Monday, September 22, 2014

Fresh Cream Sponge cake with custard fruit cream filling


This cake is very special because my daughter decorated it with my help for her dads birthday.
The little icon at the bottom is her way of smily face :)
Its a vanilla sponge cake with custard fruit filling frosted with whipping cream.

Ingredients:
For cake:

3/4 cups of cake flour
3/4 cups of superfine sugar
6 large eggs, room temperature, separated into yolks and whites
1-1/2 tbsp canola oil
1-1/2 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 baking pans (9″ in diameter)


For Filling :
1 can fruit cocktail(that has mixed fuits soaked in its own juice)
1 packet custard powder
1/2 cup whipping cream

For  Whipped Cream icing:
2 cups (1 pint) of chilled heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp of confectioner’s sugar
Optional - 2 packets Dr. Oetker’s Whip It! (for stabilized whipped cream icing)


Preparation:

The night before you plan to make the cake, prepare the custard according to package instructions and refrigerate overnight.
Then whip 1/2 cup of whiping cream and mix it with the prepared custard.(check for sweetness-add if required)

Cake:

Preheat oven to 340 degrees F. Butter the baking pans on the bottoms and sides. Cut out parchment paper and lay it on top of the butter. Butter parchment paper and flour the pan.

Mix 1/2 cup sugar with the egg yolks and beat until slightly thick and pale yellow. Stir in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until they are starting to form peaks. The egg white will still be drippy. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar in three separate additions while continuing to whip egg whites. Continue until stiff peaks form. Combine 1/2 of the meringue with the egg yolk mixture, fold in carefully to minimize volume loss. Gradually add flour and mix gently. Add oil and milk to the batter. Fold in the remaining half of the meringue carefully.

Divide batter into the two greased pans. Tap around the pan to make sure that the batter is even and to release any air bubbles. Bake for about 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees F until tops are a light brown.

Remove cakes from oven and leave in pan to cool to room temperature. The cake will shrink so gently cut around the edge with a knife so that it’ll shrink evenly. Once cooled, remove cakes from pan, brush entirely with juice from the fruit cocktail can.

To make the whipped cream icing:
 Freeze your beaters and mixing bowl until they’re nice and cold, about 5 minutes. Add in your heavy cream  and beat on high speed until beaters leave a trail in the cream and has a nice coat on the beaters.For stabilized whipped cream add Dr. Oetker’s Whip It



 To assemble the cake:
 Place 1 cake layer onto your cake plate and spread a generous layer of custard cream  onto the top of the cake layer, but do not spread it all the way out to the edges…leave a 1-1/2 inch strip along the edges without custard, because when you add the second layer it will press the custard and fillings towards the outer edge. Add  fruit pieces on top of the cream, covering the entire area. Gently add any remaining custard cream on top of fruit layer.

Place the second cake layer on top. Gently press layers together and wipe away any excess custard that escapes from the sides. If the cake feels dry, brush with more fruit juice.





Frost the cake with the whipped cream topping by first frosting it with a thin layer to act as a crumb coat. Be sure to fill in any gaps between the 2 layers! Place in fridge for about 5 minutes to allow it to set.