This Week: Crema Cafe's Marahau berry cake
Marahau berries are a cross of boysenberries and loganberries. The fruit is big and juicy like a boysenberry but tangy like a loganberry. Look for Marahau berries at places like your local farmers market or go foraging for wild berries.
Cake mixture:
150g butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
3 free-range eggs
3 tsps real vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 cup frozen Marahau berries
200g dark, high-quality chocolate chunks
Icing mixture:
1/2 cup unfrozen Marahau berries
50g of butter
1-2 cups icing sugar
Cream the butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla essence. Stir in the flour. This is much like making a simple butter cake.
Sort through the berries and remove the centre core of the fruit. Gently fold the berries and chocolate through the cake mixture, this will allow the berries to hold their form and strong vibrant colour, which creates significant colour contrast.
This cake looks great in a flan tin, a round cake ring or even a square tin.
Cook in a 180degC oven for about 40 minutes, but check after 30 minutes. Let the cake set and cool.
To finish the cake make an icing with the berries.
Melt 50 grams of butter. Mix in the berries, remembering to remove the cores. Add the icing sugar slowly so you end up with a paste.
The berries provide a flamboyant colour. Decorate with dark chocolate sprinkles, edible flowers and little seasonal berries like the Murta berry (also known as the New Zealand cranberry).
Requested by Jane Schofield, of Karitane. April and Chris Trotter of Crema Cafe in Karitane have sent this recipe.
If you have enjoyed a dish in an Otago cafe or restaurant and would like the recipe, write to Ask a Chef, Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin, fax 474-7422, or email odt.features@odt.co.nz, including your name, address and a daytime telephone number, and we will request it.
