Tag: Peach Melba

Tort Melba – Sponge

  • This tort is based on a pêche melba – peach melba dessert.
  • This is a recipe for a large sponge cake, sandwiched with a filling made from yoghurt cheese or cream cheese and chopped tinned peaches plus a thick raspberry sauce.

Sponge Cake

  • Bake two  creamed sponge cakes –
  • Using 4 eggs and equal weights of butter, caster sugar and plain flour plus 2½ teaspoons of baking powder.
  • Bake in 2 x 21 cm anodised baking tins.
  • Leave to go cold completely.

Ingredients – Icing

  • 200g yoghurt cheese or cream cheese
  • 3-4 tablespoons of  icing sugar
  • 2-3 drops of vanilla essence
  • *
  • Peaches drained from a can – chopped
  • *
  • Peach juice from the tin.

Method – Icing

  • Add the vanilla essence to the yoghurt cheese.
  • Add the icing sugar bit by bit to the yoghurt cheese until you get the desired sweetness.
  • This does not want to be too sweet.
  • Mix in the chopped peaches
  • *
  • Icing sugar to dust

Ingredients – Sauce

  • 100g of raspberry jam
  • 50ml of water

Method – Sauce

  • Put the jam and water into a small saucepan.
  • Heat gently and stir with a wooden spoon.
  • Heat until the sauce is thick and smooth.
  • Leave to cool.

Assembling the cake

  • Place one of the cakes onto a serving plate or stand.
  • Prick the cake with a wooden skewer.
  • Sprinkle half the peach juice over the cake.
  • *
  • Spread half the raspberry sauce over the cake.
  • Spread the peach filling on the cake.
  • Drizzle the rest of the raspberry sauce on the filling.
  • *
  • Prick the other cake with a wooden skewer.
  • Place the second cake on top of the filling.
  • Sprinkle the rest of the peach juice over the cake.
  • *
  • Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Duchess – Bramble Rose tea plates from the 1960s

Options

  • You could make more filling and slightly cover the sides of the cake – semi-naked.
  • You could make more filling and ice the top of the cake as well.

Pêche Melba

  • A Polish lady that I had not seen for many years came to visit me.
  • We sat in the garden chatting over coffee and cake.
  • She mentioned a cake she had not had for ages  – Tort Melba.
  • She told me it was based around  Pêche Melba – Peach Melba 
  • However she could not remember the recipe.
  • I said I would look the recipe up and make it for her.
  • I have done and tried several different versions, which will be posted soon.
  • *
  • First here is a little history about Peach Melba.
  • *
  • Dame Nellie Melba (1861–1931) – born Helen Porter Mitchell – was an Australian operatic soprano.
  • She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early 20th century.
  • She took the pseudonym “Melba” from Melbourne, her home town.
  • In 1892 Nellie Melba was performing in Wagner’s opera Lohengrin at Covent Gardens.
  • The Duke of Orléans gave a dinner party at the Savoy Hotel in London to celebrate her triumph.
  • For the occasion, Escoffier created a new dessert Pêche Melba – Peach Melba.
  • He used an ice sculpture of a swan, which carried peaches resting on a bed of vanilla ice cream and these were topped with spun sugar.
  • In 1900, he created a new version of the dessert at the opening of the Carlton Hotel where he was head chef.
  • The ice swan was not used and the ice cream and peaches were now topped with a purée of sugared raspberries.
  • *
  • Below is an easy recipe for Peach Melba using tinned peaches.

Ingredients

  • Tinned peach halves – 2 per serving
  • Vanilla ice cream – 2 scoops per serving
  • Raspberry sauce – made from raspberry jam
  • Lemon juice – optional

Method

  • An easy raspberry sauce can be made from good (home-made) raspberry jam.
  • Put around 4 to 5 tablespoons of raspberry jam and 2 tablespoons of water in a small saucepan.
  • Heat gently, stirring with a wooden spoon, until you have a pouring sauce.
  • If your jam is very sweet and a little lemon juice.
  • Leave to cool.
  • Allow two peach halves per serving and arrange these on a flat plate.
  • Add two scoops of vanilla ice cream next to the peaches.
  • Pour some raspberry sauce over the ice cream and peaches.
  • Serve any remaining sauce in a little jug.