Emmy's rosy raspberry cake
This is a recreation of my favorite pastry at Ladurée in Paris and a cake I had in London. The result is this gigantic fluffy dream of pistachio sponge cake, vanilla custard, fresh raspberries and to top it all: crème Chantilly with the most delightful dash of rose!
Raspberries unfortunately mold quickly so use as fresh raspberries as possible, keep the cake chilled and finish it in 2 days or so. Keep an eye on the raspberries and you should be fine!
This is the new and improved recipe:
You need:
3 layers of pistachio sponge cake:
220 g organic free-range eggs (around 4 eggs)
112 g granulated sugar (1 ¼ dl / ½ cup)
125 g pistachios
94 g potato starch (1 ¼ dl / ½ cup)
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
1 ¼ tsp vanilla powder
Vanilla custard:
2 vanilla pods
100 g raw sugar or granulated sugar (just above 1 dl / almost ½ a cup)
500 g whole milk (5 dl / 2 cups)
120 g egg yolk from organic free-range eggs (around 6 egg yolks)
35 g corn starch (just above 4 tbsp)
25 g butter
(Optional: Pink food coloring. I prefer natural colors, so I recommend using 2,5 ml beet powder.)
3 layers of pistachio sponge cake:
220 g organic free-range eggs (around 4 eggs)
112 g granulated sugar (1 ¼ dl / ½ cup)
125 g pistachios
94 g potato starch (1 ¼ dl / ½ cup)
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
1 ¼ tsp vanilla powder
Vanilla custard:
2 vanilla pods
100 g raw sugar or granulated sugar (just above 1 dl / almost ½ a cup)
500 g whole milk (5 dl / 2 cups)
120 g egg yolk from organic free-range eggs (around 6 egg yolks)
35 g corn starch (just above 4 tbsp)
25 g butter
(Optional: Pink food coloring. I prefer natural colors, so I recommend using 2,5 ml beet powder.)
Rosy crème Chantilly:
300 g double cream (3 dl / 1 ¼ cup)
A little of the vanilla custard (Around ¾ dl / ¼ cup)
Rose essence (I used 4 krm / ml but yours might be different so add 1 krm/ ml at a time!)
Pink food coloring (I used 1,5 krm / ml beet powder)
300 g double cream (3 dl / 1 ¼ cup)
A little of the vanilla custard (Around ¾ dl / ¼ cup)
Rose essence (I used 4 krm / ml but yours might be different so add 1 krm/ ml at a time!)
Pink food coloring (I used 1,5 krm / ml beet powder)
For assembling:
180 g high quality raspberry jam (1 ½ dl / Just above ½ a cup)
250 g frozen organic raspberries, thawed at room temperature for some hours or in the fridge overnight (frozen ones will stay fresh longer and if defrosted slowly perfectly moist)
180 g high quality raspberry jam (1 ½ dl / Just above ½ a cup)
250 g frozen organic raspberries, thawed at room temperature for some hours or in the fridge overnight (frozen ones will stay fresh longer and if defrosted slowly perfectly moist)
Topping suggestions:
Fresh raspberries
Rose petals or whole roses in preferred color/s (preferably organic), as is or brushed with lightly beaten egg whites and sprinkled with granulated sugar for a frosted look
Coarsely chopped pistachios
Instructions:
The sponge cake base:
- Preheat oven to 175° C (350° F) and grease a cake tin (I used a 20 cm / 8” cake tin and had enough batter left for a tiny cake for my birthday breakfast tray. You could use a slightly bigger cake tin instead or just cut off some of the finished cake base as to make the cake perfectly balanced and not too high). Dust the greased cake tin with potato starch.
- In a mixer or with an electric beater, beat the eggs and sugar for a few minutes until light and fluffy.
- Mix the pistachios into a fine powder.
- Combine the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl and sift it into the batter.
- Gently mix the batter with a spatula until just blended. Overdoing it will result in a rubbery cake!
- Pour into the greased and dusted cake tin.
- Bake for around 30 minutes in the lower part of the oven, until a toothpick inserted as deep as possible comes out clean. The cake will look very pale so the toothpick trick is necessary to check if it’s done!
- Leave to cool a bit before removing it from the tin. Let it to cool completely on a rack before assembling.
The vanilla custard:
- Slice the vanilla pods in half lengthwise. Put it together with the sugar in a saucepan. Use the sugar to scrub out the seeds and leave the vanilla pods in the sugar. Pour the milk over the sugar, vanilla pods, and seeds. Bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and cover immediately. Allow to infuse for 15 minutes (or overnight).
- In a large bowl whisk the egg yolks and cornstarch carefully and make sure there’s no lumps.
- Remove the vanilla pods from the milk (you can put the vanilla pods in your breakfast yoghurt or in your vanilla powder to enrichen the vanilla flavor for future baking). Slowly pour the milk over the egg yolk mixture, while stirring constantly (to temper the egg yolks). Then pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Bring to a boil while stirring constantly with a whisk, for around 2 minutes, until thickened.
- Remove from the heat and then incorporate the butter. Pour into a clean bowl. Allow to cool. Cover with plastic wrap in contact with the surface of the custard and refrigerate until completely cool and set.
- Before assembly, whip the custard with an electric beater to get it nice and fluffy.
- (Optional: Add food coloring a little at a time until perfectly pink!)
The crème Chantilly:
- Whisk the cream until just lightly whipped.
- Very gently fold in the other ingredients with a spatula.
Assemble the cake:
- Cut the cake base into 3.
- Spread a bit more than half of the vanilla custard on top of the first cake base.
- Add the second cake base on top.
- Spread out the raspberry jam and top with raspberries. Gently press down the raspberries. Add a big dollop of vanilla custard and lightly even it out to fill the gaps between the raspberries. Remember to spare some of the custard for the crème Chantilly!
- Add the final cake base.
- Spread out the crème Chantilly and sprinkle with the toppings of your choice.
- Taste a bit of rosy heaven!