Berry Pink Passion Cake

I live with a truly wonderful couple, Kees and Dineke. Last week was Dineke's birthday and instead of a gift, I said that I would make her any birthday cake she wanted.

"Pink" Dineke exclaimed.

To which I said, "But pink isn't a flavour".

She laughed and I got to work, dreaming up flavours to accompany the desired shade...

Since my lavender cupcakes a month or so ago, I have let the floral-loving eye of mine (look in my wardrobe and you'll get what I mean) recommend its tendencies to my palette. Flowers look good, smell good and thus are bound to taste good, right? This is probably not true of all flowers - so don't let prettiness dictate what you eat or you might upset your stomach - but it is true of roses.

Having purchased some rose water the other day in my local Asian shop, I was itching to using it and the suggested colour scheme further urged me to put it to use. And then came the trip to the market in Leiden, the beautiful town I lived in up until just recently. It's impossible just to browse and so I came back with arms full of strawberries, raspberries, pineapples & passion fruits. Summer loving ...

I confess I didn't use the pineapple in the cake (I BBQ-ed it, which was simply delish), but the other fruits I did. And here is what I concocted:

Isn't it pretty! I officially christened it "Berry Pink Passion Cake", which is short for raspberry, rose & pistachio layer cake, with passionfruit curd and berry tasty mascarpone frosting. Now the top layer of cake is your average sponge with fresh raspberries lovingly tossed into the batter, and the bottom layer is rose flavoured sponge, with flecks of glorious green pistachios sneaked in, complete with a tiny dash of colouring for the lovely pink look.

Jam seemed too boring a glue to encourage the unity between my two delightful sponge's, so I settled for no less than passionfruit curd, with a smattering of creme fraiche to avoid a sweetness overload. See Nigella's recipe here.

The frosting was my one slight disappointment. I love sugar I really do, but sometimes, if the frosting is too sweet, it can spoil rather than compliment an already sweet cake. I began therefore with a tub of mascarpone, which I blended fresh strawberries and a bit of sugar through. It tasted great, but it just wasn't stiff enough and I needed the cake to be completely covered and completely pink, not some drippy mess. So I mixed the lovely creamy berry mix, with some royal icing to get it to the right consistency, so it would stick to the walls of the cake. This it did, gloriously, although perhaps a little to the detriment of the overall taste. I am still seeking a stiff, yet not-too-sweet frosting recipe. So hollar at me, if you have one.

On the whole though a berry tasty, berry pink and berry pretty cake.

Treasure-trove of treats

So I have made so much recently that I have a backlog of treasures to share. I thought I should do this sooner, rather than letting the delectable pile of photos become unmanageable, thus forever remaining unshared with food-loving friends. I've been rather busy lately and below are some of the treats that I have concocted. I'm afraid I've been rather rubbish at compiling recipes as I go, but if you see anything of particular fancy, let me know and I will try and remember for you. Even if you can't recreate these though do enjoy the pretty pictures, a treat for your eyes if nothing less!

So directly below we have some personalised cupcakes that I made for my housemates as a leaving gift. I made four different flavours according to their preferences. Fresh ginger and lemon curd, chai and white chocolate, chocolate earl grey and vanilla and white chocolate. I also couldn't resist making little boxes for them. Not only do the whole cake off, but I have become fed up with transportation issues and edible beauties becoming less-edible looking!

Directly below is a sweet potato, lemon balm, chilli and cod cake, then we have banana and coconut loaf (this was delicious I have to add!), then my homemade lemon curd and lavender scones - really a tremendous and summery combination.

My failed French macarons ... it saddened me that after 7 hours in the kitchen (and that is not a hyperbole, I only managed to produce, these less than perfect looking excuses. They tasted good according to their eaters, but I found them far short of macaron perfection. I will try again when the trauma subsides and I will succeed. Then there's my all time favourite to date - chai cupcake with chocolate chili ganache. If you've read my posts before then you'll know how much I love this combo. And to prove to you that I do eat savoury foods, we have some brie and chutney, and carrot and cream cheese muffins. Delicious sandwich alternative.

After discovering the delight of blending tea leaves into cake mixture, I had the joy of adding Mr Jones Lychee tea into a cake to create the lovely fella below. One word aptly describes this experiment: GORGEOUS. Then there's the chocolate earl grey cupcake with lemon & honey frosting, the white chocolate and coconut slab cake (one of Nigella's) and at the bottom a creation that was waiting to happen with the remainder of my clotted cream ...

I've been a busy girl! And I fear that my waste line has enjoyed herself a little too much. Right now I've unlocked the treasure-trove for you, I shall try and be more organised from here on and aim to include recipes with all of my posts, so you can have as much fun eating as reading.