Summertime. If you live somewhere with actual seasons, I bet you look forward to it all year. I can imagine it would be a welcome relief from a long, cold Winter to see that sun a-shining down; to think about popsicles and picnics and heading to the beach. Yeah, I can imagine it now, I bet it would be real nice. Well, I come from somewhere that doesn’t have seasons. Oh, we talk about ‘Spring’ and ‘Winter’ and ‘Autumn’ and we tick the three-monthly periods off like everyone else. But really, around here it’s a case of 9 months of hot, and 3 months of cool-to-cold weather.

Yup, the sun beams out of the sky year-round, and everyone knows that you can just as easily get sunburnt on a cloudy day as a sunny one (though granted, it’s a little easier when the sun’s really blazing). We can go to the beach pretty much year round. There are palm trees and pineapples and bananas and it’s a sub-tropical zone. Which is all to say, it’s SO FLAMING HOT right now. It was 34C/93F today, and tomorrow is forecast for 39C/102F, and I’m sweaty and I’m cranky, and I have three fans pointing at me, and I might not love Summer.

But there is one thing which stops me from using every birthday candle I have to wish away the Summer (which would obvs work)(are ya sick of hearing me complain about the weather yet?). It’s the fruit! The peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, strawberries, blueberries, mulberries, loganberries, blackberries, figs, passionfruit, mangoes and rhubarb all call my name. They are the one reason I begrudgingly love these hot and sweaty months.

And all through the unspeakably warm days, I console myself with ice-cold dripping peaches at every opportunity. As far as I’m concerned there is no better summer dessert than something covered in fresh, perfect fruit. And though the fruit just on its own is hard to improve on, I love to bake, and I like to serve a little something alongside. What you want should hit the notes of buttery, creamy, light and a little zangy. Ladies and gentleman, this is that. My Brown Butter Genoise with Whipped Yoghurt Cream.

A simple Genoise sponge, taken to the next level with brown butter, topped with whipped yogurt cream and all the juicy fruit you can get your hands on. The cake? It’s a beautifully light, based mainly on whipped eggs with only a little flour. The main point of interest here is the butter folded through the sponge, which not only adds richness, but since it’s brown butter, it adds a beautiful nuttiness too.

So you’ve got a buttery, delicious base. Now, the cream – equal amounts of thick Greek Yoghurt and thickened cream, sweetened ever so slightly and slathered onto that buttery base. Just a big, light, cumulo nimbus pile of fluffy, tangy, rich, creamy and light foam for any and all perfect specimens of fruit to sit on top of. And that is why this is the only cake you need all Summer. Because all Summer you should just be trying to cram in as much of the beautiful natural juicy sweet fruit that you can. And forgetting how much you’re sweating while you do it. And this perfect summer dessert will help you do that.

Get the recipe here!

xx Sarah.