White Chocolate, Lemon and Macadamia Genoise layer cake
Made by Professionals
Mmmh, yes, that title “White chocolate, lemon and macadamia Genoise layer cake” really is quite a mouthful. And just the title brings me out in a cold sweat. What on earth possessed me to agree to baking THIS CAKE. Yes, it should be over on Life At The Zoo.. far more baking friendly.. but even over there, I would be, uhm bricking it.
I do baking. I do EASY baking. I do NOT do complicated.
And I like sharing EASY. To inspire as many of you as possible to have a go. Anyway.
Oh and the cake contains raw eggs… great. So you need to be extra careful and keep it refrigerated throughout. I really don’t want to poison my family!
Get the Recipe:
Want the recipe (the cake is pretty awesome)? You can download it here. It is by Holly Bell from Recipes From A Normal Mum.
I agreed to it, in order to test the great new “Nivea Stress Protect”.
Stress Protect anti-perspirant is a brand new innovation from the experts at NIVEA to help protect against the effects of stress sweating (lovely).
Different sweat
After heat, stress is the 2nd most common trigger for sweating* and is very different to the sweat produced from heat or physical exercise. It has a more rapid onset and smells much worse, making it harder to control. NIVEA Stress Protect is proven to minimise this stress sweat by up to 85%** and helps reduce the formation of body odour.
The deodorant contains a unique formula which combines two ingredients – Stress Protect Actives and a Zinc Complex – which work together to help provide protection in stressful situations. Added Avocado Oil also helps to care for and moisturise underarm skin.
How did it all go?
Well.. it didn’t help that I agreed to the challenge on Wednesday. A friend was arriving on Thursday, staying until Sunday. And the challenge was due on Monday 21st January. Crikey.
It didn’t help, that when I did manage to get to the supermarket, I forgot the ingredients list. And thus forgot the white chocolate. Quite key in a “white chocolate cake”. In fact, I didn’t buy ANY chocolate.
Chocolate buttons had to do. Thank Goodness I buy them in bulk.
The supermarket also didn’t have Macadamia nuts. So I decided to use hazel nuts from my step mother’s garden. I had to crack them all by hand. It took ages. And ages is NOT what I had this weekend. It was very annoying.
This is NOT a cake for multitasking. I tried to multitask and almost burnt the chocolate in the microwave. And almost had butter instead of whipped cream.
To go back into the snow blizzard and get more cream or not? I went for not…
Each step was frightfully “complicated” (what happened to just pouring lemon juice on the cake, why does have to be syrup – why do the nuts have to be caramelised, why can’t they just be added?). It also meant that each step required rather a lot of pots and pans and spoons. A LOT OF WASHING UP. More time I don’t have.
(Yes my stress factors are rising. I am actually quite irritated).
Did I mention I “had” to build a snow elephant in between all this too? (No, I am not making it up, in the 20min it takes to bake the cake, I was making the elephant with Red Ted, resulting in forgetting about the cake and almost burning it).
And then.. as I was adding the finishing touches to the cake (applying mouse and nuts, covered in cream and said nuts) a) the door goes (neighbour borrowing travel cot) and b) Pip Squeak decides to hang off my leg because “she wants cake”. ARGH.
But here it is. What do you think?
Nom nom nom
And despite my changes and fudges with the recipes, it tastes GOOD. REALLY GOOD! (but I won’t be making it again, unless I am REALLY bored).
The Stress Protector…
And what did I think of the Nivea Stress Protector? I have been using it all weekend – with whole days in town, as well as the baking session described above… and I have to say… I am actually quite impressed! I know, this is a sponsored post. But I AM impressed. None of that embarrassing whiffiness. Feeling “dry” too. Mmmh. This could be good. I look forward to trying it out some more…
