blood orange, almond and polenta cake with orange scented ganache

blood orange, almond and polenta cake with orange scented ganache

31 Aug 2025

My love for blood oranges knows no bounds. I've been enchanted by blood oranges since I was first introduced to them when I was 15. I was on a school trip to Europe and by the time we'd arrived in Italy I was craving both orange juice and steak. The steak could wait until I returned home but not the orange juice. Not even the ridiculously high price could stop me from ordering the juice and when it arrived it was blood red. We thought they'd made a mistake and had given us tomato juice, but one sip revealed there had been no mistake and we'd been served the best orange juice of all, blood orange juice.

I found a recipe for a blood orange cake in 'Love Crumbs' by Nadine Ingram, which she'd named 'A Waltzing Orange Cake'. I waited for blood oranges to return to the fruit shop and a few weeks back, there they were in all their glory. I bought a bag of blood oranges and set to work making both the cake and a batch of blood orange and vanilla marmalade. 

Whilst I loved the cake toppings, I found the cake quite dry. I've made many blood orange cakes in the past and thought one of those cakes might work better as a base for those lovely toppings. I returned to the kitchen for round 2 and came up with this recipe for a blood orange, almond amd polenta cake with an orange scented ganache. The cake, which is both gluten free and dairy free, was adapted from a Nicola Lamb recipe whilst the toppings (and instructions) are pure Nadine.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 17-cm cake. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. To make this cake you'll need 4-5 blood oranges, depending on their size, and 1 lemon. If blood oranges aren't in season, regular oranges will do nicely.

Blood orange, almond and polenta cake with an orange scented ganache - makes a 17-cm cake

Blood orange jelly slices -start this process 2 days ahead

1 blood orange

80g caster sugar

90ml water

¼ tsp cardamom pods, crushed

½ vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

  

Orange scented ganache

200g pure cream

½ vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

½ tsp cardamom pods, crushed

1 blood orange, zested

55g white chocolate good quality, finely chopped

Cake

The zest of 2 blood oranges

The blended flesh of 1-2 blood oranges to make 135g of puree

125g caster sugar

2 eggs

½ cup (125ml) extra virgin olive oil

125g almond meal

50g superfine polenta flour, sifted with 1 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt

Citrus syrup

¼ cup (55g) caster sugar

1 tbs water

¼ cup (60 mls) freshly squeezed blood orange juice

Juice of ½ lemon

pinch salt

Blood orange jelly slices – start these 2 days before serving the cake.

Slice the oranges into 2 mm-thick rounds using a very sharp knife. Take your time as you want every slice to be completely round without tears. Place the slices in a large bowl and pour over boiling water from the kettle to well cover the slices, then wrap the bowl in plastic film for 6 hours until cold. Repeat the process twice more to make a total of three blanches over an 18-hour period. Don't worry, they can sit for longer if you need to leave them overnight. This is a technique used to soften citrus and remove the bitterness, while maintaining the vibrant colours. It's normally done by bringing the fruit to the boil in a saucepan, however, in the case of delicate orange slices they would be broken up in the process.

Place the sugar, water, cardamom and vanilla bean and seeds in a large, wide saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Discard the blanching water from the oranges and gently add the orange slices to the cardamom syrup, laying them carefully over the base of the saucepan, then cover them with a round piece of baking paper to ensure the top of the slices don't dry out.

Continue to simmer the orange slices on the lowest heat possible for about 1 hour -1 hour 30 minutes or until the syrup reduces to a jelly and coats the oranges in a glossy, translucent glaze. Turn off the heat and let them cool at room temperature. After this they can be stored in the fridge stacked up in a jar with any remaining syrup poured over them for approximately 3 months.

Orange-scented ganache

Place the cream, vanilla, cardamom pods and the orange zest in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat and allow the flavours to mingle for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, place the finely chopped chocolate into a medium bowl and set it beside the stove. Strain the aromatics out of the cream and return the cream to the boil, then pour it over chocolate and stir the ganache until it is smooth and all the chocolate has dissolved. Pour the ganache into a container with a lid and cool in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.

