They’re a weird mob, those patissiers

Cinque terre. What does it mean**? 5th earth was my attempt at translation but it doesn’t make sense? Why do I have to be so literal? These strange names for gateaux – it’s probably some psychological ploy by a patissier to have some fun and confuse his customers.

Anyway, cinque terre is flourless chocolate biscuit, citron crème, raspberry crèmeux, candied vanilla olives and chocolate cinnamon mousse topped with meringue. The mousse is deliciously chocolatey and rich but tempered by the bitter tang of the citron. The surprise of olives is embedded in the chocolate mousse. The bf commented, ‘Nice, isn’t it?’. ‘Ur mmm erhnmm’, I replied (translation: oh gosh, this is divine).

And speaking of weird names, what’s this? First, Ed is flavour of the month, with all sorts of proposals being thrown at him; now this. Tsk tsk, Ed. Knocked up, indeed!

** I did look it up, and cinque terre (as most people know, except me) are five coastal villages in the province of La Spezia in the Liguria region of Italy. Hence the olives in the cake!