Wild strawberries, raspberries and cherries (it's summer!)

I went home last week for a few days. Home in the summer means the Polish countryside with its forests and meadows and lots and lots of walks through them. At this time of the year you could easily survive on eating only the stuff that grows in our garden and orchard. We had so many strawberries I could not look at them after a few days and the abundance of cherries would give even the most avid of cherry-eaters a slight headache (followed by a bellyache). Berries of all kinds pop up and mum and gran can’t keep up with the jam-making to get rid of all the fruit. We also hosted a birthday party and after flicking through tons of cookbooks we have decided to go for a seasonal cake – to take advantage of the fruit and the hot weather.

This cake has summer fruit and ice cream (lots of it!) and to make it even more wonderful it is a meringue-based cake. Can you get any better?  It is a bit of a labour-intensive recipe because it requires a lot trips to and fro the freezer. Other than that however – it is a very simple dessert. If you want to make it super-fancy you can make your own ice-cream and your own meringue. We opted for the basic version which only really requires assembling all the bits together.

Summer Cake

2 ready-made meringue bases

250g yoghurt and berries ice cream (or any ice cream of your choice)

200 g double cream

A medium bowl of summer fruit such as strawberries, redcurrants, sweet cherries, wild strawberries and raspberries.

Mint to decorate

Put one meringue base at the bottom of a loose-bottom cake tin. Mix well the ice cream with about 50g of double cream and spread it on the meringue. Place some of the summer fruit on the ice cream base (not too much as you don’t want a layer of fruit here – just an occasional strawberry in the cake). Put the cake tin in the freezer. Beat the remaining cream. Put about 5 tablespoons of it aside (you will need it for the topping). Add some of the fruit to the cream and spoon it onto the ice layer of the cake. Put the other meringue base on top and put the cake tin in the freezer again. Leave for at least an hour in the freezer until the cake sets completely. Before serving remove the cake from the tin. Spoon the remaining cream on top of the meringue and put all of the remaining fruit on top of the cake. Decorate with mint.

Store in the freezer (although this is also good half-melted!)

Enjoy!