You may remember my last participation in the Foodista Challenge and its "C'est tout cru" theme. I felt quite helpless to come up with a no-bake pastry, as it's really not my habit (even if I do tend to eat raw pastry...). In the end, I was only moderately satisfied with my strawberry mousse. So when Marabout suggested I pick a book from their collection to try out, I thought"Gâteau sans cuisson" was a good idea to make up for my shortcomings. And of all the great recipes, I chose the after-eight cake! First of all, what's a no-bake cake? Well, for starters, it's a cake that doesn't need to be baked, and can only be held together with a stiff whipped cream, possibly enriched with mascarpone (the fatter it is, the better it holds together, which is why you should never use a cream with less than 30% fat for a whipped cream, otherwise it will NEVER rise). By the way, this is a good opportunity to digress a little on whipped cream. It's a recipe with a reputation for being difficult, yet if you follow 3 basic rules, it's really quite simple:

• We use cream with a minimum fat content of 30%.
• Put the bowl, the cream and the beaters in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to chill the cream.
• Stop beating before it turns to butter! Generally speaking, there's always a tendency to over-whip whipped cream, which is never a good thing. Even if it's not butter, a cream that's too firm will be difficult to incorporate into chocolate, for example, and you run the risk of unpleasant little lumps.

If you follow these 3 rules, the whipped cream should rise on its own! And so to get back to our book, there are a bunch of nice recipes but I opted for the "After eight" version (I'm a fan of the mint/chocolate mix). The other advantage of no-bake cakes is that, apart from the whipped cream (which we've seen isn't too complicated), they're really quick and easy to make. On the other hand, you need to plan ahead, as the cake needs at least 4 hours in the fridge to set properly. Normally, the recipe uses ready-made chocolate shortbread, but I couldn't find any, so I followed this recipe and made two discs of shortbread slightly smaller than my circle (20 cm). Incidentally, I also preferred to make my montage in a circle to avoid the hassle of unmolding, but the book recommends lining your mold with cling film and making the montage upside down so you can turn the cake out onto the serving dish. I assembled my cake directly on the serving platter: a layer of mint-flavored cream, a disc of shortbread, a generous layer of After Eight ganache and a layer of cream. After 4 hours in the fridge, decorate and unmould: Tadaaaaa! A great after-eight cake! Verdict: it's very fresh, nice and a change, but you've got to like whipped cream, it's very, very creamy! But it's a very good alternative for people who don't have an oven. Next time I'll use a little more crème de menthe, as I felt it lacked the minty touch that makes the After Eight so charming! In any case, it's a really good recipe, and so that one of you can make yourself some nice no-bake cakes, I'm offering you the chance to win a copy of No-Bake Cake by simply leaving a comment under the article to enter! You've got until June 30 to enter, and I'll draw a winner from the entries. Get your comments in!