It seems a tradition now to make Lawrence’s birthday cake of the lemon variety, he claims, or did so once, that it’s his cake of choice. I reckon any cake his now his cake of choice, he’s given up trying to convince himself that he doesn’t really have a sweet tooth! Perhaps it’s living with me that did it?

I had a look on the internet this time, uninspired by lemon cakes in my cook books and found this one on the Good Food website.

It looked so tempting, I didn’t have enough almonds so made up the amount with poppy seeds. This may be why it sank! Or I opened the oven too quickly at once stage. It’s funny, we were only just talking about cake disasters the other day and how cross Dan gets when things go wrong (obviously I do too, but I think he’s more of a passionate baker than me!) I thought we should publish the mistakes and catastrophes – makes it a bit more of an honest blog. I’m sure I’ve published some near disasters on here.

Anyway, taking a leaf out of Mary Berry’s book (not literally) I decided to make the sunken middle a feature and filled it with Chocolate hearts and balls (not sure about the balls). To add to the mishaps, I was working against the clock and decided to cheat and melt the chocolate in the microwave – never being lazy and doing that again! I started again in the smoke-filled kitchen, the conventional way, a bowl over simmering water. Not the best quality chocolate – it was an emergency operation) so it’s a bit patchy.

It’s a lovely moist cake that goes well with crème fraîche or a bit of cream perhaps. I baked in a smaller tin than they suggest which may also be the reason it sank – the volume of ingredients is rather large and needs a wider tin. Yummy though!

This is another recipe from the Green & Blacks book. I’m always a little nervous about pastry and blind baking but this is a great recipe and it turned out well. The only issue was the oven temperature I think it needed to be higher than they recommend (of course all ovens vary) and so it baked for a little too long which dried the pears out a bit. I’ll know for next time though, it’s definitely one I’d make again, it looks impressive and tastes great but is less tricky than it appears.

Pastry:
250g plain flour
1 tsp salt
110g Unsalted b utter
2 large egg yolks
4-5 tbsp water

Filling:
125g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
2 large eggs
100g dark chocolate (minimum 60 % cocoa solids)
1 dsp finely chopped preserved ginger in syrup
25g plain flour
125g ground almonds
4 just ripe pears
apricot jam to glaze

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Make the pastry – sift the flour and salt in a large bowl, cut in the butter and rub into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. In a small bowl whisk together the yolks and the cold water briefly then add to the mixture. Mix until they come together as a ball, wrap the dough in greaseproof paper and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling out to line you tin. Bake the pastry blind by covering it with greaseproof baber and filling with baking beans (dried kidney beans in my case) for about 15-20 minutes or until it’s a light golden colour. Remove the pastry and lower the heat to 160 (I may have only lowered it marginally at the stage, on reflection).

Make the filling – cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat the eggs and slowly add to the mix. Melt the chocolate over simmering water, allow to cool for a few minutes before adding to the mix with the ginger. Mix in the flour and almonds and leave to cool before spreading over the pastry base.

Halve, peel and core the pears. Slice into wedges and arrange in a fan shape on top of the chocolate mix, pressing lightly. Bake for around 30-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Brush with apricot jam while still hot.

I served it as they suggest with simple chocolate sauce – evil!
100g dark choc (as above)
125ml double or whipping cream
10g unsalted butter
Melt the chocolate with the cream in a heat-proof bowl over simmering water, stirring frequently. Once the chocolate has melted add the butter and serve warm… With everything!

This one was really very nice indeed. Very moist from a combo of ground almonds and drizzling with honey when you get it out of the oven. And do try to support your local, small-scale honey producers, as times is hard and getting harder for beekeepers. I learned a little about the difficulties they face from some beekeepers I know in New Zealand, but I learned more when I interviewed the chairman of the London Beekeepers’ Association for Channel4 Food.

The only thing I would say is that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s recipe in the Guardian said 160C for 45 minutes. Well, I did it in a fan over at 140 (normally I’d reduce the heat for a fan oven) and in 45 minutes it was barely cooked at all. I did use a slightly smaller tin than he said (ie making the mixture deeper for cooking through) but it still seems a bit off. Depending on your oven, you may need to bump up the heat somewhat and leave it in for longer.

Here’s the recipe.

PS – Jo and Lawrence, stick up that b’day cake you made for me when you get a moment as it was yummy and I want the recipe!

aka White chocolate and strawberry tart
aka White chocolate and strawberry tart with a few strawberries for good measure.

This one was from a Good Housekeeping magazine. Fran loves white chocolate so it was a must for her birthday.

The case called for ground hazelnuts, but I used almonds. Made for a crumbly pastry that was hard to handle (hence slightly raggedly edge. Really must work on my pastry skills), but nice to eat.

The filling was white chocolate melted together with mascarpone, plus a bit of whipped cream. Yum. Seriously yum, if rich. But hey, rich + a bit of fruit is good right?

It was rather nice, but I stupidly forget to take the recipe.