LUXE POUND CAKE WITH EASY STRAWBERRY SAUCE

I got this book about 2 years ago, but I never have a chance to taste any recipes.The pound cake with whipping cream in the ingredient, sound good to me. Why I wait for 2 years I really don’t know. This pound cake is very good or I can call it the best one, the crumb is fine, the texture is very good and the smell is heavenly.

But I didn’t make the cake without adaptation; I scale down the recipe so there are some points that I had to change. First of all this recipe is only 1/3 of the original recipe (and I feel sorry that I make a small size of this great cake), second I omit the almond extract and the third I add a vanilla bean in.

This cake can be served on its own, but with a tangy and sweet taste of strawberry sauce to accompany, this cake is divine.

LUXE POUND CAKE

Makes 7 inch Bundt cake

114g	cake flour
⅛ tsp	baking powder
⅓ tsp	salt
75 g	unsalted butter, softened
180 g	Superfine sugar
	Seed scrapings from ½ vanilla bean
120 g	eggs
⅓ tsp	vanilla extract
80 ml	heavy cream
To serve	Easy Strawberry Sauce
	Whipped cream

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease the inside of a 7 inch Bundt cake pan.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk to combine, and set aside. Mix seed scrapings from ½ vanilla bean with sugar, set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until very creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the sugar in four additions, beating for 1 minute after each one, or until light. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating for30 seconds after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary. Beat in the vanilla extract.

4. At low speed, beat in the flour mixture in three additions, alternating it with the cream in two additions; scrape down the sides of the bowl thoroughly after each addition. Beat for 30 to 45 seconds longer. Scrape the batter evenly into the prepared pan.

5. Bake the cake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until it is golden on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes our clean; the cake should pull away slightly from the sides of the pan. Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 10 to 12 minutes.

6. Carefully invert the cake onto another rack and let cool completely.

7. Serve with whipping cream and Easy Strawberry Sauce .

Easy Strawberry Sauce

This is very easy (ok, you may feel like I use a lot of this word but it’s easy I can tell you that). The cooking time is not more than 30 minutes, so if you got a frozen strawberry in your freezer, take it out and follow the instruction, and you will get a lovely sweet sauce, that you can use over ice cream, cake or anything that you want to.

Note: you can double the recipe easily, but the cooking time will be more. And one more thing the quantity of the lemon juice and salt is a suggestion, so adjust them to suit your taste.

Easy Strawberry Sauce

Makes about ⅔ cup

100 g	Frozen strawberries
60 g	Sugar
½ tsp	Lemon juice
	A dash of salt

Cook strawberry berries and sugar over low heat until sugar dissolves. Add the lemon juice and salt to fruit.

Cook until sauce is clear, stirring constantly (the sauce will thicken). When thick enough take out of the heat.

Chill and store in refrigerator. Use over ice cream, cake or anything you want.

Deeply satisfied chocolate tart

This tart is really good esp. for anyone who fall in love with really dark chocolate (aha, I am, I really like dark chocolate and this tart is like dark chocolate in a tart form). I have to warn any people who don’t have a great love for dark chocolate, stay away from this one, because you may find this tart is too bitter for you sweet tooth, cause the main flavor of the tart came from 70% cocoa solids dark chocolate (very intense and pleased). The recipe is an adaptation form...........by .....one of my dearest chef, and I think after you taste this deeply dark chocolate tart you may agree with me.

Fifteen chocolate tart

makes 2 tarts (size 18cm)

For the pastry
110 g	unsalted butter
75 g	caster sugar
	a pinch of salt
190 g	plain flour, sifted, plus extra for dusting
1	large free-range or organic eggs
20 g	cocoa powder
For the filling
70 ml	whole milk
190 ml	double cream
20 g	caster sugar
120 g	best-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
1	large free-range or organic eggs

Grease a loose-bottomed 18 cm X 2 tart pans tin with butter.

Sift the flour and cocoa powder together.

To make the pastry:

Cream the butter, sugar and salt, together then fold in eggs and the flour- cocoa powder mixture.

When the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs, gently work it together until you have a ball of dough, then flour it lightly.

Wrap the dough in cling film and put it in the fridge for at least an hour.

Remove it from the fridge, roll it out, line your tart tin with it and put it in the freezer for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4 and bake the pastry case blind for around 12 to 15 minutes or until firm and almost biscuit-like.

Remove from the oven and turn the heat down to 170°C/325°F/gas 3.

To make the chocolate filling:

Put the milk, cream and sugar into a saucepan and slowly bring to the boil, stirring gently. Take off the heat and add the broken chocolate, whisking until smooth, then add the eggs and whisk again. Pour the filling into a jug.

Carefully pour in the filling into the baked tart case and put the tart back in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. It is cooked when the filling still has a slight wobble to it. It will firm up a little as it cools down.