I once suffered from depression. When we were living in Japan for a short period of time, my condition deteriorated and I was just staying home being sad. My daughter was only 6 years old then, and she knew I was not well.

One winter evening, it was already dark when my husband came home from work and my daughter asked him to drive her to a place. She navigated him to a cake shop, where she had seen a particular cake before. It was ‘Mont Blanc Cake’. She remembered that I once told her that ‘Mont Blanc Cake’ was my absolute favourite. She thought the cake would cheer me up. And luckily the cake shop was still open that night.

When they finally came home, I discovered where they had been, then my daughter offered me the cake. You can guess how emotional I was. I just hugged her and cried. My husband also had tears in his eyes. It was a truely special moment.

This ‘Mont Blanc Cake’ doesn’t look so fancy like the one she bought me that night, but it tastes wonderful and of course it always brings back the memory.

Cake Tin

18cm Round Cake Tin

Ingredients

Sponge Cake
2 Large Eggs
1/2 cup Caster Sugar
1/2 cup Milk
2 tablespoons Oil *I used Sunflower Oil
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Self-Raising Flour

Decoration
1 cup Cream *whipped, 1/2 for topping and 1/2 for filling
4 tablespoons Sweet Chestnut Paste

1 to 2 teaspoons Rum *for topping, read ‘Method 4’
1 tablespoon Caster Sugar
1 to 2 teaspoons Rum *for filling, read ‘Method 5’
200g Chest Nuts *peeled & cooked (canned whole chestnuts), coarsely chopped, save some for decoration
Powdered Sugar for dusting

Method
  1. Bake a sponge cake. (You can use your favourite sponge cake recipe.) This recipe is super easy and no whipping is required. The cake always ends up domed shape which is good for the ‘Mont Blanc’.
  2. Preheat oven to 170℃. Line the base and sides of 18cm springform cake tin with baking paper.
  3. Mix Eggs, Sugar, Milk, Oil, Vanilla and Self-Raising Flour until smooth, pour into the tin and bake for 30 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool completely.
  4. Place Chestnut Paste in a bowl, add Rum and mix to loosen, then add half of the whipped Cream and mix well. This Chestnut Paste Cream goes into a piping bag attached with a small round tip OR multi opening tip.
  5. Add Sugar, Rum and coarsely chopped Chest Nuts to the rest of the whipped Cream and mix to combine.
  6. Slice the cake in half and spread the Cream combined with chopped Chestnuts, then sandwich with cake top.
  7. Pipe out the Chestnut Paste Cream on top of the cake and decorate with saved Chestnuts. Dust with Powdered Sugar to make the cake look like snow-capped Mont Blanc.