TORTA CARBS RECIPES

Steps:

• To make the pastry, put the flour, butter and icing sugar in a food processor and pulse until it resembles breadcrumbs. With the motor running, slowly add the egg yolks. If the mixture looks too dry, drizzle in 1-2 tbsp cold water. Tip it out onto your work surface and gently knead together. Flatten the pastry into a disc, wrap in cling film and chill for 20 mins.
• Meanwhile, make the filling. Pour the milk into a saucepan. Scrape the vanilla seeds from the split pod into the milk and add the pod as well. Heat the milk over a medium heat until it just starts to bubble around the edges. Remove from the heat and leave to cool a little.
• Beat the egg yolks, sugar and flour together with an electric whisk for 5-10 mins until pale and mousse-like. Remove the vanilla pod from the cooled milk and steadily pour over the beaten egg yolks, whisking constantly.
• Pour the custard mixture into a clean saucepan. Heat over a medium-low heat, whisking all of the time. Cook the custard for 10 mins, still whisking, until it is very thick. Remove from the heat and push through a sieve into a wide dish. Cover the surface with cling film to prevent the custard from forming a skin. Set aside to cool while you prepare the pastry case.
• Roll out the pastry between 2 pieces of baking parchment to line a 24cm loose bottomed, fluted tart tin. Cover with cling film and chill for 30 mins. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Line the tart case with foil or baking parchment and fill with baking beans. Bake in the oven for 15 mins. Carefully remove the baking beans and foil, then return to the oven for 5-10 mins until the pastry is golden brown. Leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack while you finish the filling.
• Reduce oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Gently beat the custard with the ricotta, orange zest and grated chocolate until just combined, and spread evenly in the tart shell. Sprinkle over the pine nuts and bake for 35-40 mins – the filling will still be quite wobbly but it will firm up as it cools. Chill for at least 3 hrs, or overnight. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Use a little of the butter to grease the sides and bases of two 20cm sandwich tins. Melt the rest of the butter in a small saucepan. Off the heat, add the milk, yogurt and vanilla, followed by the eggs. Beat well with a fork.
• Put the dry ingredients plus ¼ tsp salt into a large bowl. Whisk to combine – this aerates and saves sifting. Tip in the wet ingredients and whisk to a smooth, silky batter.
• Don’t hang around at this point. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared tins and put onto the middle shelf in the oven. Bake for 25 mins or until risen and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean. Cool for 10 mins in the tins, then carefully invert the cakes and leave to cool upside down on a cooling rack.
• Make the buttercream. Stir the cocoa into 2 tbsp milk until smooth. Put the butter into a large bowl and sift the icing sugar on top. Add the cocoa mixture, vanilla, and a pinch of salt. Beat for a few mins with electric beaters until creamy and spreadable. Add the extra 1 tsp milk if you need to.
• Place one of the cakes towards the back of the board or plate, and fix it with a little of the buttercream to stop it slipping about. Spread with ¼ of the buttercream.
• Sandwich the second cake on top. With a small, serrated knife, cut away a scallop-shaped crater from the top cake. Cut about half way down into the sponge and removing about a quarter of the top of the cake. Keep the piece you remove. Position two diggers on the top of the cake to see if your crater is about the right size and shape, then set them aside again.
• Using a palette knife, paddle the rest of the buttercream evenly over the top of the cake and down its sides. Make sure that the edge of the excavated area is defined.
• Snap the ends from enough of the KitKat fingers to follow the edge of the excavated area, then press them into the buttercream. Now fix the rest of the whole fingers around the side of the cake.
• Crumble the cake that you removed in step 6, to make soil. Part-fill the excavated hole with the soil, adding a few Smarties, if you like. Position the diggers on top and put some soil and Smarties into their buckets.
• Fill a lorry or dump truck with more crumbs and Smarties, and let some of the soil and spill over the edge of the cake and the broken KitKats.
• Use the marker to write your message on the card and draw some diagonal black lines. Cut the straight part of the straw into two equal pieces, then fix these to the back of the card with tape to make a sign. Position the sign at the back of the cake. If the sponges are used fresh or within a day of baking (wrap well once cooled), the finished cake will keep in a cool place (not the fridge) for 2 days.