My Christmas Dessert Centrepiece

A Glorious Mint Chocolate Torte

Do I have something special for you today? Well yes, the answer is yes. Would be a strange way to start the newsletter if the answer was no! This year, and I know this will sound strange for someone whose job is quite literally spending all of my time in the kitchen, me and my partner will be hosting Christmas for the very first time, and that means cooking my first ever Christmas dinner. I have always treated Christmas as a bit of a break, I spend all year in the kitchen, baking as much as humanly possible, and as I have parents who love hosting, and have the work of making Christmas for everyone drilled down, like a well oiled machine, I have always taken the opportunity to hang up my oven gloves and enjoy the break. That’s not to say I did nothing to help out, boxing day brunch is usually my offering, pancakes or French toast for the whole family, I’m also often on cocktail duty and a dessert normally makes an appearance too. This year, however, it is entirely on us (although mum, if you’re reading this some homemade mincepies wouldn’t go amiss).

For the meal itself, we are going traditional, a roast Turkey with all the trimmings. For dessert however, I took the opportunity to riff a little and make something that is both spectacular in looks and taste (humble brag but its true) but also relatively simple to pull together. Christmas is always busy, but this year it will be extra stressful because not only do I have a book deadline for Jan 10th, we are also due to move house, finally, in the same week, what perfect timing! So it’s not as if we can be in full relaxation mode. Because of that, the dessert, the cake, is pretty straightfoward.

The cake element is a simple wet into dry method, just about the simplest method for making cakes there is. The filling is a modified whipped cream, made with mascarpone and peppermint extract. To decorate you just need to make a little bit of ganache and some chocolate shavings. Okay, maybe that is sounding like a bit more work than I promised, but its all relatively low effort stuff I swear. There are also plenty of places you can prepare ahead. The cake, can be made at least a couple days in advance or you could make it now and freeze it. If you want, you can also make the chocolate shavings ahead of time and refrigerate them until needed. Once assembled the cake will also keep in the fridge for a few days so there is no stress and no need to make it on the day.