RASPBERRY LEMONADE CAKE – TORT CU ZMEURA SI LAMAIE

Ever since Christina Tosi replaced Joe Bastianich in the new Masterchef season, I’ve been slightly obbsessed with her recipes. She’s a pastry chef and I am somehow excited to see pastry chefs stepping out on tv shows like this one. I kept reading on various blogs that the recipes found in her Momofuku Milk Bar book are time consuming and hard to master and I thought this was the challenge I needed, although I don’t mind complex and time consuming cakes (do check my entremets for that matter). But I was intrigued by the elements she used in her cakes and the fact that she relies on the pure beauty of a naked cake to impress. And it works, it really does as after revealing my cake, I was in pure awe and I’m not that easily impressed when it comes to cakes, believe me!


My recipe uses Christina Tosi’s Strawberry Lemonade Cake as a base, but I added my signature to it by reducing the sugar and butter (the cake is incredibly rich and sweet even so, I’ll probably reduce it a bit more next time, but again, it might only be a matter of personal taste) and replacing part of her recipe with my own tried, fail-proof recipes. I ended up with a rich, tangy, sweet raspberry lemonade cake that I just couldn’t stop eating. Yes, it’s sweet, yes, it’s buttery and yes, it’s delicious! It’s definitely not a cake for the faint of heart in terms of calories, but hey, we don’t eat cake every day and this one is well worth the time spent in the kitchen and the sacrifice of breaking the rules of your diet!

Ingredients:

• Vanilla Cake:
• 225 butter, softened
• 280g white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 125ml buttermilk
• 125ml vegetable oil (sunflower or canola oil)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 210g all-purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Raspberry Sauce:
• 200g raspberries
• 100g white sugar
• 1 tablespoon pectin powder
• Liquid Cheesecake:
• 225g cream cheese, softened
• 80g sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Lemon Curd:
• 5 egg yolks
• 90ml lemon juice
• Zest from 2 lemons
• 100g butter, cubed
• 200g white sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• Milk Crumbs
• 45g milk powder
• 30g all-purpose flour
• 30g cornstarch
• 10g white sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 70g butter, melted
• 15g milk powder
• 70g white chocolate, melted and cooled

Directions:

1. Vanilla Cake:
2. Pre-heat your oven to 350F - 180C and line a rectangle pan with baking paper. Ideally, the pan has around 35x25cm or a similar size. Place aside.
3. Sift the flour with salt and baking powder and place aside.
4. Mix the butter with sugar in a bowl for 3 minutes until creamy and pale.
5. Add the eggs, one by one, and mix well after each addition.
6. While mixing at medium speed, slowly pour in the buttermilk, followed by the vegetable oil and vanilla then turn the mixer on high speed and mix for 6 minutes until double in volume.
7. Fold in the flour then spoon the batter in your prepared pan.
8. Bake for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown and the cake springs back if pushed slightly on its surface.
9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool aside.
10. ..................................

for full recipes please see : pastry-workshop.com