Summer Berry Mousse Cake

Laura Robson is through to the second week of Wimbledon, the Rolling Stones are at Glastonbury and the sun is making a real effort to shine! So, it seemed like a good excuse to try a summery dessert.

I found this recipe on the BBC Good Food website and made a slight alteration to it as several people had commented that the mousse was a bit floppy so, I've increased the number of gelatine sheets to compensate.

Ingredients

For the base:

200g digestive biscuits
100g butter, melted

For the mousse cake:

5 sheets leaf gelatine
142ml single cream
500g carton fromage frais
140g golden caster sugar
finely grated zest 1 small orange
4 tbsp orange juice
200g strawberries, roughly chopped
284ml carton double cream

For the sauce:

250g mixture of strawberries (chopped) and raspberries
3 tbsp orange juice
2 tbsp golden caster sugar

To decorate:

mixture of strawberries, raspberries, cherries and blueberries.
icing sugar, for dusting

Method

• Put the biscuits in a plastic food bag and crush using a rolling pin. Melt the butter in a pan, then stir in the biscuits. Tip this mixture into a loose-bottomed 24cm round cake tin, about 5cm deep and lined with clingfilm, press down evenly. Chill.
• Make the mousse cake: submerge the gelatine leaves in a large bowl of cold water and leave to soak for 5 minutes. Heat the single cream in a small pan until it just comes to the boil. Take off the heat. Lift the gelatine leaves out of the water and give them a good squeeze to get rid of the water. Stir into the hot cream one by one. Leave to cool slightly,
• Beat together th fromage frais, sugar, orange zest and juice with a whisk or wooden spoon. Stir in the cooled cream and gelatine mixtures and the raspberries. Crust just a few of the raspberries against the slides of the bowl and stir again to repple through, leaving most whole.
• Wihp the double cream lightly to soft peaks, then fold it into the raspberry mixture. Pour into the cake tin and leave to chill for at least 3 hours, or overnight, until set.
• To make the sauce, blitz all the ingredients in a food processor or blender. Chill until ready to serve.
• To serve, run a knife between the mousse cake and the tin, lift it out of the tin and take it off its base. Put on a serving plate and pile a mixture of fruits on top to decorate. Dust with icing sugar and serve with the sauce.

The result is a delicious and surprisingly light summer dessert which will delight your guests and have them coming back for more.

Blueberry and White Chocolate Crumble Muffins

As promissed this recipe has incorporated Willie's latest 50g white chocolate bar, El Blanco. 

Ingredients:
180g self raising flour
55g soft light brown sugar
150ml milk
1 egg, large
25g melted butter
100g blueberries
30g white chocolate - El Blanco - chopped into small chunks
Pinch of salt

Ingredients: - Crumble Topping
2 tbsps self raising flour
10g butter, softened
2 tbsps oats
1 tbsp soft light brown sugar. You can also add 1 tbsp of chopped nuts but not everybody in our family is a fan.

Method:

This is a straight forward recipe with minimal equipment required.

Pre-heat the oven to 160c(Fan)/180c/Gas Mark 4.

Line a six hole muffin tin with tulip cases or large muffin cases. I actually put the tulips cases inside extra muffin cases as I find they help hold their shape.

Make the Crumble Topping:Now make the muffin mix.

Rub the softened butter into the flour in a small bowl until mixture becomes all crumbly. Then add the oats, sugar and nuts (if used), stir well.


Place the flour and sugar in a big bowl. Stir to combine.

In a jug measure whisk the milk, egg and melted butter together. Make a well in the centre of the flour and sugar and pour the liquids in.

Mix in with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add the blueberries and chocolate and stir gently. Do not over mix the ingredients as the blueberries may split.

Divide the mixture equally between the six cases. Sprinkle the crumble topping liberally over each muffin (you will not need to use it all. Save some for your next batch!)Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transfering to a wire rack to cool completely.

View: To be honest this recipe wasn't a total success as the muffins were a bit doughy in texture and there wasn't enough white chocolate. If I were to make it again I'd increase the white chocolate to 50g and increase the sugar to 75g. However, I think I may be tempted to look at a different recipe.

Oooh! Chocolate Blueberry Brownie

Not having a computer is akin to losing my hairdrier!  Girls, I'm sure you understand what I'm talking about and empathise with my predicament.  For the past two weeks I've managed to fudge my way through without a Desktop. Fortunately, the clever people who produced the Cloud have helped to maintain my sanity!  Good news, the computer is finally in for repair so there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Feeling in need of something delicious and moreish I thought I'd have a go at a BBC Good Food recipe, produced by Sarah Cook. I've substituted raspberries with blueberries as my local store was out of stock. A word of warning, this recipe is not remotely slimming and I'm sure it will only be good for my soul rather than my waistline.  Arteries beware - brownie on the way!

Method:

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line a 20 x 30CM baking tray with baking parchment. Put the chocolate, butter and sugar into a pan and gently melt, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Do not over stir as the sugar will crystalise. Remove from the heat.
2. You can either stir the eggs in one by one or take my advice and beat four whole eggs in a bowl and add then add a 1/4 of the mixture at a time to the melted chocolate, folding the eggs in on each occasion. This will stop the egg whites cooking faster than the yolks and ending up with a chocolate omelette!
3. Sieve over the flour and cocoa, and stir in. Stir in half the blueberries, scrape into the tray, then scatter over the remaining blueberies.
4. Bake on the middle shelf for 30 minutes, 35 minutes for a firmer texture. However, I used a 23CM square tin and had to cook it for 50 minutes.
5. Cool before slicing if you have the will power!
   

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate, broken into small chunks. I used a dark chocolate from Peru, 64% cocoa.
100g milk chocolate, broken into chunks. I used a milk chocolate from Venezuela, 43% cocoa.
250g pack of salted butter
400g soft light brown sugar
4 large eggs
140g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
200g blueberries

Preperation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 50 minutes (based on my tray size)
Easy: but don't over stir the chocolate, butter and sugar!

Overall a great receipe...delicious soft centre and plump, unctious blueberries. Weightwatchers wouldn't approve!