paradise cake

 

This is the recipe of the great pastry chef Maurizio Santin, a cake so soft and fluffy taht neither kids nor adults would resist.

Ingredients for a pan in 8 cm high and 22 cm in diameter: 

300 g butter

300 g caster sugar

200 g of yolks

150 g flour

150 g potato starch

120 g egg whites

1 lemon

It's a cake made without baking powder, its extreme softness is obtained only by whisking the egg whites until stiff and the butter whisked until you have a cream. 

The butter must be very soft, at room temperature. Knead in the mixer with a whisk, or in a bowl with electric beaters until you have a smooth texture (it takes 5-6 minutes, make sure to remove the butter from the sides of the bowl, mix and continue beating). Add the egg yolks one by one, by inserting the following only when the former is well incorporated. Pour gradually 250 g of sugar, continuing to whip at medium speed. Finally, add the flour and potato flour sifted together,  by lowering the speed. Now put the grated lemon peel.

Whip the egg whites with a few drops of lemon juice, then add the remaining sugar (50 g). With a spatula pour them gently into the mixture obtained previously 

Butter the mold and instead of flour use brown sugar on the edges and at the base of the cake, you will obtain a delicious crunchiness. Pour the batter in the mold and bake at 170 degrees for 40 minutes.

Tips for cooking: after 40 minutes my cake was not ready yet, you must do the toothpick test; so I put an aluminum foil over the cake, and continued for another 25 minutes at 160 degrees. Remove the sheet and bake for 5/6 minutes further until golden brown.

Let it cool before unmold, turn it upside down on a serving dish so that the top is perfectly smooth. Sprinkle with powdered sugar ... and enjoy it!

ice cream cake with three flavours

This is a 'Mrs Cake', for a birthday dinner, but very simple in the execution. It has three ice cream tastes, that you obtain in doing the same thing three times. I used some figues, because one month ago it was their season yet, but you can choose the fruits you prefer. In the book where I took this recipe there were strawberries, so let's choose according to the seasons!

The only suggestion is to prepare the cake the day before, for the long  times of cooling.

Ingredients for 10 :

1 sponge cake in 22-24 cm diameter

1,8 lit whipping cream

400 g icing sugar

200 g dark chocolate (60%)

2 vanilla beans

200 g fruits (raspberries, soft fruits…)

Cut the sponge cake into 2 discs. Take a serving plate and place a split ring, within which put the first disc. Whip 1 lit of very cold cream with 200 g of icing sugar. Divide it into three equal parts in three different bowls. And put in the refrigerator.

Melt 100 g of dark chocolate in a double boiler, lett cool and pour into one of the three bowls of whipped cream. Spread this chocolate cream  over the first disc of sponge. Level it with a spatula and put in the freezer for 15 minutes.  

Whip the remaining cream with the icing sugar (200g). Take the cake out from the freezer; release it from the movable ring and cover completely with the whipped cream using a pastry bag. Let stand in the refrigerator another for 2 1/2 hours yet. Melt the remaining chocolate (100g) and when it is cool you can follow the original recipe by pouring it on the cake making it fall down to the edges, in this case you must double the amount of chocolate.  

I have however chosen to do some decorations using a pastry bag with a very thin hole: on a sheet of baking paper placed on a very cooled tray (put it in the freezer) you can  make writings or little decorations, by letting fall down the chocolate, that for the thermal shock will immediately solidifies. Put the decorations again in the freezer and use when needed and at pleasure. 

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