After seeing her safely to bed, with a bucket, I took my sober self off home to my own bed. And woke up not three hours later, quite the worse for wear, to joyful cries of "MUMMY your home!" Yes I was home, hurray! *yawn*
And it was time to start work... on the birthday cake that is.
After much uming and ahing I had finally settled on a Strawberry Mirror cake, thanks to all the Daring Bakers for making it look so delicious, and to Ellie at 'Kitchen Wench' for making it look so easy.
I followed Ellie's recipe, and made a poor attempt at copying her decoration, and I was quite pleased about how it turned out. The sponge was light and fluffy (so I can cross that off of my list of cooking fears) it was moist and perfect. The Bavarian Cream was tangy and not over sweet, firm enough to hold the cake together so the layers didn't separate. And the jelly 'mirror' was not as tricky as I expected and well worth making from scratch to complement the bavarian.
The danger with this cake is that it is so refereshing, and light you really could just keep eating it. Unlike, say, a chocolate cake that leaves you with a certain 'I'd better stop eating or my jeans wont fit tomorrow', feeling.
To say it went down well would be an understatment. The whole family enjoyed it and most had seconds. And well it's just an awesome looking cake, isn't it?!
I recomend making this cake with plenty of time on your hands. I did it all in one day, and it was a lot of work all in one hit. In hind sight I would make the sponge a week ahead and freeze it untill I was ready to do the bavarian, and then the jelly the next day.
Strawberry Mirror Cake
(From Kitchen Wench http://www.insanitytheory.net/kitchenwench)
Cake Ingredients
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp sugar
2/3 cup sifted cake flour
1/2 cup water
1/3 cups sugar
2 tbsp kirsch or strawberry liqueur
Strawberry Bavarian Cream
2 1/2 tbsp unflavoured gelatine
1 1/2 cups strained strawberry puree (approx. 1 1/2 punnets)
5 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tbsp lemon juiceseveral drops of red food colouring
1 3/4 cups whipping cream
Strawberry Mirror
1 tsp lemon juice1 tbsp kirsch
1 tbsp water1 tbsp unflavoured gelatinefew drops of red food colouring
Strawberry Juice
510 g strawberries (approx 1 1/2 punnets)
3/4 cup sugar3/4 cup water
1. Preheat oven to 230 C. Butter and flour the sides of a 25 x 40 cm jelly roll pan (rimmed baking sheet). Line bottom of pan with a sheet of parchment paper cut to fit bottom pan exactly.
2. Beat eggs, egg yolks and 3/4 cup sugar together in a medium bowl until thick and light. Beat in the vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy, add cream of tartar and beat until whites begin to form peaks. Add the 2 tbsp sugar and beat until the whites hold stiff, glossy peaks (do not over beat).
4. Sift flour over the egg yolk mixture and fold in. Stir in one fourth of the whites. Then carefully fold in the remaining whites.
5. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake until light brown and springy to touch (7 to 10 minutes). Cool in pan 5 minutes. Run a knife along edge to loosen. Invert cake tin to cut out 2 x 20 cm circles of cake. Wrap the cake layers, separated with waxed paper, and set aside. Cake may be frozen at this point.
6. To make soaking syrup: Combine water and the 1/3 cup sugar in saucepan; bring to a boil to dissolve sugar. Cool to room temperature; flavour with liqueur. Set aside or refrigerate in glass jar until ready to use.
7. To assemble cake: Brush sides of 10-inch spring form pan lightly with flavourless salad oil or almond oil. Cut out a cardboard circle that is exactly the same size as the bottom inside of the pan; cover cardboard with aluminium foil and fit into bottom of pan. Centre one layer of the cake bottom of pan. Brush the cake with some of the soaking syrup to just moisten (not drench) the cake; set aside.
8. Prepare Strawberry Bavarian Cream. Immediately pour about half of the Bavarian Cream over the first layer of cake in the pan. Set the next layer of cake on top of the cream. Pour remaining Bavarian Cream over cake and smooth top of the cream with spatula. Refrigerate until the cream sets (1 to 2 hours).
9. Prepare the Strawberry Mirror.
10. To serve - wrap a hot towel around the outside of spring form pan for a few minutes. Run a small sharp knife tip around the edge of the Strawberry Mirror to separate it from the sides of pan. Mirror will tear when sides are unlatched if it is stuck at ANY point. Slowly unlatch the pan and slide it off the cake. Slice cake in wedges and serve in upright slices.
Prep Work
Strawberry Bavarian Cream
1. Sprinkle the gelatine over the strawberry puree in a small bowl and set aside until spongy. (Note - this didn’t work for me, so I slowly brought my strawberry puree to a boil before quickly whisking through the gelatine and setting it over a bowl of hot water to keep it liquid.)
2. Combine egg yolks and sugar in a bowl’ beat until light. Bring milk to a boil in sauce pan. Pour hot milk into yolk mixture and stir with a wooden spoon (it doesn’t say so but I would temper the egg mixture first to be safe). Return this mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until your finger leaves a clear trail in sauce when drawn across the back of the spoon. (Do not boil or mixture will curdle.) Immediately remove from heat and stir in softened gelatine mixture. Pour into a stainless steel bowl places over a bowl of ice water. Stir in lemon juice and a few drops of red food colouring. Cool over ice water, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens to the consistency of softly whipped cream.
3. White gelatine mixture is cooling, whip the whipping cream until it holds soft peaks. When the gelatine mixture resembles softly whipped cream, fold the whipped cream into the gelatine mixture.
Strawberry Mirror
1. Prepare strawberry juice.
2. Place lemon juice, kirsch, and water in a small bowl. Sprinkle gelatine over this mixture; set aside until spongy and soft.
3. Measure 1 1/2 cups Strawberry juice into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer; pour over gelatine mixture and stir to dissolve gelatine. Tint to desired colour with red food colouring. Place bowl over bowl of ice water and stir occasionally until the mixture is syrupy and just beings to thicken (do not let jell); remove from ice water.
4. When mixture is syrupy, pour a 3-4 mm layer over the top of cake. Refrigerate until set.
Strawberry Juice
Wash and hull strawberries; coarsely chop. Place strawberries in saucepan; crush to start juices flowing. Place over low heat; add sugar and water; simmer slowly 10 minutes. Pour juice and pulp through damp jelly bag or cheesecloth-lined colander and drain into a bowl for 15 minutes (do not press down on fruit).
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