Cake

Preheat oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease a 17cm-round cake pan and line the tin with baking paper.

Place the grated rind and sugar into a bowl and massage together until the sugar becomes fragrant. Add the eggs and whisk to combine, followed by the oil. Whisk in almond meal and the polenta flour mixture alternating with the blended orange pulp to form a loose batter. Spread into the prepared pan and bake for 55-65 minutes until the top is just firm and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in pan for 1 hour, then invert onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Syrup

Combine sugar with the water in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a simmer, add the orange juice and cook for 4-6 minutes until thickened and starting to caramelise. Cool syrup, then mix in the juice of ½ lemon and a pinch of salt and stir until combined. Cool completely to room temperature.

To assemble

Remove the cake from the tin by inverting it onto a plate, removing the baking paper and then flipping it back the right way up onto a platter.

Remove the orange-scented ganache from the fridge and give it a good whisk to incorporate any white chocolate that may have settled to the bottom or fat from the cream that may have floated to the top. Whip the ganache in the bowl of an electric mixer using the whisk attachment or use a hand whisk to whisk until firmly whipped, then spread or dollop evenly over the top of the cake. 

Arrange the blood orange jelly slices on top, noting that they're difficult to slice through when cutting the cake, so a bit of strategic placement based on the number of guests will make portioning much easier or you can place an orange slice on each plate then cut the cake afterward and drizzle with the syrup to serve. 

I took this to a friends place and we served the cake for dessert and it was a triumph! If you don't feel like making the ganache or the blood orange jelly slices, this cake topped with whipped cream and drizzled with some orange syrup is still a delight.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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double pecan apple crumble cake

double pecan apple crumble cake

24 Aug 2025

If you go back through the archives, you'll see I've made this cake before, way back in 2009. I didn't type up the recipes back then. As well as a full time job, my weekends were spent photographing weddings and there just weren't enough hours in the day. 

I copied the original recipe from a magazine so when one of my readers asked for the recipe, I searched through 2 dusty boxes of recipes. Some of the recipes I'd pulled from magazines whilst others were handwritten on scraps of paper, the things we did pre-mobile phones. Despite my best efforts, the recipe which should have been in one of the boxes, was nowhere to be found.

This was how I described the cake in 2009. 'The Pecan Apple Crumble Cake is a simple butter cake with grated apple folded through it with a surprise crumble layer in the middle consisting of brown sugar, chopped pecans and cinnamon'. From that description alone, I figured I could recreate a version of the cake. The base I adapted from here whilst the pecan crumble topping I winged.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 17-cm cake. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. 

Double pecan and apple crumble cake - makes a 17-cm cake

Pecan crumble
100g brown sugar
75g chopped toasted pecans
1 tbs plain flour
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
30g unsalted butter, melted
  
Cake
1 Granny Smith apple, (mine was 200g) peeled, cored and coarsely grated
1 lemon zested
110g unsalted butter
110g caster sugar 
2 eggs
75g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
50g almond meal

Pecan crumble
In a bowl, combine the brown sugar, chopped nuts, flour and cinnamon. Using a fork, stir in butter until crumbly; set aside.

Cake
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and line a 17cm round tin with baking paper. 

Beat the butter, sugar and rind together until light and smooth. Add the eggs one at a time and beat together. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and then add the almond meal. Stir to combine. Add to the mixture in two or three lots alternating with the grated apple.

Spoon half the cake mixture into the prepared pan; level and then spoon over half the pecan crumble. Top with the remaining cake batter before smoothing the surface. Scatter the remaining pecan crumble on top of the cake and bake on the centre rack for 50-60 minutes at 180°C, conventional or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out moist but relatively clean. If the crumble browns too quickly, then cover with a piece of foil halfway through whilst it finishes cooking through.

