peach and pear upside-down cake

Donna Hay and her recipes are perfect! This is one of the best cakes I have ever eaten. Her books are an inexhaustible source of inspiration. 

Recipe taken from Donna Hay Classic Book 2

for a removable mold in 24-26 cm 

205 g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 free range eggs

225 g caster sugar

1teaspoon vanilla extract

125 g melted butter

for the topping

225 g sugar

125 ml water

75 g butter

6 peaches in syrup and 2 pears, halved

How to make

Prepare the topping: 

Place the sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and boil until the syrup is s golden brown colour. Remove from the heat and stir through the butter. Pour into a well greased 24cm round cake tin.

Preheat the oven to 160°. 

To make the cake:

Sift together the flour and baking powder three times and set aside.

Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 minutes or until thick and pale. Sift the flour and baking powder over the egg mixture and gently fold through. Fold through the butter. Place the fruits cut-side down and very close together in the caramel. Spoon over the cake mixture and bake for 1 hour 5 minutes, or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

Allow to stand for 5 minutes then invert the cake onto a plate. Serve warm woth thick double cream. Then store in the fridge.  

Kisses
Mony

tart with apricots and 'frangipane' by ernst knam

Recipe taken from the book by Ernst Knam "The Art of Sweet"

Ingredients for 8/10 persons:
For the pastry
150 g butter
150 g caster sugar
1 free range egg
vanilla powder or the seeds
6 g of baking powder
300 g flour 00
a pinch of salt

ice cream cake with three flavours

This is a 'Mrs Cake', for a birthday dinner, but very simple in the execution. It has three ice cream tastes, that you obtain in doing the same thing three times. I used some figues, because one month ago it was their season yet, but you can choose the fruits you prefer. In the book where I took this recipe there were strawberries, so let's choose according to the seasons!

The only suggestion is to prepare the cake the day before, for the long  times of cooling.

Ingredients for 10 :

1 sponge cake in 22-24 cm diameter

1,8 lit whipping cream

400 g icing sugar

200 g dark chocolate (60%)

2 vanilla beans

200 g fruits (raspberries, soft fruits…)

Cut the sponge cake into 2 discs. Take a serving plate and place a split ring, within which put the first disc. Whip 1 lit of very cold cream with 200 g of icing sugar. Divide it into three equal parts in three different bowls. And put in the refrigerator.

Melt 100 g of dark chocolate in a double boiler, lett cool and pour into one of the three bowls of whipped cream. Spread this chocolate cream  over the first disc of sponge. Level it with a spatula and put in the freezer for 15 minutes.  

Whip the remaining cream with the icing sugar (200g). Take the cake out from the freezer; release it from the movable ring and cover completely with the whipped cream using a pastry bag. Let stand in the refrigerator another for 2 1/2 hours yet. Melt the remaining chocolate (100g) and when it is cool you can follow the original recipe by pouring it on the cake making it fall down to the edges, in this case you must double the amount of chocolate.  

I have however chosen to do some decorations using a pastry bag with a very thin hole: on a sheet of baking paper placed on a very cooled tray (put it in the freezer) you can  make writings or little decorations, by letting fall down the chocolate, that for the thermal shock will immediately solidifies. Put the decorations again in the freezer and use when needed and at pleasure. 

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