Tangy Chiffon Cake With A Berry IMBC & Lemongrass Crème Bavaroise
Makes: 1 small cake, approximately 5” x 5” in size
There’s a lot going on here, I know. But what’s a birthday without a bit of chaos, and what better way to have that chaos than in the form of a multi-component, whimsical looking cake?
A few recipe notes:
Total egg count: 4 (cake) + 6 (buttercream & bavaroise) = 10
For the cake and the buttercream, ensure that your ingredients are all at room temperature.
The chiffon sponge measurements yield two 5” cakes, about 2” in height.
The buttercream yield is enough to thickly layer the cake, crumb coat it, fully coat it twice, and have enough left to make the two other flavour variants. If you still have leftovers, they can be frozen for up to 3 months - thaw them overnight before whipping for use again.
Avoid using fresh berries or tangerines for the buttercream. If you’re new to baking or not as comfortable with meringue-based buttercreams, it will become harder to achieve a smooth consistency because of the added water content from the fruit. Use freeze-dried fruit or flavour drops.
I recommend making all the components 1-2 days ahead of your assembly/serving day. The flavours get deeper, and most importantly, it’s just efficient.
ingredients
Group A: Chiffon cake
4 large egg yolks, at room temperature
40 g granulated white sugar
30 g brown sugar
68 ml olive oil
50 g lemon flavoured yogurt (a higher milk fat content is desirable)
54 ml oat milk (substitute: whole milk)
128 g AP flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50 g granulated white sugar
Group B: Soaking syrup
3 tbsp lemon verbena jam (substitute: marmalade or any citrus jam)
1 key lime, juiced
2 tbsp gin
3 dashes orange bitters
1 mandarin, juiced
Group C: Italian meringue buttercream
6 large egg whites (save the yolks - we will use 3 for the bavaroise)
250 g white granulated sugar
3/4 cup water
500 g salted butter, softened at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/4 cup + 3 tbsp freeze dried raspberry & strawberry powder
3 tbsp freeze dried tangerine powder
2 tbsp pistachio powder (de-shell and blitz pistachios)
Magenta, pastel orange, and sky blue food colouring (optional)
Group D: Crème bavaroise
1 key lime, zested
3 - 4 inch stalk of fresh lemongrass, diced
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, also diced
180 ml whole milk
3 large egg yolks
30 g white granulated sugar
180 ml heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
4 g gelatin powder
1 1/2 tbsp cold water
Green food colouring (optional)
Group E: Decorations
Small white carnations
Mandarin peels
Pistachio powder
Fresh raspberries
method
Chiffon cake
Preheat the oven to 325 F. Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature. Cold eggs can be brought to room temp. quickly by soaking them for 5-7 minutes in warm water.
In a mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks, 40 g granulated white sugar, and 30 g brown sugar, until the mixture turns light and fluffy. Add the oil, yogurt, and milk. Continue mixing.
Add the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) in two batches and mix to combine. Set this aside.
In a clean mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue whisking. Gradually add the sugar, and keep whisking until stiff peaks form.
Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture till it’s completely mixed. Gently fold the remaining egg whites into the yolk mixture (in 2 parts).
Pour the batter into an ungreased 5” cake pan. Bake for 30 minutes to begin with. You will need to adjust the baking time because every oven is different. If the top gets too brown, place some aluminium foil over it and continue baking. Cake is done when a skewer inserted into its center comes out clean.
Once baked, cool the cake in its mold, upside down on a wire rack, for 20 minutes. Unmold carefully and continue cooling upside down on the wire rack. Repeat for cake #2 with the remaining batter.
Soaking syrup
Add all group B ingredients to a jar and shake vigorously to combine.
Once the cakes have completely cooled down to room temperature, slice each into 3 parts horizontally. Place the slices on a baking sheet and pour the syrup in small doses till the sponge feels damp. Leave the slices outside to soak in the syrup if assembling the same day. Refrigerate if assembling later.
Buttercream
A stand mixer would make this easier, but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t have one. I don’t ;)
A big shoutout to the thermometer-and-stand-mixer-free recipe pointers from Bakexcitations!, which will make your life easier.
In a small cookpot, pour in the sugar, then the water. Stir the sugar with a tablespoon to make sure it all gets soaked.
In a large, clean bowl, whip the whites until super foamy.
Cook the sugar syrup on medium-low heat. Do not stir the syrup, although you will be tempted to! While the syrup heats up to a simmer, whip the egg whites to a soft peak stage.
The syrup is ready when you see bubbles covering its entire top surface. Not a few, not quite-a-few, but LOTS of bubbles, all over the surface. Take it off the heat and pour the hot syrup in a small, steady stream carefully down the sides of the bowl, avoiding the hand mixer.
Keep whipping on high speed until the meringue is cool and the bowl cool to touch. You should get a super glossy meringue with stiff peak at this point.
Add in the butter, few chunks at a time. The mixture will deflate, and appear grainy & curdled like scrambled eggs at first, but have faith and continue whipping on high speed (this might take 15-20 minutes, depending on the handmixer you use) and it WILL become smooth. Once it’s smooth, your buttercream is done!
Divide the ready buttercream in a 3:1 ratio. To the larger portion, add the freeze dried berry powder, magenta food colouring, and whip again to form a smooth and coloured buttercream.
Divide the smaller portion into halves. To one half, add the freeze dried tangerine and orange food colouring. To the other, add the pistachio powder and blue food colouring. Whip each to form smooth and coloured buttercreams.
Crème bavaroise
Adapted from the Bavarian Cream recipe by Sylvie of A Baking Journey.
Add the diced lemongrass, key lime zest, and diced ginger to the 180 ml of whole milk and let it steep and infuse in the fridge for a maximum of 2 days.
On the day of, pour the steeped milk into a medium saucepan and heat on medium-low. Bring to a simmer, turn off the heat, and let the milk steep further for 20 minutes.
In a heat-proof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, vanilla paste, and sugar. If the milk has completely cooled to room temperature, heat it low once again and as soon as it is warm to the touch, pour it over the egg yolk mixture, whisking continuously as you pour. Mix until smooth then transfer the whole mixture into the saucepan.
Turn on low heat and cook for 5 to 10 minutes or until the cream has thickened, whisking frequently to prevent the egg from curdling. While the mixture is heating up, add the gelatin and water to a small bowl and set it aside to bloom.
When the cream has thickened, add the gelatin mixture to the warm custard. Whisk well until completely dissolved. Transfer the custard into a large clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap touching its surface. Place in the fridge to cool down for 20 minutes to or until it is back at room temperature and doesn't feel warm to the touch.
Whip the heavy cream to stiff peaks. Add to the custard and whip on low speed to yield a smooth, luscious cream. Add in food colouring at this point if you’d like.
To use as a filling, use straight away or store it in the fridge until ready to use. Loosen with a spatula or whisk before using, if refrigerated.
Assembly
Make sure that the syrup-laden cake slices are cold and that the buttercream and bavaroise are both at room temperature prior to assembly.
Smear a little buttercream on your serving dish. Place a layer of soaked chiffon cake, pipe two thick rounds of berry buttercream along the circumference, and fill in the space with the bavaroise. Repeat for every layer till the top. Crumb coat the layered cake and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
Once the crumb coat has set, frost the cake all over with the remaining berry buttercream and spread with a bench scraper/knife/offset spatula to even the coating.
Pipe fun, random squiggles with the tangerine and pistachio buttercreams all over the cake and decorate with flowers, fresh berries, bows made of mandarin peels, and pistachio dust. Chill the prepped cake for 15-20 minutes to firm up just a tad, before cutting into it.
