Mama Lucie Tomatoes Ready For the Oven (above), with Green Zebra and Generic Reds added (below)

Annie’s Wedding Cake Trial Testing

I thought I’d catch you up with what’s been happening in my kitchen of late… my daughter Nessie has been making the most of the late summer tomatoes from our garden (you can see how pretty they look above – the red onion, garlic and herbs are all ours too), supplemented with a box of bought ones (the red ones above). I bought a new book at the beginning of summer River Cottage Handbook No.2 – Preserves, by Pam Corbin. Interestingly enough, about the same time I had bought it (and was loving it), Heidi Swanson on 101.cookbooks.com was loving it also – you can read about that here. I was in Preserving mode, and thought I’d try the Roasted Tomato Passata – it was brilliant, and easy.  I played with the recipe a bit, but it’s such an easy way to get a great concentrated, gorgeous flavour as a result. Good on you Pam Corbin.

My neice Anne is getting married in April, and I’m lucky enough to be doing the wedding cake. Obviously we had to test, so with the bride to be, bridesmaid, my best friend, daughter Nessie, cousin Jo and Sophie, we got together for the task at hand … it is a layering of hazlenut genoise, hazlenut meringue, chocolate ganache, white chocolate butter-cream and raspberries, all iced with white chocolate butter-cream. The colours are earth based colours from Dancing Deer that I am lucky enough to have bought back from the U.S – all in all, the verdict was DELICIOUS!!! It will ultimately be a 3 layered cake.

The recipe is really too simple, and I’m going to describe it rather than list it in a traditional recipe format.

Take your tomatoes, cut them into good size chunks, leave small cherries whole. Add to a roasting dish, do not, repeat, do not crowd them – they will steam rather than roast. Have a hot oven – about 190c, sprinkle them with a bit of salt, add some onion (I’ve used red for some batches, and shallots for another as that’s what I had), 2 – 3 cloves garlic left whole. Sprinkle with a little (tiny bit) of rapadura sugar, or a bit of apple juice concentrate, and a good lug of olive oil. Massage that all in gently, sprinkle with herbs, though Nessie likes lots of herbs. Roast for about 1 hour or until the skin is a bit wrinkly and some are nicely coloured. Remove and let sit until cool, then go along and slip off the skin and discard. Use as much of the herbs as you want, and discard what you don’t.. add everything to the food processor or mouli and process. You should now have a delicious, thick tomato passata.

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