A pretty yellow mimosa cake to celebrate the women in your life… happy March 8th from Sonia! Find this and many more recipes on the Giallozafferano App in English http://itunes.apple.com/app/giallozafferano-recipes/id384387249?mt=8
***
Hi GialloZafferano viewers and welcome to our kitchen. Today we’ll be preparing a soft and creamy dessert: the Mimosa cake. This is a cake that’s usually prepared for Women’s’ day — the 8th of March and its name comes from the crumbled sponge cake on the top that looks like mimosa flowers. Let’s see what we’ll need:
For two 8 ½-inch (22 cm) round sponge cakes:
• Just over 1 cup (220 g) of sugar
• 4 whole eggs
• 8 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup (40 g) of potato starch
• 1 ½ cups (200 g) of flour
For the soaking syrup
• ¼ cup (50 g) of sugar
• just under ½ cup (100 ml) of water
• 3 ½ tbsp (50 ml) of liqueur – normally an orange liqueur For the sweetened cream
• less than 1 cup (200 ml) of heavy cream
• 2 ½ tbsp (20 g) of powdered sugar
For the custard
• 1 ¼ cups (300 ml) of heavy cream
• 1 ¼ cups (300 ml) of whole milk
• 8 egg yolks
• just under ½ cup (55 g) of flour
• 1 cup (200 g) of sugar
• ½ vanilla pod
Let’s begin by making our 8 ½-inch cake bases: I’m putting all of the ingredients into the mixer at one time; you should halve the ingredients and make the 2 sponge cakes separately. Here I have the 4 eggs and the sugar in the mixer. Let it run for at least 10 minutes and when the mixture is aerated and firm, add the egg yolks and let the mixer run at high speed for another 5 minutes. Here’s our soft and foamy mixture. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use an electric hand mixer or even, if you have neither, take a fine metal whisk and with strength and patience beat the ingredients until you’ve achieved the same result. Now it’s time to sift in the flour and the potato starch into this very foamy mixture which has practically quintupled in volume. With a spatula fold in the flour very gently moving the spatula from the bottom of the bowl to the top which will incorporate even more air into the mixture. And here are the cake pans of 8 ½ inches in diameter. I’m going to bake mine at the same time but if you don’t have the room, simply bake one first and then the other: bake in static oven at 375°F (190°C) or in a fan oven at 345°F (175°C) for about 30 to 35 minutes. Now let’s make our custard. In a saucepan, heat, not boil, the cream, the milk and the vanilla pod that you should slice in two to remove the inner seeds. Once the milk is warm, you can remove the pod and let it cool down a little. In a pot, mix up the egg yolks, the sugar and the flour. As you can see it’s quite thick. Now add the vanilla-flavoured milk, and bring it slowly to a boil while stirring. Once the milk is completely mixed into the yolk mixture, leave it to heat up and thicken and then remove from the heat and let it cool. To cool your custard quickly, pour it into a wide oven dish; then cover with cling film letting the film touch the custard, and put in the freezer. Now, let’s make the soaking syrup for the cakes. In a saucepan pour the water, the liqueur, and the sugar. Turn on the heat and mix until the sugar is completely dissolved. Then remove from the heat and leave it to cool. When the cakes have cooled, remove the golden crust on top. Divide the first cake into 3 discs of about ½ to ¾ of an inch (1 ½-2 cm) thick. As for the second cake, cut it into slices of about a ½-inch (1 cm) thick and then cut each slice into strips and then into cubes. These will be used to top the mimosa cake — at this size they do look like mimosa flowers. And here’s what we’ll need to assemble our cake. First whip the cream until stiff, adding the powdered sugar. Save about 2 tablespoons and fold the rest into the custard delicately. Here’s the liqueur syrup nice and cold. Now let’s put it together. For a precise assembly, I’m using an adjustable ring. Obviously if you don’t have one, you can do it without: the cake will be just as good but a bit more rustic looking. Put the first cake disc in the ring. Now brush with the soaking syrup. Add a thin layer of whipped cream. And now cover this layer with the custard… about a ¼ inch (½ cm) is good. Once you’ve spread out the custard, cover with the next sponge cake and repeat. And here’s what the cake looks like out of the ring. Now all that’s left is to cover the top and sides with the rest of the custard. And now cover with the cubed sponge cake, the custard will help them to stick. Take the cubes and spread them over the cake. Cover the sides like this picking up any bits that fall and cover the entire cake. And here’s our wonderful mimosa cake. I’ve cut a slice so you can see how the layers look inside… delicious!