Pastry chef Kirsten Tibballs’ name is synonymous with chocolate. As the director of The Savour School, both online and in Melbourne, she teaches her art to students from all over the world. She has her own TV show and is a regular on MasterChef Australia. She says her love of chocolate and cooking dates back to her early teenage years when she would take orders for up to a dozen birthday cakes every weekend. She also candidly admits this was a by-product of an eating disorder. Fortunately, by the age of 15, she had developed a healthier relationship with food and began an apprenticeship as a pâtissier. Thirty-live years down the track, her unbridled enthusiasm for her craft — and chocolate — still shines through in everything she does and has taken her around the world. She’s been president of the jury for taste for the World Chocolate Masters in Paris, a judge at the Patisserie Grand Prix in Japan and the World Chocolate Masters selections in London. She is also the global ambassador for the Belgian chocolate company Callebaut.
ROCKY ROAD CHOCOLATE CAKE
Simply irresistible. This beauty is covered in luscious chocolate ganache and crowned with a halo of fresh raspberries, peanuts, marshmallows and milk chocolate. The inside of the cake is also studded with rocky road surprises. It’s so much more than just another chocolate cake.
SERVES 10
ROCKY ROAD CHOCOLATE CAKE
200g whole eggs
115g caster sugar
2 vanilla beans, split lengthways and seeds scraped
95g plain flour
20g Dutch-process cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt
20g unsalted butter, melted
30g marshmallows, chopped
45g good-quality milk chocolate, roughly chopped
35g roasted salted peanuts,
