Took me ages to do this, I’ve been moving around the GF magazine all over the place, open on this recipe, yesterday, finally, I made it. I made two, one went to Ewa’s and in spite of having suffered a small incident in the car, it got there in one piece and was enjoyed.

Lots of work, lots of patience, lots of chilling in between the layers. I started by making the thin sponge, the recipe said to use the shop bought madeira, I thought I’d make my own. From the same recipe as always. When it was out of the fridge and cooling, I prepared the tins, lined them with cling film, generously, as smooth as I could, it later makes the whole thing look pretty and makes it easy to release from the tin holding its shape.

The cream layer: 200 ml of double cream heated up with 3tbsp of icing sugar and 3 tbsp of sherry or cherry liquer, in my case. When hot, 2 gelatine leaves go in and 100g of mascarpone, all this whipped together and poured into the tin to chill in the fridge.

The custard layer took 3 tbsp of custard powder, 2 tbsp of icing sugar  and 400 ml of milk, with 2 gelatine leaves added at the end. Onto the set cream layer. In the meantime the one that takes the longest to set- the raspberry jelly was prepared  according to packet instructions and left to cool.

On the custard layer I placed some defrosted raspberries and jelly on that. Long time later, the sponge went on top and I tightened the whole thing with  overflowing cling film on both sides. And left to cool overnight.

Before serving, I whipped yet more cream with some lemon juice and icing sugar, used a piping bag to finish the dessert off, after flipping it upside down and releasing from the cling film. The very final touch is some popping candy.

It’s sweet, rich and yummy. Looked like that…

This was a success and was all eaten and enjoyed, just as I like. Nothing wasted. I made it for Ewa, who came over the other Sunday with her new squeeze, called Rich.

I started with making a fruit jelly to the packet instructions, as it takes forever to set and the timing is crucial here. The base was a simple sponge, Bozena’s recipe, usual, on that I sat some chopped pears, that I had previously cooked with some pear liquor and cinnamon. When the jelly was well chilled, I whipped the cream and added half of that jelly to it, which made it quite runny, carefully poured it onto the sponge and pears and left in the fridge to set. An hour or so later, when the remaining jelly was beginning to set, I topped the cake with it and left it in the fridge overnight. It was light and enjoyable.

This little thing is the result of cleaning the fridge this afternoon ahead of our leaving for holidays on Sunday. there was some Philadelphia, there was double cream, use by today, some yuzu juice, I found 3 last digestive biscuits, so I whipped up a quick and pretty dessert. The base, as usual, crushed biscuits, melted butter and some brown sugar, all pressed down and baked for 10 minutes. Double cream whipped up with icing sugar, cream cheese, yuzu juice heated up with sugar and 2 gelatine leaves, added up slowly. I fancied some fruit in there, I only had canned pineapple, so chopped it up and added in. And for the top, half of strawberry jelly. Not bad a result as for leftovers, no? 🙂

As Florian rightly noticed, I don’t really like a chocolate-orange combination. I recently changed my mind, after the boys at work put an orange fondant on Special Board. I took this idea and added the pineapple, like one dude on Masterchef. And I must say it was probably my most favourite fondant I’ve ever made.

The recipe was the usual one; 50 g of dark, chocolate, butter, flour and sugar all the same, 1 egg yolk and 1 whole egg, that makes me 3 fondants. Today I added a grated orange rind and about 5 tsps of Cointreau. Baked in 200 degrees for 14 minutes.

I had no fresh pineapple, so I used canned, threw it onto the pan with some butter, lots of cinnamon and brown sugar.  Well and truly pleased. Florek says we need to do it again, but with Valhrona chocolate. Maybe on Sunday?…

Yeah, just a final word on this genius culinary day.

For 2 small beauties I crumbled 3 biscuits, mixed with a small amount of melted butter and tsp of caster sugar, pressed into the rings and baked for 10 minutes. The rest is whipped cream with about 2 tbps of cream cheese,  and yuzu syrup ( 1/4 cup of yuzu juice with 2 tbps of sugar and 1 gelatine leaf,  all heated up) all sweetened to taste with icing sugar.

It took them 3 hours to nicely set in the fridge, finished off with toasted almonds-that’s right before  serving, great texture and just a touch of maple syrup, which added sweetness to the tangy cheesecake. A glorious cooking day.;-)

I needed a dessert, that was a perfection. I needed it for 2 reasons. One, I made a cold cheesecake last night. Baileys cheesecake with a coffee jelly, bla bla bla, but I didn’t do a very good job with the gelatine, it didn’t set, it went down the bog this morning. An annoying waste. Two, Florian went shopping on Sunday and bought some cooking chocolate, as an indication perhaps, of what he had in mind, dessert wise. He made me laugh last night, putting together  a correct Polish sentence, saying “kupilem czekolade i co, i mam kurwa sernik”  🙂 I had to reward him with some chocolate dessert.  Irritatingly, when looking for a recipe on the net today, I found plenty of recipes calling  for ready short crust pastry. I can do better than that and I found the proper recipe. Pastry therefore, 250 g of plain flour, 75 g of caster sugar, 125 g unsalted butter, 2 beaten egg yolks all mixed together, then blind baked for 25 minutes on gas mark 4, extra 10 minutes minus the baking beans. Not the most show- stopping pastry case I’ve ever made, must be said.

The filling, zero calorie one, 200 ml of double cream heated up and around 300 g of dark chocolate melted in it, until thick and lovely. I added a splash of Kahlua as well, but can’t really taste it, to be honest. Fresh raspberries went on to the slightly cooled case, chocolate mixture onto it and into the fridge for a couple of hours. I finished it off with some chopped, toasted hazelnuts and to serve, a creme fraiche with the said hazelnuts and  touch of icing sugar. Rich. Nice.

Even better than last night, dusted with cocoa, as written in the Food Bible and with fresh raspberries, for the contrast. Roughly about 3 million calories, me thinks. 🙂

I had that idea for a few days, but couldn’t work out, what to serve it with. The Chief suggested creme anglaise, but I was thinking- roasted fruit, peach or something. But the peaches in Tesco were crap today and I’m not patient, so I bought nice, ripe apricots instead. Roasted them off in the oven with brown sugar and some dessert wine.

The panna cotta itself, Ramsay’s recipe again, I hate to say, but it does work, great texture. 300 ml of double cream, 100 ml of milk, about 75 g of sugar – still I thought a bit too sweet- and all this infused with good quality jasmine tea and then strained. 1,5 leaf gelatine held it together.

I love the flavour, it’s subtle, yet unmistakable. Roasted apricots a bit too strong. Maybe the  Chief was right. I still have 4 in the fridge for tomorrow for the guests, might give it a go.