Roopa
This was a particularly exciting cake because I got to try some completely new techniques! I’d never airbrushed a cake before, and I’d never used pastillage before. We also used the fondant that we made on day one, which is vastly better than commercial fondant.
Day 4:
Cake: Carrot cake (sabayon)
Icing: Raspberry custard buttercream
Technique: Pastillage; airbrushing; rock sugar
CARROT CAKE (2 x 6″ cakes)
This carrot cake recipe is a little different than most. It uses some rye flour to give it a nutty, earthy taste and a slightly gummier texture. It also results in a cake that’s quite easy to carve.
INGREDIENTS
- 6 eggs
- 300 g sugar
- orange zest
- 240 mL canola oil
- 210 g cake flour
- 210 g rye flour
- 15 g baking powder
- 360 g fresh carrots
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 380 F. Line two 6″ cake rings
- In a stand mixer, whisk the eggs, sugar, and zest together.
- Once a good volume has been established, lower the speed, stream in the oil, and whisk for another minute.
- Sift in the flours and baking powder, and fold them into the batter.
- Add the grated carrots.
- Bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick comes out cleanly.
RASPBERRY CUSTARD BUTTERCREAM
INGREDIENTS
- 375 mL raspberry puree
- 75 g sugar
- 30 g cornstarch
- 1 g salt
- 2 egg yolks
- 240 g butter
DIRECTIONS
- Heat up 3/4 of the fruit puree.
- Mix the remaining puree with the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Once mixed well, whisk in the egg yolks.
- Once the raspberry puree comes to a boil, add a little bit of the hot mixture to the egg mixture while whisking constantly to temper the eggs.
- Add the tempered egg mixture to the sauce pan and whisk constantly until the mixture comes back to a boil.
- Remove the mixture from heat and set aside to cool.
- Once it is cool, add the butter into the raspberry custard.
PASTILLAGE
Also known as gelatin sugar, this is a medium for building things that’s a lot stronger than fondant. Fondant has glycerin which retains moisture, while pastillage will dry very hard, and can be a lot better for building structures.
INGREDIENTS
- 500 g icing sugar
- 20 g glucose syrup
- 4 g gelatin sheets
- 62 g water
DIRECTIONS
- Soak the gelatin in cold water.
- Warm the gelatin up with water and glucose.
- Knead everything together with the icing sugar. Add more or less icing sugar as needed to get the right texture.
- Roll out the pastillage, cut out shapes, and let them dry overnight.
Notes:
- This can keep indefinitely once it has hardened
- You need to use this recipe immediately, and keep anything you aren’t working with wrapped up.
- Roll it out with icing sugar.
- For bigger pieces, replace 10 – 15% of the icing sugar with cornstarch.
- Glue things together with royal icing.
Chateau Gateau 