“Almost all words do have color and nothing is more pleasant than to utter a pink word and see someone’s eyes light up and know it is a pink word for him or her too.”
Gladys Taber

Almond Raspberry Quark Layered Cake for the pink time of the year on PAB! It’s become an annual feature on my blog. Every October I bake Mr PAB pink birthday cake in support of national breast cancer awareness month. Pinktober cakes have become a quintessential part of his birthday, so much so that the terrible tiresome teen always asks about PINK a day before!She was away for a school trip in the Himalayas this year, but came back late in the night and dug into her share. “Breast cancer?” she reconfirmed at 2am, then was back to devouring her share. “This is good“, she declared between hungry bites, “Really, really good! So pretty too.” Some things are worth the effort. This certainly was!Man Friday came grinning from ear to ear with a bunch of flowers for the mister! Always remembers! It was a mad rush that morning so the cake was simple, very basic. A simple almond sponge cake with a dash of olive oil to add lightness and moistness. It’s an original recipe that I have developed over the years; it holds up well and tastes good too. ‘Ombre’ {n. A French term meaning “shaded.” Usually a multicolored stripe, with colors graduating from light to dark.} was on my mind but time wasn’t my friend. Hasn’t been of late so I cheated on the layers. I baked both colours in one single cake. First ladled light pink batter into the tin, then added a few more drops of pink to the remaining batter and poured it over.… Artisan ombre? Probably. Tada! Once baked, I sliced them into separate colored layers and alternated them with the cream filling. I did a light, dark, light, dark and kept the filling/frosting white. Such fun! Not perfect but perfectly good for me. It worked kind of alright in the big cakes {my notes prior cutting the cake} and rather well actually in the small cake. Will improve the technique next time, maybe use a slightly smaller tin. Got different coloured layers that looked pretty with the white quark cream contrast.

The filling was a joy to make. For all the ‘low fat cream anguish‘ of the years gone by, homemade quark is to the rescue. I’m having a field day with it. Used it to fill and frost the cake, and what a beautiful combination this turned out to be. Finger lickin good, thick like whipped cream and well behaved too! Beautiful balance of flavoure and least expected goodness. Since quark is a curd cheese it is slightly tangy and pairs beautifully with fruit. Moist soft sponge layers matched by the sweet tartness of the quark raspberry filling, the slight hint of almond teasing the palette with texture and taste! For a simple cake, the flavours were unexpectedly very good; the layers stood out pretty too!The cake was a huge hit, with seconds being requested for even though we were just back from quite a filling Indian dinner out – chicken tikka & paneer tikka, rogan josh, butter chicken … with naan, tandoori roti and Rampuri parathas. We thought we could eat no more! {I had made the little cake topper for the teen just in case there was no cake left for her. Spot on. The cake disappeared really fast.}A light, sweet, tangy Pinktober cake that was a delectable end to our meal! I had warned everyone that it was just a simple plain cake baked on the trot earlier that day. Plain it certainly wasn’t and I was HAPPY!

October 1st marks the beginning of breast cancer awareness month all over the world. American Cancer Society uses this time to boost their campaign to raise awareness to breast cancer and to inform people that there is now a 98 percent rate of survival if the cancer is detected early. October is the month where you will see pink ribbons everywhere, which has been the national symbol for breast cancer awareness since it was first introduced back in 1991.

Have you gone PINK this October?

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Recipe: Almond Raspberry Quark Layered Cake

Summary: Moist soft sponge layers matched by the sweet tartness of the quark raspberry filling, the slight hint of almond teasing the palette with texture and taste! For a simple cake, the flavours were unexpectedly very good; the layers stood out pretty too!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1hr 30 minutes
Ingredients:

• Sponge
• 6 eggs
• 120g raw sugar
• 75g plain flour
• 40g almond meal
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Pink food colour, few drops
• Filling
• 400ml low fat cream, chilled
• 400ml quark
• 50g raspberry fruit filling {Del Monte}
  
• 50g raw sugar
• 1/4 tsp almond extract

Method:

1. Sponge
2. Line the bottoms and sides of on 8″ spring form tin. Preheat oven to 180C.
3. Sift the flour, almond meal, baking powder and salt together. Reserve.
4. Beat the eggs and sugar over simmering water on high speed for about 10 minutes until the mixtures becomes thick and mousse like, tripling in quantity {Thermomix, Speed 4, Butterfly insert, 37C, 10 minutes or more}
5. Take off water, add vanilla bean powder and almond extract and continue beating for 3-4 minutes until it cools down a bit. {Thermomix, Speed 4, Butterfly insert, 3-4 minutes}
6. Gently fold in the flour mixture in 3-4 goes. {Thermomix, Reverse Speed 2}, followed by the olive oil. Add colour and blend in gently. Turn half batter into prepared tin, add 2-3 drops of colour to remaining batter and pour over the first batter {You can bake in two tins if you like}
   
7. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the sponge springs back when touched lightly, or a tester comes out clean.
8. Cool on rack for 5 minutes, remove from tin and cool completely. The cut into horizontal layers. {I did 4 layers and it was slightly fiddly}
9. Quark Raspberry Cream {Filling & Topping}
10. Beat the cream and sugar until medium peaks, then beat in the quark and raspberry fruit filling until smooth and light. Taste and adjust sugar if required.
11. Assembling
12. Reserve a little butter cream for piping rosettes if desired.
13. Place first layer on serving platter and sandwich the layers with half the butter cream.
14. Frost the sides an top with the remaining butter cream.
15. Chill for 2-3 hours for the flavours to mature and cake to become moist.

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