Vanillicious.com – Easy Desserts

Berry Yeast Pastry

I once stayed at a pretty luxurious hotel and out of the amazing variety of morning cakes and pastries, I had a weakness to a relatively simple, not too sweet berry yeast pastry. It was so simple: a glazed yeast pastry baked with some berries on top of it. Luckily (or not), they didn’t have it every morning, so I could taste other great morning pastries they had. But this was definitely my favourite. Now that I master the art of making yeast dough, I had to use a little bit of imagination and create my own berry yeast pastry. And believe me, it didn’t require too much imagination or skills, because it’s that simple. Some notes:

• The amount of berries for the pastry is simply as many as you like it to be!
• Take the berries out of your freezer only when you’re about to use them. They have to be completely frozen when you stick it inside the dough, moments before you bake the pastry so they won’t mash when squeezed inside the dough.
• When working with a sweet yeast pastry, I sometimes dust my work surface with icing sugar rather than flour. There’ll be no complaints if the dough is just a little sweeter than it supposed to be (which is not too sweet anyway!).
• You can freeze the baked pastry and warm it up again in your oven when necessary.

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Apple Blackberry Tart

A great tart that can contain any seasonal fruit of your choice. I present a recipe combining apple and blackberries, but there are other interesting combinations that go very well together, such as nectarines and raspberries, pears and blackberries, pears and plums, apples and plums and more. Continue Reading »

Jamie Oliver's Party Cake

Few weeks ago I was invited for a festive brunch at friends’ house (I think it was more like a mansion), and there were loads of great sweet treats. I was tasting almost all of the served dessert, yet,the most impressive item I had was a chocolate cake with cream filling and strawberries, made by a teenager. I’m telling you, if this is heaven, I promise to be good for the rest of my life!

She forgot the name of the cake, but she said the recipe is from Jamie Oliver’s The Return of the Naked Chef . I assumed the recipe can be found online pretty easily, even without knowing its name. How wrong was I! Then I figured that once I know the name of the cake, I’ll just find it online. And that’s exactly what i did. Last week, after a long day at the office, I found myself heading to a book store. I went up the stairs to the 2nd floor, where the cooking books can be found, and started looking for the book. Since it’s a Jamie Oliver book, it wasn’t too hard to find. It was hard, though to remain focused while surrounded with all the cooking book, so I spend quite a while at the store. And yes, of course I found that the amazing cake that made me perform this enquiry is simply named Party Cake. When I was home I found the recipe on one of the discussion groups on Jamie Oliver’s official website, and nowhere else! Mission accomplished! Or at least the first part of it!

After reviewing the recipe, I couldn’t help it and decided to modify it, but to be honest – I always do.  So I decided to make the base of the cake a little more moisty than it was supposed to be. I also decided to exchange some of the cream with mascarpone cheese, since it goes very well with strawberries.

A quick note: I admit this cake might take a little longer than the usual sponge cake, but it’s worth every minute of your time! But still, even though the recipe and instructions might look long, the cake is very simple to make and will take less time than you would think! Unless you bake for fun, then I say: take your time, and enjoy every moment, like I usually do!

A few tips:

• The base: Cut the cake horizontally only when it has cooled completely. By then it is less likely to break. And of course, you’re less likely to burn your fingers!
• The cream filling: If you can’t find mascarpone cheese or if it’s over-priced (which is a good enough reason!), you can stick to the original recipe and whip 500ml of double or whipping cream (the latter consists less fats).
• Start whipping the cream and cheese for the filling and assemble the cake when the base has cooled completely.
• The berries for filling: I couldn’t find fresh raspberries at the store the day I was shopping for the cake, so I got some blueberries instead. I also added some frozen raspberries to the filling, and it was as good.

So here’s my version of Jamie Oliver’s party cake:

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