RECIPE: BERRY NAKED CAKE

There is a thing about baking that has always intrigued me. I think it's down to the fact that my culinary arts teacher once said that when baking, you strictly have to follow the recipe because otherwise the cake is going to be really dry or the dough isn't going to rise - and all of those who have seen me cooking know that I am not someone to strictly follow a recipe.
However, I really wanted to make a Naked Cake myself. I have spotted these cakes on Instagram and Pinterest so many times in the last couple of months and they look so beautiful! After doing some research, I came to the conclusion that they aren't even that hard to make, so I gave it a try!
Because Naked Cakes usually have a lot of calories, I tried to make it a little bit lighter in calories by skipping the cream and butter.
As mentioned before, I am far away from being the world's best baker, but this cake is the perfect possibility to trick your family into thinking you are the latter because a naked cake is quite easy to make and looks (and tastes!) delicious!



Ingredients:

for the biscuit:

• 300g flour
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 paket baking powder
• 6 eggs
• 300 g sugar 

for the cream mix:

• 630g quark
• 1 paket instant gelantine (equals 6 leaves of gelantine)
• the juice of one lemon
• 4 egg whites 
• 100 g sugar
• 700g (frozen) berries

• 1 paket chocolate icing 

1. Start by preparing the springform pan (mine has a diameter of 26cm) by lining it with a baking sheet. Preheat the oven at 180°C. Mix the flour, baking powder and vanilla and set it aside for a bit. When you use frozen berries, take out the frozen berries now and defrost them.
2. Beat the eggs for about 10 minutes and slowly add the sugar as well. Once the eggs and sugar are of a thick and creamy consistency, carefully fold in the flour mix. Pour the cake mix into the springform pan and bake it for about 30 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it cool down a bit before moving the baking sheet. Then, let it cool down completely, before cutting the biscuit into three layers.
3. For the cream mix, first stir the quark and then add in the juice of one lemon. Beat the 4 egg whites and slowly add in the sugar as well. Add the egg-sugar mix to the quark mix. Then, stir consistently and slowly add the package of instant gelantine and stir until everything is well combined. 
4. Place one layer of biscuit on the cake plate and coat the first layer with the cream mix. Then add half of the berries on top. Add another thin layer of the cream mix before adding the second layer of the biscuit on top. Repeat the cream-berry procedure once again and add the last layer of biscuit.
5. Last but not least, prepare the chocolate icing. First pour the icing close to the edge of the cake, so that part of it drips down the sides. Then, add more icing on to the centre of the cake and coat the top layer completely. To make the top a bit more exciting, I added some fresh berries and a white rose to the top. In order for the berries to stick to the cake, make sure that the chocolate icing is still hot and hasn't "dried" yet. 

Enjoy with a cup of coffe on a sunny afternoon!