustic and beautiful. Everyone who tasted it absolutely loved it, but it is particularly special for people who don’t have a sweet tooth as it is not too sugary. The secret of this tart is to use Golden apples, yellow, chubby, juicy and sweet, not the small green ones found in supermarket. Organic shops and farmer markets is where you want to look for these apples.

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Ingredients for a 26cm cake tin:

  • 12 Golden apples peeled, cored and halved
  • 50g of unsalted butter
  • 2 lemons
  • 2 tbsp of vanilla sugar
  • 4 tbsp of granulated sugar + a little for the pastry
  • 1 shop-bought shortcrust pastry with added sugar

Turn the oven on at 170C.

My pan is just big enough to pre-cook 6 halves at the same time. If you have a giant pan that can do them all at the same time then use the totality of the measure stated above, otherwise divide them equally for each pan-full. Melt a knob of butter in a pan under medium heat and brown the apples slightly on both sides. While cooking sprinkle the apples with vanilla sugar, sugar and add the lemon juice. Move the apples around to try not to burn them, especially on their bumpy side. When one load is done, place aside and proceed to the next batch until all the halves are done.

Build your tart by placing the first row of apples, bumpy side down, in the tin. Pack them well. Try to pick your best looking apples as this will be the top of your tart and it should look perfect. For the second row of apples, place them core down a bit like if you wanted to recreate the apple but move them slightly to the side so each halve overlap 2 halves  from the next row.

Roll your pastry to make a circle bigger than your cake tin and try to keep it quite thick. The odd circular shape and the thickness of the pastry will give your tarte tatin a unique rustic look. Place the pastry on top of your apples and tuck the sides in trying to enclose both rows of apples. Cook for 15 minutes then take the tart out and press lightly on the pastry with a plate. The apples are being steamed and are getting softer, by pressing on them you will flatten the pastry and the apples and create a nice flat top to your tarte tatin. Turn the oven down to 140C and cook the tart for an extra 30 minutes until the pastry is brown. Leave the tart to cool slightly but not too long otherwise the caramelised apples will stick to the bottom of the tin. Place a plate on top of the pastry, hold the plate in one hand and the tin in the other, take a deep breath and turn your tart over on the plate. Keep the tin on the tart and leave it to cool completely, then take it off and serve with vanilla ice cream or clotted cream.