Cool in the pan for 5 mins before turning out onto a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I'm really glad I made this cake because it's absolutely delicious and after tasting the cake, my neighbours sent wildly enthusiastic messages. The cake is definitely a pecan cake though; the apple makes the cake nice and tender but it's not a major player flavour wise. The pecan crumble however is fire and if the cake is stored in an airtight container the topping will stay crunchy for 2 days, thereafter it will soften.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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Sticky prune teacakes or puddings

Sticky prune teacakes or puddings

17 Aug 2025

Even though the biscuit tin was empty, I decided I wanted to eat cake rather than a cookie. During my search, this recipe for sticky prune cakes by Edd Kimber's from his book Small Batch Bakes, popped up and with all the ingredients in my pantry I decided to make a batch.

The recipe is a riff on a sticky toffee pudding so if you don't have any prunes in the house, I'm sure you could use dates or even dried figs. 

As it's winter here and I was in the mood for a warm dessert, I heated up the sticky prune teacakes and served them as a pudding with stewed apple and butterscotch sauce and they were delicious!

Here's the recipe for you which makes 6 small cakes or puddings. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20-ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Sticky prune teacakes

Ingredients
40g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
115g ready-to-eat prunes, halved
150ml brewed black tea (I like earl grey)
75g light brown sugar
1 tbsp black treacle
1 large egg
75g rye flour
25g plain flour
¼ tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarb soda
Demerara sugar, for sprinkling

Butterscotch Sauce - if making puddings

Ingredients

45g unsalted butter

¾  cup brown sugar

¾ cup cream

1 tbs pure maple syrup

pinch sea salt flakes

Method
Heat the oven to 180°C, conventional, and lightly grease a six-hole muffin tray.

Put the prunes into a small saucepan, pour in the hot tea and bring to a simmer. Continue simmering on a medium heat, stirring occasionally, until almost all the liquid has been absorbed by the fruit.

Meanwhile, put the butter, sugar and treacle in a bowl and beat for about five minutes, until light and fluffy, then beat in the egg until fully combined. In another bowl, whisk the flours, salt and baking powder, then add to the butter mixture and mix briefly just to combine.

Take the pan of prunes off the heat, add the bicarb and stir just until it starts to foam. Set the mixture aside to cool for 5 minutes, then add to the batter and mix briefly until combined.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tray, sprinkle liberally with demerara sugar, then bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cakes spring back to a light touch. Remove and leave to cool for five minutes, then carefully turn out and put on a wire rack to cool completely. The cakes will keep in a sealed container for at least four days.

If you like, you can serve these warm as a pudding with stewed fruit and butterscotch sauce.

Butterscotch Sauce

Place all the ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, stir, then bring to a simmer. Simmer the sauce for 5 minutes, until thickened, then remove from heat. Serve warm.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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salted peanut tart

salted peanut tart

10 Aug 2025

I've had this salted peanut tart recipe bookmarked for ages but with so many other recipes that needed my attention, it fell by the wayside.

Whilst doing my research I discovered that peanut pie is a traditional recipe from the south made just like pecan pie but with peanuts instead of pecans. Instead of corn syrup, Deb Perelman from Smitten Kitchen made her filling with golden syrup or honey with a touch of apple cider vinegar and I found a Martha Stewart recipe which did the same. There is always golden syrup in my kitchen, so after I bought a packet of salted peanuts, the time had come to finally make this salted peanut tart. 

I made the pastry and lined the tin and had every intention of parbaking the crust, but when the time came, I couldn't be bothered. When I make pecan pie I don't parbake the crust because the pie is in the oven for 45-60 minutes on a preheated oven tray, which gives the pastry plenty of time to cook. However, this salted peanut tart is only in the oven for 30 minutes, so although the edges looked nice and golden, the pastry was still a little blonde on the base. Next time I'd start the bake on a lower rack to give the base a bit more heat and then I'd move it to the centre rack to set the filling.

