Author Archives: deansdiva

Buonissima!

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torta caprese 2

June was channelling her inner Italian for The Chocolate Moment on this week’s show – and with no fewer than five guests in the studio ready and willing to sample the results, it wasn’t long before her Torta Caprese was little more than a memory!

This simple but delicious dessert was first made in the 1920s or 1930s on the beautiful island of Capri, from which it takes its name. According to one of the many legends surrounding it, when an Austrian princess who was married to the King of Naples wanted a Viennese sachertorte to remind her of home, the Neopolitan chefs used almonds instead of flour in their cake. And so the torta was born…

The almonds give the cake a dense moistness, while the finely chopped chocolate ensures there’s a big hit of cocoa flavour in every bite. And although it’s not the prettiest looking confection when it comes out of the oven, serving it Caprese-style with a generous dusting of icing sugar soon takes care of that…

There are lots of variations of the recipe online and in cookery books – this is one of the simplest, both in ingredients and method, but even so it’s chocolate heaven.

Or to put it another way, è buonissima!

Torta Caprese

  • Servings: 8-10
  • Difficulty: medium
  • Print

Ingredients

  • 200g dark chocolate
  • 4 medium eggs
  • 170g caster sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 250g ground almonds
  • 200g butter, melted and cooled until tepid
  • Icing sugar, to serve

Directions

  1. Line the base of a 24cm-diameter round cake tin with non-stick baking parchment and grease the sides.
  2. Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3.
  3. Blitz the chocolate in a food processor until it is finely chopped, though still retaining a little texture. If you don’t have a processor, chop the chocolate finely with a large knife.
  4. Beat the eggs with the sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl until the mixture is pale and thick enough to hold a trail on its surface when you lift the beaters (about 10 minutes).
  5. Fold in the chocolate, ground almonds and melted butter.
  6. Spoon into the prepared cake tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until just firm to the touch.
  7. Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out – dust with icing sugar when ready to serve.

A crafty collab

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sock monkey

It’s all about collabs these days, especially in the fashion world – everywhere you look, someone’s collaborating with someone else to bring out a new collection or launch a new range.

Think H&M x Kenzo, Moschino x Barbie, Adidas x Kanye West or Puma x Gosha Rubchinskiy (he’s the Russian designer of the moment if you were wondering!) to name just a few…

And now, there’s a new collab in town!

Michelle Baker has teamed up with a group of like-minded ladies to turn the top floor of Newark’s  Crafty Betty into a space that’s bursting at the seams with goodies.

Whether you’re looking for supplies for your own projects or searching for a gift with a difference, it’s a veritable treasure trove offering everything from fabrics, patterns and paints to cushions, brooches, sock monkeys and more.

Michelle and fellow busy bees Amanda Thompson, Julie Webster, Sally Harrison and Rachael Cumberland didn’t take much persuading to switch off their sewing machines next Sunday morning to join June and Tina in the studio.

Let’s face it, who wouldn’t jump at the chance to combine chatting to the Girls Around Town with the opportunity to try out a rather special cake in the latest Chocolate Moment?!

Tune in or listen online between 10am and 12 noon to hear all about their new venture, some of the events and workshops in the pipeline and of course the crafty collab’s verdict on that chocolate cake…

Artwork from around the world

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saa 1
Last year the Society for All Artists (SAA) issued a challenge to its 45,000-plus members across 57 countries, inviting them to go for a world record collection of pieces of art…

The result was a staggering 32,283 pieces of artwork, each one about the size of a business card, which if you laid them end to end would stretch for 2.87 kilometres!

On this weekend’s show, the Girls Around Town’s very own Tina Bettison (herself one of those thousands of members) will be talking to the SAA’s Richard Hope Hawkins about the mammoth task of putting them all together into a record-breaking exhibition and how you can get to see it.

A membership organisation for amateur and professional artists and arts clubs, the SAA was formed in 1992 and is based right here on Newark’s Brunel Drive.

Tune in or listen online between 10am and 12 noon on Sunday when Richard joins June and Tina in the studio to explain how and why it all began, the services it provides for members and the open days and other things it gets up to.