Orange, Pistachio and White Chocolate Sponge Cake

I visited a lovely cafe in Worthing called Green Cuisine not long ago and tried their Orange, Pistachio and White Chocolate cake, and I fell in love. The flavour combination is to die for, it may not be one of the healthiest things on their menu but it sure is the tastiest. I decided to recreate this cake at home using a basic sponge tray bake recipe and altering it a little. For this cake I used a deep rectangular oven tray and an electric whisk and set my oven to 160 degrees.

You will need:
225 grams of softened unsalted butter
225 grams of caster sugar
275 grams of self raising flour
2 level tsp of baking powder
4 large eggs
4 tbsp of whole milk
Zest and juice of one orange
Large handful of pistachios
2 bars of white cooking chocolate
300 grams of icing sugar
200ml of water.

In a large mixing bowl add your flour, eggs, butter, sugar, baking powder and milk and combine all these ingredients to make to cake batter, once the mixture is done add half of the chopped pistachios and all of the orange zest and juice. Transfer the mixture into your lined oven tray. Bake in the oven for approximately 40 minutes. You will know when the cake is cooked when you put a knife into the centre and it comes out clean, set aside to cool. Once the cake has cooled down fully then you can start on the topping. Melt the white chocolate in a glass bowl over a simmering pan of water. In a separate bowl mix the icing sugar together with a little of the water, once this is runny add it to the bowl of melted chocolate, this mixture will go hard very quickly so you will need to add around 200ml of water, keep mixing and adding water until you have formed a thick glossy chocolate topping for the cake. Once the topping is reading smooth over the cake and the sprinkle on the remaining pistachios. I think it is best to do this whilst the cake is still in the tin. Once the topping is completely set then you can slice up the cake into squares and remove carefully from the tin.

Pop this into a cake tin and it should last for a couple of days. Let me know if you give this a go!

Raspberry & White Chocolate Cheesecake

Everybody loves cheesecake right? Well I actually thought I didn't but oh how wrong I was, I wanted to make something special to celebrate my first wedding anniversary, and I know how much Luca loves cheesecake so on went the apron and out came the mixing bowl. I chose to make raspberry and white chocolate one with a dash of mint. I thought I would share the recipe with you as it was such a hit.

You will need:
Half a packet of digestive biscuits
2 tubs of Philadelphia
1 punnet of raspberries
White chocolate buttons - 2 share bags
Unsalted butter - 90 grams
Extra thick double cream - 500ml
Handful of fresh mint
Caster sugar 150 grams
Spring form cake tin
Vanilla paste - an eighth of a teaspoon

Begin by putting the digestives into a bowl and smashing them up making sure not to make them too fine, next melt the butter and stir into the biscuits. Melt one packet of white chocolate buttons by putting them into a glass bowl and placing it over simmering water. Push the crushed digestive mixture into the bottom of the cake tin making sure it is all nice and compact, then put this in the fridge. In a separate bowl whisk the double cream until it holds its shape. In another separate bowl mix the Philadelphia, vanilla paste and caster sugar together, slowly pour the melted chocolate in making sure you are beating the mixture the whole time, take three large handfuls of raspberries and crush them, then add them to this mixture. Add the whisked cream to the Philadelphia mixture and fold the two together. Now you can spoon the mixture into the cake tin making sure to fill all the air holes then smooth the top. Now it is time to decorate, take your second bag of buttons and your leftover raspberries and get creative, don't forget to add a little fresh mint to finish it off.  Leave in the fridge for at least two hours and then you can enjoy!

Have you tried any new recipes recently?