You might notice a little bit of a volcanic eruption happened to the tart. There was a plumber in the building and I had to leave the tart mid bake to talk taps, so I wasn't able to keep a close eye on the tart, and when I did the filling had erupted. If you'd like to avoid this happening, keep an eye on the tart during the final 5-10 minutes of the bake.

Here's the recipe for you adapted from here, which makes a 33cm rectangular tart. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20-ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.  If you'd like to make a 23-cm tart, just follow the link to the original recipe for the quantities. 

Salted peanut tart
Pastry
1 cup plain flour
60 grams cold unsalted butter
Pinch sea salt flakes
2-3 tbs water

Pastry
Combine the butter, flour and salt in a food processor. Gradually add sufficient water until a dough forms around the blade. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a 4-mm thickness then line a lightly greased 33 x 11 cm rectangular tin with the pastry. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before trimming the edges just before filling and baking. 

Filling
245g salted roasted peanuts 
55g unsalted butter
110g sugar (I used an even mix of brown and caster sugar)
95g golden syrup or honey
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (optional)

1 tsp grated lemon rind (optional)

To serve
Sour cream or creme fraiche
Sea salt flakes
Icing sugar

Method
Place a tray onto the lower rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional. 

Remove a 1/3 of the peanuts and set aside, then coarsely chop the remaining peanuts. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat until it starts to bubble. Continue cooking while whisking until it is golden brown. Immediately transfer to a bowl and leave to cool.

When cooled add the sugars, the golden syrup, the eggs, vanilla and vinegar (if using) to the bowl and whisk well. Finally stir in the chopped peanuts.

Pour the filling into the tart shell then top with the whole peanuts. Carefully place the filled tart onto the preheated tray; reduce the oven temperature to 180⁰C, conventional, and bake for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes move the tart, still on the tray, to the centre rack and cook for another 15 minutes or until the outside of the tart is set but the centre has a slight wobble. Allow the tart to cool completely before serving. 

If desired, you can dredge the tart with icing sugar just before serving. Serve with a dollop of sour cream or crème fraiche and a few sea salt flakes. 

If you have a peanut allergy, chopped toasted macadamia nuts would be a delicious alternative. 

This is a very tasty tart and it's not overly sweet. In fact I'd be inclined to  increase the sugar a little. Best of all, the pastry shell was nice and crispy even though it hadn't been parbaked and received special mention from my neighbour!

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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lemon poppyseed morning buns/lemon poppyseed scrolls

lemon poppyseed morning buns/lemon poppyseed scrolls

4 Aug 2025

I recently watched a Danish baking video which featured one of the bakers from Duo Bakery making their famous lemon poppyseed scrolls. They looked absolutely delicious. The baker didn't provide a recipe but he described the process involved, so I set to work making my own version.

I've made laminated dough before but this time I made a batch of the Croiss-ain't/faux-ssaint dough - from Beatrix Bakes – Another Slice. It's made more like rough puff pastry, something I've not made before and is a tiny bit less labour intensive than laminated dough. 

I followed Natalie's instructions for the Orange ras el hanout sunshine buns from her book which are baked in an 11cm springform pan but I made the buns a little smaller to fit into a Texas muffin tin. However when I rewatched the video, I realised they'd made scrolls and as I wanted to recreate their recipe, I made another batch of Croiss-ain't/faux-ssaint dough. This time I used a food processor to sort out the butter because grating butter is a very messy process and with that batch of dough, I made scrolls. The dough yields 8 scrolls and the bake time is much the same. 

Here's the recipe for you which makes 6 morning buns or 8 scrolls and you’ll need to start the process the day before baking. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20-ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

If you're making the morning buns, as well as a Texas muffin tin you'll need a baking tray to place on top of the buns while they're baking. If you're making the regular scrolls, you'll just need 2 baking paper lined trays and of course, a cooling rack.

