Macadamia Cake with Mascarpone Cream

Serves 6-8

5 eggs

140g caster sugar 8g vanilla sugar 110g plain flour 30g cornflour Thyme, to serve

MASCARPONE CREAM

200ml single cream 250g white chocolate, finely

chopped

80g sugar

200g macadamia nuts 500g mascarpone

Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan forced). Grease and flour two 20cm baking tins. Using an electric beater, beat eggs with sugar, vanilla sugar and a pinch of salt until batter is very fluffy. Sift flour and cornflour and fold gently into the batter.

Pour one-third of the batter into one tin and two-thirds of the batter into the other. Cook for 15 minutes, then 5 minutes more for the thicker cake or until cooked through when tested with a skewer. Leave in tins to cool.

For the mascarpone cream, heat the cream in a saucepan until it barely boils. Add the chocolate and gently stir until chocolate has melted. Leave to cool in the refrigerator.

Place sugar in a saucepan and melt together with the macadamia nuts. Let mixture caramelise gently. When the caramel turns brown, pour onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Leave to cool. Finely chop two-thirds of the caramelised nuts.

Beat mascarpone lightly with the cooled melted chocolate mixture. Carefully trim the top off the cakes, to make them flat. Cut the thicker cake into 2 equally thick slices. Top the first layer of cake with a layer of mascarpone cream. Cover with a layer of sponge cake, a layer of mascarpone cream and the final cake layer.

Cover the entire cake with mascarpone cream, top with the whole caramelised nuts and press chopped nuts around the sides. Garnish with thyme if desired.