Lemon polenta cake From the River Cafe Cookbook Yield: Serves 12 Ingredients 450g unsalted butter, softened

450g caster sugar 450g ground almonds 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 6 eggs Zest of 5 lemons Juice of 1 lemon 225g polenta 1 1/2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder (if you want a gluten free cake) 1/4 teaspoon salt Cooking Directions Preheat the oven to 150C/300F. Grease a 30cm tin well. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the ground almond s and continue to beat until combined. Beat in the eggs one by one. Fold in the lemon zest, lemon juice, polenta, baking powder and salt. Pour into the tins and bake for 40-50 minutes until golden brown. Turn onto a wi re rack to cool. Red velvet cake Ingredients Cake: 2 cups sugar 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature 2 eggs 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 2 ounces red food coloring 2 1/2 cups cake flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup buttermilk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 tablespoon vinegar Black Pepper and Chocolate Mousse Cake Print Recipe type: Dessert Author: Amrita Chowdhury Prep time: 40 mins Cook time: 30 m ins Total time: 1 hour 10 mins Serves: 8 slices A mousse cake set in chocolate through and through. Fudgy cake base, creamy choc olate mousse with a heavy shot of cracked black pepper. Ingredients For the cake base 3/4 cup ground almonds 4 tbsp natural unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch processed) 4 tbsp all-purpose flour 1 pinch salt 2 eggs 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/3 cup vegetable oil (eg, canola, peanut, sunflower etc but not olive) 1/3 cup sour cream For the mousse 4 eggs, separated 2 tbsp freshly cracked black pepper + more to sprinkle on top

2/3 cup (150ml) double cream 10 oz (about 300gm) dark bittersweet chocolate 2 tbsp powdered sugar (granulated sugar ground in a processor) Instructions Cake Base Pre-heat oven to 180 deg C and grease a 8?X8? square tin or a 8-9? dia round tin . Line the bottom with parchment. Grease the parchment too. Mix almonds, cocoa, flour and salt in a small bowl. Whisk eggs, sugar, oil and sour cream in a bigger bowl till the sugar dissolves. Add the dry mixture into the wet and stir till just combined. Do not overwork th e batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes and cool in the cake tin for a half hour before turning o ut on the rack. Line the same cake tin (washed and dried) used to bake the cake in, with cling f ilm, making sure the film hangs over the edges of the tin. This just makes it ea sier to lift the mousse cake out after its frozen. Place the cooled cake back into the cling-film lined tin and leave to rest in th e refrigerator for a couple of hours. Mousse Melt the chocolate in the microwave in short bursts, or in a heat-proof bowl sit ting over a pot of boiling water. Keep aside to cool for minute. Whisk the egg yolks and pour in the warm chocolate while whisking continuously. Whisking continuously will prevent the yolks from scrambling. Whisk the double cream till soft peaks form. Fold the egg-chocolate mixture into the softly whipped cream. Use a large bowl f or this, since the egg whites will also be folded into this later. Whisk the egg whites in a separate (clean) bowl with the electric beaters on hig h, till the whites start foaming (this will take about a minute). Start adding the sugar a teaspoon at a time while still whisking the whites, til l the whites form stiff glossy peaks. Take 1/3 of the whisked meringue and stir it quickly into the chocolate-cream mi xture. Add the rest of the meringue and the black pepper in and fold gently. Pour this mousse on top of the cake and smooth out the top with a palette knife. Sprinkle the top with freshly cracked black pepper. Notes The cake base uses a recipe based loosely on a birthday cake that I make, with a few obvious tweaks (no baking soda or powder, because you don t want the cake to rise much). And the mousse recipe that came on an issue of BBC Good Food was a p lain classic version of the dessert. The black pepper I added was totally on a w him. A planned whim. WordPress Recipe Plug