Croiss-ain't/faux-ssaint dough - from Beatrix Bakes – Another Slice - makes approximately 570 g (1 lb 4 oz) dough.
Ingredients
120g unsalted butter
200g bakers' flour
50g wholemeal plain flour
50g caster sugar
½ tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp bread improver (optional)
1½ tsp dry yeast
70 g/ml full-cream milk
70 g/ml water

Method
Grate the butter on the coarse side of a box grater. Line a shallow tray with baking paper and loosely distribute the butter over the surface - tease it out if it is clumping. Keep chilled. You can also cut the cold butter into 1 cm cubes and pulse in a food processor with the flour, sugar, salt and improver until the butter is pea sized before decanting into a large bowl and continuing with the recipe.

In a small bowl, whisk the yeast into the milk and water with a hand whisk until it has dissolved, then set aside.

Swizzle the flours, sugar, salt and improver (if using) together in a large mixing bowl. Add the grated butter to the dry ingredients and toss together, squeezing the butter through your fingers just a few times. Rubbing too much butter in will diminish the final flakiness - still a great dough though!

Add the liquid/yeast mix to the butter/flour mix and toss together. Squeeze and press with your hands until it comes together. Lightly form into a small, thick rectangle, 15 cm x 20 cm (6 in x 8 in) and wrap lightly in plastic wrap. Chill for 30 minutes.

Place the dough on a generously flour-dusted work surface. Roll the dough out to a long wide rectangle around 45 cm x 25 cm (17½ in x 10 in). If any large cracks start forming at the edges, just smoosh them back together to keep the sides as smooth and neat as possible. The rectangle will neaten after each roll, and the final block will have tidy sides. Fold into thirds like a letter, re-wrap and chill for 30-60 minutes.

After the rest, bring the dough out again to a lightly floured work surface and position the dough with the open end facing you. Re-roll the dough to a rectangle 45 cm x 25 cm (17½ in x 10 in) again. The butter will be lovely and lumpy and may poke through the surface throughout. Fold into thirds like a letter and chill, lightly wrapped, for 30-60 minutes.

Repeat the roll a third (final) time exactly as above. Wrap fully but not restrictively tight and chill overnight, for a long prove (cold ferment). The dough won't proof dramatically, but you will feel a subtle pillowy puff. It will be ready to use between 24-48 hours. Freeze after that.

Lemon Poppyseed Morning Buns/Scrolls – makes 6 morning buns or 8 scrolls 
1 batch croiss-ain’t/faux-ssaint dough (see above)
Filling
100g caster sugar
4 tsp grated lemon rind
Pinch salt
80g room temperature unsalted butter
1 tbs almond meal

For the tin
20g softened butter
¼ cup of poppyseeds

Lemon Syrup
¼ cup (55g) caster sugar
30mls water
¼ cup lemon juice

Lemon sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbs finely grated lemon rind

Filling
Combine the sugar, lemon zest and a pinch of salt in a small bowl then using your fingers rub the lemon zest into the sugar. Add the remaining ingredients and mix with a spoon until you have a smooth paste.

To assemble
Generously butter the wells of a jumbo muffin tray and then coat with poppyseeds.

Take the cold dough from the fridge and roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to form a 40-cm x 12 cm rectangle. Using a very sharp knife or pastry wheel, cut the dough on the short side into 6 x 2 cm pieces. If making scrolls, roll the dough into a 25 x 24cm rectangle and cut the dough on the short side into 8 x 3 cm pieces. Spread the filling evenly out onto the dough then roll each piece up firmly, again from the short side. 

Set the buns into the wells of the prepared muffin tins. If making the scrolls, wet your finger and tuck one end of the dough under the bun and lightly brush the outside of the scroll with your damp finger. Place the poppyseeds into a small bowl and roll the scroll on it's side to coat with the poppyseeds. Place 4 of the buns onto each prepared baking trays, spaced well apart. Spray the tops of the buns lightly with cooking oil, then cover loosely with plastic wrap. Leave in a mildly warm space or at room temperature in a warm kitchen (longer in cooler conditions) to have the final proof for 2-3 hours. 

