Welcome to Wednesday!

Today is clear, cold and sunny I'm happy to say! I'm busy all day with baking and, later, writing up some new recipes...which is something that I love to do. One of them will be today's treat. I thought of it last night (which is when a lot of inspiration hits...I'm cooking supper, food is on my mind I suppose) and I'm so pleased with the way it turned out. The only problem is what to call it. I write out a new label for every delivery so that the ingredients are listed for everyone to see, and there has to be a name at the top!

What food is called is surprisingly important - menu descriptions make a real difference. It's psychological which makes it even more fascinating, and I'm sure I'll be returning to the topic. For instance:

this is today's delivery. It comprises a bottom layer of buttery chocolate shortbread, spread with plenty of black cherry jam and topped with a chocolate almond sponge, whole cherries, flaked almonds & milk chocolate chips. I really wanted to call them Black Forest Bars - because they have many of the elements of the traditional Black Forest Gateau & I knew that most people would know what to expect, flavourwise.

However, this also creates some problems. It only contains some of the elements...there's no kirsch and no cream. I didn't want to be misleading. The most important problem for me, though, was that Black Forest Gateau - sadly - has many negative connotations attached to it. It became so ubiquitous a couple of decades ago, that it started to be mass manufactured - often cheaply & badly. What was once a beautiful, traditional cake became a bit of a national joke. The name was synonymous with dry, oversweet sponge, fake cream, sugary chocolate vermicelli sprinkles, old fashioned restaurant 'sweet' trolleys...none of it good. And it still hasn't really recovered. I just know that, however different my version is, if I'd called it by my original name it wouldn't have sold well.
I decided to call it what it is. So, this Wednesday, I give you my new creation.....

Chocolate Almond Cherry Bars. Would you buy one??

Have a great day! x