March 8 is a special day, women are honored with a flower that has the color of the sun and that smells good … or with a dessert that retains the same characteristics: the mimosa cake! The name of this cake comes from the fact that this cake is decorated with Sponge cake crumbled: it is reminiscent of the bunches of this splendid spring flower. For the mimosa cake it is necessary to prepare two sponge cakes, one will be filled with a delicious custard enriched with whipped cream: you will get a soft Diplomatic cream. The other sponge cake will be needed to cover the base: small cubes that will serve to cover the cake to create the “mimosa” effect. Prepare this cake for an evening with friends, for the women of the family or to enjoy when you prefer this timeless dessert!
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Read the recipe in English
To prepare the classic mimosa cake, the first thing you need to do is prepare the two sponge cake. Make sure you have two molds with a diameter of 20 cm each and that both fit into the oven, on the same shelf next to each other. If not, you will have to make one sponge cake at a time (just halve the indicated doses). Preheat the oven to 160° in static mode. Break the eggs and place them in the bowl of a planetary mixer and start beating them with the whisk at moderate speed 1. Cut both vanilla pods, remove the seeds 2 and add them in a planetary mixer together with a pinch of salt. At this point slowly add the sugar 3.
Continue beating for about 15 minutes until the eggs have tripled in volume and you have obtained a fluid and creamy mixture, “that writes” 4. Stop the mixer and place a strainer directly over the bowl. Sift both the flour 5 that starch 6
and gently incorporate the powders with movements from bottom to top using a spatula 7, in order not to risk disassembling the compound. When you have obtained a homogeneous mixture 8, butter and flour two 20 cm diameter molds. Divide the batter equally between the 2 pans 9.
At this point 10 Bake your sponge cakes in a preheated static oven at 160°, on the lowest shelf, for about 50 minutes. Check that they are cooked by doing the toothpick test, if it is completely dry you can take them out of the oven 11. Then let them cool completely before unmolding them 12. Then place them on a wire rack to complete the cooling.
Take care of preparing the cream to fill the mimosa cake. So start from custard: cut the vanilla pod, remove the seeds 1 and keep them aside. In a saucepan, pour the milk, the cream and the emptied pod 2 and heat everything gently until it comes to a boil. Meanwhile, in a bowl, beat the egg yolks together with the sugar and vanilla seeds 3; it will not be necessary to assemble them but it will be enough to mix everything.
Sift the cornstarch directly inside 4 and mix again 5. As soon as the milk is hot, remove the pod with kitchen tongs 6
and pour a ladleful of it into the yolk mixture 7, stirring with a whisk to dilute it. Pour everything into the pan with the hot milk 8 and without ever ceasing to mix, thicken yours over low heat 9.
Once ready, place it in a low and wide baking dish and let it cool completely, covering it with transparent film in contact when the cream is still hot 10. Only when it is cold, pour the fresh cream into a bowl, add the icing sugar and start whipping with the whisk 12.
As soon as you have obtained a well whipped cream 13, take the cream and transfer it to another bowl. Whip lightly to soften it and start adding the cream. Add a spoonful 14 and mix vigorously to dilute the cream, then incorporate the remaining cream very gently by moving the spatula from the bottom up 15. Cover again with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to harden for about 30 minutes.
In the meantime, also prepare the syrup for the cake. Pour the water into a pan 1the liquor 2 and sugar 3.
Turn on the heat and stirring 4 heat the syrup until the sugar has dissolved 5then pour it into another bowl 6 and let it cool.
As soon as everything is very cold you can compose the dessert. First you will have to remove the external crust from both sponge cakes, first from the edges 1then from the top 2 and finally also from the bottom 3. In this phase, try to eliminate only the darkest part, in order to reduce waste. You can use the scraps as indicated at the bottom of the recipe card.
Take one of the two sponge cakes and using a long, serrated knife with wide teeth, make sure you get 3 discs; For cut the sponge cake as regularly as possible you can score laterally: make two notches with the serrated knife to take the measure, then plunge the blade transversally slowly to obtain the first layer, helping yourself by turning the sponge cake by hand to make a cut homogeneous and precise (4-5-6).
Place the first layer of sponge cake on a plate (we used a revolving plate, but a normal serving plate is also fine), then a pastry circle (you can also fill the cake without it): using a spoon, spread it all over the surface of the disc is wetted previously prepared and left to cool 7. Now add about 1/4 of the cream 8 and level it with a spatula 9.
Insert the second disc into the circle 10wet again 11 and cover with another layer of cream as done in the previous step 12.
At this point also insert the last disc and soak it again with the remaining syrup 13. Add another layer of cream 14, keeping aside some that will be used for the edges. Level evenly 15.
Also take the second sponge cake and cut it into slices vertically 16then from each cut rather small cubes 17 and place them in a bowl 18.
Gently remove the disc from the mimosa cake 19 and use the remaining cream to cover the edges of the cake, helping you with the spatula 20. With the help of a spoon, spread the cubes of sponge cake all over the surface 21,
also carefully covering the edges: the cubes will easily stick to the diplomatic cream 22. Once the entire surface has been carefully covered 23, place the cake in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Just before serving, sprinkle your classic mimosa cake with icing sugar 24!