These buns need a very long cool proof to fully puff the internal structure. Too warm and the butter will melt before the dough is fully proofed and fluffed. If this happens, bake them still delicious. In addition to the poke test, look for the internal layers to separate and puff a little. I do like to take an internal temperature of 25°C (75°F) for the perfect proof - underproof and the baked bun dough will be gummy inside.

While the buns are proofing, prepare the syrup and lemon sugar.

Syrup
For syrup, combine sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Mix in the lemon juice; bring to a simmer and cook for a few minutes until thickened. Take off the heat and set aside until needed.

Lemon sugar
Place the sugar and lemon rind into a bowl. Thoroughly combine, then set aside until needed.

Bake
When the buns are almost proofed, preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional. Remove the plastic; place a second baking tray on top of the muffin tin, then place in the oven. Turn the heat down to 180°C conventional and bake for 20 minutes until pale gold, then take the top tray off and bake another 8-12 minutes, until tanned brown. If they look like they are browning too fast, carefully cover with a sheet of foil. No second tray is needed if you're making the scrolls.

To test for doneness, tug at the heart of a swirl. The interior should look fluffy and bready (not raw and stretchy) and should have an internal temperature 95-98°C. The exterior should be a deep tawny brown. Remove the tray from the oven and place it on a cooling rack. 

Using a knife loosen each bun from the tin/tray before the melted sugar sets, then brush 1-2 tbs of the syrup over each bun. Cool in the tin for about 10 minutes to let the buns absorb the syrup then remove from the tin. Dredge each bun with the lemon sugar then place on a wire rack to cool. Allow the buns to cool for 30 minutes before eating, so the butter re-sets. Can be eaten warm or at room temperature.

Cooling briefly before removing the buns from the tin helps keep the scroll from unravelling while ultra-hot. Too long and the dough will sweat and compromise the crisp exterior. The second cooling, after removing from the tin, sets the butter-laden structure beautifully for a proudly set form.

The morning buns are nice, but the scrolls are next level. The baker from Duo described these scrolls as a guilty pleasure and I have to agree. These lemon poppyseed scrolls are absolutely magnificent!

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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sour cherry karpatka

sour cherry karpatka

28 Jul 2025

Karpatka, karpatka, karpatka. Everywhere you turn on Instagram these days, you'll see versions of Karpatka, a mountainous choux dessert inspired by the snowy peaks of the Carpathian Mountains. Karpatka originally comes from Poland, but my Polish born Grandma didn't have this dessert in her culinary repertoire. It's a reasonably modern invention and when Grandma Edie arrived in Australia in the late 1920's she didn't know how to cook. Her very Aussie neighbours taught her the basics so she could whip up a trifle or an apple cake but dessert in her house was quite often jelly and ice cream.

The inspiration for this Karpatka comes from Nicola Lamb. In her book Sift she has a recipe for Plum Karpatka but it's not plum season in Sydney. In her substack, she has a recipe for a peach karpatka but it's not plum season either but with a bag of frozen cherries in my freezer, I turned to Marta Beimin's recipe and whipped up a sour cherry compote. Edd Kimber uses some pistachio paste in his version, so I put a few spoons into my version as well.

