Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte or Black Forest Cake, whichever way you say it it was still a disaster. So the chocolate cake was nice, the chocolate cherries were nice, the morello cherry jam and kirsch drenched cherries were nice but it was still one big (although attractive) disappointment.

I went to visit my sister in the Black Forest last week, hence my lack of blogging, and on my return i was inspired to make this traditional black forest cake. I'm not sure whether it was because i had such high hopes for this that i was disappointed or that a cake or gateau would never work covered in whipped cream. I have however not yet posted one of my favourite recipes for chocolate cherry cupcakes, so i will post that soon in replacement of my failed kirshtorte.

Pistachio Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

After making these i have decided that my Canon powershot simply doesn't do my baking any justice and at the next possible present recieving opportunity i will have to get a good camera. However i tried my very best to make these look as appealing as they were! My favourite blogs are the ones with beautiful photography so i would really love to be able to take lovely pictures of my food too, in the mean time i will just have to make up with really nice recipes?!

I've also lost all faith in following recipes exactly, it's no fun and i like to make things my own. I originally thought of pistachio cupcakes and rose water frosting? but i worried it would end up tasting like perfume! I would love to try it in a recipe sometime but i decided that this wasn't the one.

Pistachio cupcakes: makes 10

60g pistachios
115g butter
120g sugar
2 large free range eggs
100g self raising flour
1tbsp milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Process the pistachios in a food processor until it ressembles fine grit, don't worry if it's not really fine!
Then beat the butter and sugar in a seperate bowl, gradually incorporating the eggs then the milk and vanilla. Fold in the pistachios, followed by the flour. Put into cupcake cases and bake for 20 minutes at 180C.


Cream Cheese Frosting

I really don't know the quantities of the cream cheese, butter and icing sugar i just made it to taste! i also added a little bit of pink colouring to the icing then scattered some crushed pistachios on top. Buttercream would taste lovely on top too or just some royal icing.

Strawberry Vanilla Cheescake!

At last. I have eventually  finished school and now i have the whole summer to bake, eat, bake some more and blog! I don't make cheesecake often and somehow i managed to throw out the magazine with this recipe in it but i decided to post it anyway!
The base of this recipe was what really made me make this. Instead of the usual crushed digestives it was a mixture of ground almonds butter and flour baked in the oven to make a cruchy almond base. Although i do really love crushed digestives mixed with melted butter i thought the almond base was slightly more sophisticated?

The topping consists of a tub of marscapone, i do remember that much! which made it lovely and smooth and creamy. I also added a tablespoon of vanilla bean paste (i know that seems rather a lot but i love it so much!) Then i folded in some whipped double cream and greek yoghurt and put strawberries on top!
i served it with some homemade strawberry coulis too.

My next post is definitely going to include more detail than this! I'm really looking forward to spending more time blogging, and i hope to try out some recipes i like from different blogs soon.