This week, frustrated by the continually wet, unseasonably warm start to the year, I found myself in need of a little sweetness and light. I put a pineapple in the oven and roasted it until its flesh glowed, basting it every now and again with its puddle of honey and anise-scented roasting juices. Just the thing for a soggy day. We ate it mid-afternoon, hot from the oven, with tiny glasses of Madeira. To balance the sweetness I put it on the kitchen table with a dish of soft frozen yogurt bright with passionfruit and lemon. We felt instantly better about life, and it struck me as a rather good thing to bring out next weekend in honour of St Valentine.
I have been baking, too. There was marzipan left from Christmas which found itself broken up and tucked into a nut-encrusted cake mixture. I flecked it with finely grated lemon and orange zest, and nibs of white chocolate. It didn’t really need the white chocolate coating I floated over the surface, but the crisp chocolate turned a piece of cake into a dessert fit for a celebration. After all, Valentine’s Day is only seven days away. Either would fit the occasion neatly.
Marzipan hazelnut cake
A shallow cake, crunchy with hazelnuts and sweetly soft with marzipan. You could serve it as a square cut-and-come again cake or, as I did, by cutting the cake into 9 small pieces and icing each with white chocolate. The cake is a good keeper. Wrapped in foil, it will still be fine for a couple of days.
Makes a 20 x 20cm cake or 9 small cakes
butter 150g
light muscovado sugar 75g
golden caster sugar 75g
eggs 3
orange zest of 1
lemon zest of 1
hazelnuts 75g, skinned
marzipan 250g
white chocolate 100g
self-raising flour 150g
Optional finish:
white chocolate 200g
fruit jellies 75g, or other sweetmeat
You will need a shallow, square cake tin roughly 20 x 20 x 7cm, lined with baking parchment.
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Beat the butter and sugars together using an electric mixer fitted with a flat paddle beater until light and fluffy. Allow plenty of time for this and regularly scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat them lightly with a fork, just enough to combine whites and yolks.
Finely grate the orange and lemon zest. Toast the skinned hazelnuts in a dry frying pan over a moderate heat until golden brown then cut each in half (or roughly chop them, if you prefer). Chop the chocolate and marzipan into small pieces, roughly 2 x 1cm.
When the butter and sugar are ready, add the egg and flour alternately, a little at a time, and continue beating the mixture until smooth and creamy.
Stir the zest into the creamed mixture then add the toasted hazelnuts and chopped chocolate and marzipan. Scrape the mixture into the lined cake tin and gently smooth the surface.
Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes until golden and lightly risen. (It is not a high cake.)
Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool for 20 minutes, then remove from its tin and leave on a cake rack until cool.
Cut the cake into 9 equal pieces.
If you are decorating it, melt the white chocolate in a bowl over hot water, then spread it over the surface of each of the little cakes. Decorate with the fruit jellies or other sweetmeats, thinly sliced.
Roast pineapple
The best bit of roasting a pineapple is when the edges caramelise slightly. Here, it is a superb contrast to the cool citrus sorbet. The best way to achieve this is to regularly baste the fruit with its roasting juices. Watch the syrup carefully towards the end of cooking, as most of it will have been absorbed by the fruit. Take care it doesn’t burn to toffee. Serve with the passionfruit frozen yogurt (below).
Serves 6
For the pineapple:
pineapple 1, medium-sized
lemon 1, large
oranges 2, large
honey 4 tbsp
five-spice powder 1 tsp
star anise 2, whole
cloves 4
vanilla 1 pod
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Cut away the skin from the pineapple and dig out the brown “eyes” with the point of a knife. Cut the pineapple into 2cm-thick slices then place it, with the slices slightly overlapping, in a baking dish.
Grate the lemon and one of the oranges, and squeeze the juice of them all. Stir the honey into the zest and juice. Mix the five-spice powder, whole anise and cloves into the juice. Slit the vanilla pod in half, scrape out the black, sticky pulp inside and stir into the juice and spices. Spoon over the pineapple, then roast for about 45 minutes, basting from time to time.
Passionfruit frozen yogurt
Serves 6
natural yogurt 500ml, unstrained
passionfruit curd 250g
lemon 1
Put the yogurt into a mixing bowl and beat it gently with a whisk for 30 seconds so that the texture is softer, then stir in the passionfruit curd.
Squeeze the lemon and stir the juice into the mixture. Transfer to a freezer box and leave in the freezer for about 4 hours, till frozen. The occasional stir, say once an hour, will help to lighten its texture. To get a smoother, lighter ice, use an ice-cream machine. (This yogurt never freezes particularly firmly.) Serve with the roasted pineapple.
Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @NigelSlater