I followed the recipe precisely, other than making it gluten free, and once filled I placed the karpatka in the fridge to set for 2 hours. 2 hours wasn't long enough and when I removed the karpatka from the tin, it splodged everywhere. It still tasted lovely, so I've made some suggestions which hopefully will produce a reasonably upright karpatka from which you can cut a clean slice.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 17-cm Karpatka. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20-ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Sour cherry karpatka - makes a 17cm cake
Choux base
45g whole milk
45g water
45g butter
½ tsp flaky sea salt
10g caster sugar
60g self-raising flour or 60g plain flour with scant ¾ tsp baking powder
2 whole eggs

Optional
2-3 tbs pistachio paste

Sour cherry compote
200g pitted frozen sour cherries 

20g caster sugar (adjust to taste)
1½ tsp potato starch
1½ tbs cold water

Mascarpone custard
200g full cream milk
1 egg 
50g caster sugar
20g cornflour
1½ tsp good quality vanilla extract
165g room temperature mascarpone

Choux 
In a small pan, heat the milk, water, butter, salt and sugar together. Bring to a rolling boil and stir to make sure the sugar/salt has dissolved. Sift the flour several times and add into your boiling liquid.

Reduce the heat and stir rapidly until a smooth paste forms and a dry film is formed. If you have a thermometer probe, check that it is above 70°C.

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs - this makes them easier to combine. 

Move paste into a bowl and either spread it out to cool down or paddle on a low speed if using a stand mixer. When you can touch the paste comfortably for 10 seconds, start to add the eggs. I do this in 3-4 additions, mixing well between each. The finished choux paste will be smooth and shiny and will ‘drop’ off the spoon when nudged. Choux can be kept in the fridge for 3 days before using.

To bake

Preheat the oven to 210°C, conventional /190°C fan. Grease and line the base of two 17-cm tins with baking paper. Spread 130g of choux paste in each tin, leaving the top slightly rough and wavy and using a palette knife to help. If you only have one tin, bake one at a time.

Bake for 10 minutes at 210°C, then lower to 190°C conventional and bake for another 20-30 minutes or until well peaked, golden and crisp. Leave to cool completely in the tins on a cooling rack, then remove.

Sour cherry compote
Place the frozen sour cherries and sugar into a small saucepan. Cook the fruit on low heat until the cherries are soft and starts to release some juices.

In a small bowl, combine the potato starch with water and add it to the cherries. Continue to cook the sour cherry compote over a low heat, stirring constantly, until it’s thickened. Allow it cool down before serving. Taste for sweetness and add a little extra sugar if needed.

Mascarpone custard
Whisk the egg, sugar, cornflour and vanilla together in a jug. Heat the milk in a small pan until simmering. Pour the hot milk over the egg mixture whilst whisking constantly to temper, then return the custard to the pan. Cook for 3–4 minutes over a medium heat until boiling, whisking the whole time to make a very thick custard. Pour into a clean container, then set aside to cool and gelatinise – make sure you put clingfilm or baking paper on the surface, so it doesn't form a skin. You want it to be totally cold and firm before continuing with this recipe.

When you’re ready to make the cream, make sure your mascarpone is room temperature as it will combine more easily. It does tend to be a bit lumpy so you must be prepared to work it! Beat the mascarpone until its smooth. Once that’s ready, beat the creme patissiere until smooth and no longer jelly-like. The easiest way to do this is in a stand mixer, if you have one. Now fold/mix the two together - it should make a very thick cream. You can also do this in your stand mixer with the paddle attachments. Leave in the fridge until ready to use.

Assembly method
Line one of the cake tins with acetate or paper. This will help you get a smooth edge.

Place your less cute choux disc in the base. If using, dollop 2-3 tbs of pistachio paste over the base then pile in the mascarpone custard, alternating with the sour cherry compote. Drizzle with the juice. Place the most mountainous choux disc on top then allow the cake to settle/reset by resting in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight. 

If storing the karpatka in the fridge overnight, don’t top it with the 2nd choux disc. Cover the filled karpatka before placing in the fridge and store the second choux disc in an airtight container to keep it crisp. Just before serving, place the 2nd choux disc over the cream filling, remove the karpatka from the tin and dust with icing sugar.

Note

You can also use your favourite jam in the middle of this! The karpatka can be stored in the fridge for 3 days but the choux will soften.

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