Vacherin like a cake.

A Vacherin is a strange animal. A mix between a cake and a bread, it uses yeast as the rising agent and is made with strong, bread-making flour rather than a softer cake flour. It has hardly any sugar in it (usually just enough to get the yeast all excited) and is traditionally soaked in a sugar syrup after it is cooked. I've tried it both sweetened a little and soaked and I prefer the soaked version. It seems a bit more moist that way. I give directions for both methods in the notes. Ingredients Pantry 500g Strong Plain Flour 8 Whole Eggs 100g Sugar 1 teasponn Yeast 2 tablespoons Milk Powder pinch Salt Fridge 250g Unsalted Butter Method

• Mix the yeast with a little warm water (about blood temperature) and the sugar and let stand.
• Cut the butter up into 1 inch cubes and let it soften.
• Place the flour, salt and milk powder in a bowl (I never sift but then I sometimes get lumpy results).
• Lightly wisk the eggs just to break up the whites a bit.
• Make a well in the flour and work the eggs a little bit at a time into the flour with a wooden spoon.
• By then, the yeast should be a bit frothy, add it to the paste.
• Beat the mixture well until you have a smooth and slightly elastic batter.
• Place the batter in a warm spot (I usually turn the oven on and leave it on top of the range).
• Put the softened butter on top of the batter.
• Cover the bowl with a cloth and allow it to double in size (About an hour). This is called 'prooving' the dough.
• Grease a cake tin generously with butter.
• Pour the batter into the cake tin but remember that it will almost double in size, so don't fill it right up (If you have any left over, grease some muffin trays and pour the rest in there).
• Place in a warm spot to rise.
• When the mixture reaches the top of the tin, put it in the oven at 200 degrees for 40 minutes.
• The cake is cooked when you can put a skewer in and it comes out clean.
• Remove from the tin immediately by running a small knife around the edges and upending the tin.
• Cool on a cake rack.

Notes Ish's birthday cake: Stew 3-4 Granny Smith Apples with some sultanas (Actually I decadently used goji berries for this) and about 200g of sugar. This should take about 15 minutes. Don't add any water. Before pouring the cake mixture into the tin, mix in the cooled fruit.

Ice the cake too; beat 300g Icing Sugar, 1 Egg White and a dribble of Lemon Juice together until it turns verry white and holds stiff peaks (this is called royal icing). Pour over the top of the cake making sure to coat the sides. For Ish's birthday, I also pushed some toasted sunflower seeds into the top and sides of the icing. It looked very exotic.

Adams' birthday cake: Make a sugar syrup by boiling 300g of sugar with about 100ml of water. Add in about 5-6 shots of Grand Marnier or your favourite liqueur. Cut the cake in half horizontally so you have two cakes. Tip the top half upside down and pour the syrup all over both of them. It will seem like a lot but trust me on this. Let them soak for a good half an hour before replacing the top. You could fill the middle with cream if you wanted to at this stage. For a glossy finish, melt some apricot jam and paint it over the top.