Schwartzwald Torte: Swedish Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday Husband! A specially requested cake, for a special day, the Schwartzwald Torte is reserved for only very special people on very special occasions in Sweden. At first I was confused by the name, but this is not the "Black Forest Gateux" of the British 70's, nor the German Dessert "Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte" either. It is in fact a Swedish cake called Schwarzwaldtårta which is related to the traditional Black Forest cake only by name. It consists of layers of hazelnut meringue with whipped cream in between. The whole cake is also covered with whipped cream and decorated with chocolate. Special indeed. This cake needs to be assembled immediately before eating, so while the birthday boy slept, I whipped up this gastronomic monster (literally) in the kitchen. As you might imagine, this is rather a fun cake to assemble and one can be as artistic or garish (depending on how you look at it) as you like. Great fun can be had where abstract use of chocolate is required. The result was greatly appreciated by said birthday boy and that is all that matters! Embrace the 70's chef in you and give it a go next time a special occasion calls for a special cake.

This recipe is from "Sju Sorters Kakor - Swedish Cakes and Cookies"

Oven temp: 175C/350F, 3/4cup hazelnuts, 1cup sifted icing sugar, 4 egg whites, 2 cups whipping cream, 1 tsp vanilla essence, 1/3cup further of ground hazelnuts. Chocolate & cocoa to decorate. Draw 3 circles, each one 23cm in diameter, on baking parchment. Place 2 on one baking sheet and the third on another. Grease and flour the circles. Lightly toast the nuts in the oven. Rub off the skins with a clean teatowel/kitchen towel. Grind nuts and mix with powedered sugar. Beat egg whites until stiff (you should be able to hold the bowl up side down). Carefully fold in the nut mixture, spread the mixture over the circles. Bake in the centre of oven for around 10 minutes. The meringue should be the colour of biscuits, firm, but not hard. Let cool. Whip cream for filling and stir in the vanilla and nuts. Layer the meringues with cream in between. Spread cream over the top and sides. Arrange chocolate and dust with sifted cocoa.

Red, White and Blue

Here is another one of my 4th of July desserts, a classic Summer Victoria Sponge with a little red, white and blue thrown in for celebratory purposes. The recipe came from Nigella Lawson's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' which is beginning to look like it might need replacing soon with a fresh copy - it is so reliable and so well used! The recipe is seriously simple - See below - mix it all in the food processor and then bake. As I was making the cakes in someone else's kitchen using someone else's oven I was a little nervous and forgot to put the vanilla essence in - I was making it by hand and trying to look relaxed at the same time ;) Still, they came out very nicely and I just added the vanilla to the cream. Yum! Decorating is the best part, but my friend and I got so absorbed with decorating the top that I burnt the top of the Tarte Tartin that was warming under the grill - brilliant Miranda - nobody seemed to find much though as they were all such lovely people and apparently all loved Tarte Tartin with homemade bourbon ice cream. Don't mind if I do!

Victoria Sponge
225g soft unsalted butter
225g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
200g self raising flour
25g cornflour
1 tsp baking powder (only if using food processor)
3-4 tbsp milk
2 x 21cm sandwich tins about 5cm deep, buttered