You can assemble this dessert just before serving, ensuring that the pastry remains perfectly crisp and the cream is kept cool and whipped into velvet folds. It’s a wonderful option for those warm days when you want an elegant dessert without the hassle of extensive preparation.
Serves 6 
60mins For the pastry:
2 sheets all-butter puff pastry
4 tbsp icing sugar
For the blackberries:
12oz blackberries, half left whole and half cut in half
2 tbsp caster sugar
Zest of 1 lime
For the cream:
20oz double cream
7oz mascarpone cream
1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
2 tbsp icing sugar
To serve:
3.5oz pistachio paste
2.5oz pistachios, roasted and roughly chopped
Small handful mint leaves
For the pastry:
2 sheets all-butter puff pastry
4 tbsp icing sugar
For the blackberries:
350g blackberries, half left whole and half cut in half
2 tbsp caster sugar
Zest of 1 lime
For the cream:
600ml double cream
200g mascarpone cream
1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
2 tbsp icing sugar
To serve:
100g pistachio paste
75g pistachios, roasted and roughly chopped
Small handful mint leaves
Black Forest Cake is a traditional German dessert that has been well and truly adopted by happy dessert eaters worldwide. Typically, black forest cake consists of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer. Then the cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, more cherries, and chocolate shavings. This version is particularly delicious as I spike each layer of the cake with rum or kirsch, a fragrant cherry liqueur making it moist, boozy and oh so good. Recipe from The Pleasures of the Table: Rediscovering Theodora Fitzgibbon.
