Cherry White Chocolate Cake

Special cake for a very special person…..

There is no more excuse for me to go out and be spoilt with nice food, wine and entertainment since my special visitor has left. I made this welcoming cake as a surprise, but it didn’t become a surprise because I got caught in the middle of the secret project – ‘F’ came in while I was decorating the cake. I panicked a bit, and because of that, my gorgeous ‘white chocolate cream cheese frosting‘ is not in its best shape. Despite the little flaw, I was quite satisfied with how it looked in the end.

Tah Dah~

I used a simple vanilla cake recipe from the internet instead of sponge cake, which turned out perfectly, with the nice smooth top, no cracks or bumps. I didn’t need to cut the cake in layers and put the bottom-side up in order to have a flat top.

I put in a bit of more work to give it a sweet look to match with ‘F’’s sweetness. Some cupcake decorations came in handy for that. I’m sure you would feel like eating your computer screen by now. But sorry, you will have to hold it in because I don’t want to be blamed for whatever might happen to your computer. *he he*

Here you go. Have a slice. Cherries look a bit squashed, he he, it didn’t fit in my cake container- It was taller than I expected. I have to say that this cake was one of the most luscious cake I had ever had, and I couldn’t stop myself going ‘Mmm, Mmm, Mmm~~~~~~~’ for each mouthful.

I’m definitely going to make this cake again. Next time I try this I will make sure I use fresh cherries – oops, I gave away the secret by accident, didn’t I? How could you dare to use tinned fruit? Well, they are not in season and I couldn’t get fresh ones. While writing this post, I looked up the cherry season and found that a town called ‘Young’ holds the National Cherry Festival every year from Nov 28th to Dec 7th. I might check it out when it comes close. I haven’t done much travelling for a long time and I’m starting to get itchy feet as the weather warms up.

Cherry White Chocolate Cake

for the cake
recipe from foodbeam.com

160g flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
83g butter, softened
130g caster sugar
2 eggs
seeds from half a vanilla pod – I used 2 tsps of vanilla extract for my cake
160ml sour cream – I substituted it for 120ml of butter milk, but it turned out ok.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl.
Place the butter and sugar in a bowl an cream together.
Add the eggs and vanilla seeds and mix. Add the dry ingredients, alternating with sour cream, mixing well after each addition.
Pour the cake batter into a lined 18×22cm rectangle cake tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn onto a wire rack until completely cold.

layering and decorating the cake

Put whipped fresh cream on the first layer and spread as many as cherries you have-the more the better!
Spread more fresh cream on the top and sides
Cover the sides with toasted almond

for white chocolate cream cheese frosting
from pragmatic me

100g white chocolate
150g cream cheese

Melt the chocolate and mix with cream cheese
Decorate the edges of the cake with a pipe

My Little Herb Garden

Stepping out onto the balcony has never been this exciting! Now I’ve got gorgeous little green babies to look after and I’m so pleased about how healthy they all look at the moment. I waited patiently through the winter to set up my little herb garden, which is so far made up of my 10 favourites of herbs – basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, mint, coriander, parsley plus lavender. I still need to add a few more herbs. This year I invited tomato and chilli plants to my garden, and I really hope they grow well.

Anyone with interests in cooking would understand the excitement of using home grown fresh herbs in cooking. An ordinary meal can be turned into a exciting gourmet meal. I’m often amazed by how just a little fresh herb can bring such deep and delicate flavour to a dish and it seems almost magical.

Apart from culinary benefits, I think having a herb garden can also boost our mental health as it delights our senses by its sights and scents. Resting on a balcony surrounded by the abundance and greenness sometimes helps me to revitalise my stressed soul and make it easier to let go of unnecessary things that I hold on to. :-p

How should I celebrate my new herb garden?

I think the salmon, trout and sword fish I cooked for my guest the other night turned out to be the most beautiful fish dish I had ever tasted. I can be partly because I kept the cooking so simple that you could fully taste the delicate flavour of the fish and the fresh herb. I splashed a bit of white wine halfway through the cooking and added some lemon juice, too.

The flesh was succulent, not dry, and it just melted in the mouth. The combination of fish juice, white wine and lemon made wonderful sauce and I soaked it up with bread til the last drop. I could feel omega-3 pumping in my body and felt smarter.

I also cooked sword fish with lime and coriander, which was my absolute favourite and ironically could make it to this blog, because I loved it so much I just tucked into it as soon as it landed on the plate. When I remembered I forgot to taking pictures it was too late – it was all gone!

However, don’t give up your hope yet because I’m going to make it again. I hadn’t had sward fish for ages and I enjoyed every mouthful of the juicy fish. It was really nice with my Mango Avocado Salsa.

Mango Avocado Salsa

I love this salsa with most fish, and this time I certainly felt that the salsa was made for sword fish. I just loved it and felt completely lost for words. When you are full of feelings and emotions, it becomes hard to put them into words. Sorry if it’s not the case for you. But for me, It’s like when you are with someone you love and you enjoy every second, then you are very careful about what you say and you feel afraid that any speech you make would spoil the moment. Sometime i feel that silence speaks more than words.

It’s normally either mango salsa or avocado salsa. But mixing the two was quite good.
So here’s how I do it.

Mango Avocado Salsa

- serves 4

some mango (whole mango if you prefer fruity sweet taste, otherwise half)
two medium avocados
1 Lebanese cucumber (or any cucumber)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 fresh chilli – leave it out if you don’t want the zing
salt&pepper
parsley

chop all the ingredients and mix them all. How simple is that????????

I hope you really enjoy it as much as I do.