……and so is Valentine’s Day.  I have of course realised that I am a terrible husband and completely forgot that Sunday is Valentine’s Day and therefore should have done a challenge that is appropriate for the season rather than this Austrian beauty.  But it is too late now. The challenge has been committed to and I must now set forth and bake (where are Mel and Sue  from the Bake Off when you need a little encouragement?).

The first realisation during the last few days is that basically I am about to make something that is mainly made of eggs, cream and sugar.  There is barely any flour in the recipe at all.  I have decided to go with the Elma’s  (my lovely Astro Bosnian blogger) recipe   which involves 9 eggs, nearly a pint of cream, 250g of sugar and a mere 80g of flour.

Decision 1 is whether to go with a 2 tier or 3 tier variety.  Elma has told me to go with a 2 tier because a 3 tier tends to be unstable and can get a bit wonky.  From that I am reading it is more difficult and whilst I am very tempted not to try the 3 tier, I have done this to challenge my skills so I am going to be a big brave boy and go 3  (there it is again – that baking power of 3).  Watch out kitchen floor – there may be Kardinalschnitte coming your way soon.

Decision 3 is the infamous Sahnesteif.  Now I am told there is a German Deli in Borough Market that sells this stuff, but that doesn’t happen to be round the corner so I have to resort to other solutions.  Joe Pastry has come up trumps with this recipe for stabilising my cream whipping (here come the double entendres again), which basically means adding 1 teaspoon of gelatine for every 250g of cream  which given I am about to build the tower of Pisa in meringue and cream, it would seem a sensible idea.

Which takes us to the last decision which is what flavour to make.  The traditional slice is either whipped cream and jam, or coffee cream.  The original plan was to make both but it is Valentine’s day on Sunday and it occurs to me that actually a light fluffy creamy slice made from much whipping and beating might just be the ticket!  No I am not about to do the baking equivalent of 50 Shades of Grey but I think I may take a leaf out of Elma’s book, and get the food colouring out and add some red not just for the Cardinal but also for the love of my husband Trevor.  I have found plenty of inspiration on the internet so it is off to bed with trepidation in my mind but love in my heart!  Watch this space for the outcome.