Enjoying life & holiday in Villa Marni, Gozo & savouring the beaches of Ramla & Daħlet Qorrot

After having spent a couple weeks in my beautiful elective domicile, Villa Marni in Gozo, I would like to share a few impressions of my days.

As the month August is one of the hottest of the year, there is nothing better you can do than cooling down either on one of the many beaches offered by the island – either big or small – or, if you prefer to keep quiet, simply relaxing at the splendid (and partly shadowy pool) in Villa Marni in Gozo.

Here you can get a few impressions of the beaches, here Ramla Bay and Daħlet Qorrot or the pool in Villa Marni:

But, as it is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone…” I hearkened to this prescription and took care of nourishing the soul with the beautiful landscapes. Nevertheless, this still leaves me with the need to take care of the more physical part.

In the case of Villa Marni, this is a piece of cake (and you will excuse the pun later on). As I already said, the apartment comes with every possible appliance and you can leave the outside world behind and, in my case at least, relax while cooking.

While kneading a dough or calculating the exact percentage of flour and butter needed in a pie I can easily let go of every burden. That is, a tiny burden had to be assumed, as I also bought a couple of utensils to make the perfect cake. While the apartment comes with many appliances, it is not outfitted as a bakery 😉

As you can see, I decided to make good use of the oven and … offer a piece of cake as dessert for my friends.

Just in case you are interested, it is a “torta rovesciata alle pesche” (upside-down peaches cake), as peaches are really plentiful in August and I think it is a good idea to make use of seasonal fruit. And here is the recipe (view here) but I had to make some adjustments:

To make the upside-down peaches-and-amaretti cake,

1. place the softened chopped butter and caster sugar in a bowl and whisk the mixture (either with a hand mixer or a stand mixer like KitchenAid) until you obtain a creamy texture,
2. then add the eggs, the vanilla bean seeds, flour and sifted baking powder.
3. Pour the milk little by little while the machine is in action (or while you are stirring with the mixer).
4. Wash, peel the peaches and cut them into segments.
5. Distribute the caramel on the bottom of a 26 cm diameter baking pan with a wavy edge, butter and lightly flour the wavy edge before placing the slices in the pan
6. and then sprinkle the surface with the crumbled amaretti biscuits.
7. At this point pour the cake dough over the peaches, level it with a spatula and bake in a static oven at 180° for 45 minutes (or in a ventilated oven at 160° for 35 minutes).
8. When cooked, take the pan out, let it cool and then turn it upside down on a serving plate.

Your upside-down peaches-and-amaretti cake is ready to be enjoyed!

And yes! The cake looks more like a sun than a moon. But still, I think it is perfect for the room called Luna, because, you know, there are many myths revolving around the Sun and the Moon! They are complementary and opposite, and you surely well informed about the law of attraction …