Today I can state without any doubt that this is one of the nicest and also probably the tastiest cake I have ever made. I’m not going to cheat you, it has a lot of work and it’s a bit complicated but it’s worth every minute you invest in it. Also, no effort can be spared when it comes to pampering our guests on these dates !!
We kick-off the Christmas season in the blog. I love this time of year !! I was looking forward to it again. And since here in Munich snow has been going around the streets for several days, that’s where I got enough inspiration to put some snow on the blog as well.
And nothing more or nothing less is what this cake pretends to be, a snowball. A giant, sweet and delicious Christmas snowball that I hope this Christmas is present in some of your tables because I promise you that you will succeed. Because its flavor is also pure Christmas, the touch of Baileys is very subtle and very Christmas at the same time (unless you put too much because you want your mother-in-law to sing some carol :)) .
It is also a very light cake, although I doesn’t look like, I assure you that it is so. The fact of being an frozen cake makes it easier to eat than any other traditional cream. But also the sponge cake is light as no other. Whipped cream is always a perfect and light side complement. The bitter touch of coffee and cocoa powder is simply perfect and the crunchy texture of the meringue is the perfect final touch to make it the best cake in the world.
And if I have not convinced you yet, I’ll tell you what happened to the guests I made this cake for. I made it as a dessert cake for a dinner with friends this weekend. Among them, there were 3 people who have tried almost all the recipes that are in this blog. Well, their verdict was that it was the best they had ever tasted. And, they also got a second portion, which usually does not happen.
If you still do not believe me, I’ll tell you that I obviously have tried all my recipes myself. Well for me this is also probably the best. I have a hard time deciding but I really tell you that this cake leaves a mark.
The recipe by the way, is going to be part of an initiative that Raquel of the blog celebraderechupete.com and Marta of the blog dulcesparaunangel.es have called “Mi Dulce Adviento”. The wonderful idea is to create an advent calendar with a new Christmas recipe every day made by a different person. They asked me to collaborate one day with a recipe and I did not think twice, and it. Do not you think it is a great idea? By the way, do not miss the recipes of the two blogs because there are some things that will leave you salivating !!
Frozen Coffee-Baileys Christmas Cake
Ingredients
- BISCUIT:
- 6 eggs
- 180 g sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- 180 g flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- FILLING COFFEE:
- 225 ml milk
- 75 ml Espresso
- 6 egg yolks (reserve the egg whites)
- 180 g sugar
- 250 g mascarpone
- 3 Tbsp of Baileys
- 400 ml whipping cream (very cold)
- DECORATION AND ASSEMBLY:
- Baileys to soak the biscuits
- 3 Tbsp of cocoa powder
- 6 egg whites (the ones you had reserved)
- 300g sugar
- 90 ml water
- 400 ml whipping cream (very cold)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 160ºC. To prepare the cake, separate the yolks from the whites. Beat the yolks with 120 g of sugar until you get a frothy, whitish mass. Whip the egg whites with the rest of the sugar and salt. Pour the mixture in the egg yolk dough mixing in soft and enveloping movements until it is incorporated.
Sift the flour with the baking powder and add it to the dough. Mix in soft and enveloping movements just until there are no lumps of flour.
Pour 1/3 of the batter into a round pan of 24cm in diameter greased. It should be about 1 cm high. Pour the rest of the batter into a baking tray lined with baking paper. Spread the whole batter well down the tray. Again, it should be about 1 cm high.
Bake for about 15 minutes, until you see it golden. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
To prepare the coffee filling, heat the milk and espresso in a saucepan almost until it boils. In a bowl with a bain-marie, beat the yolks with the sugar with the whisk until it reaches a little temperature. Incorporate the mixture of milk and hot coffee and continue whisking in the bain-marie until the mixture takes enough air, you will clearly see that it becomes much lighter and very frothy.
Remove the bowl from the water bath and put it in a cold water bath to cool it down. Meanwhile, beat the mascarpone with the 3 tablespoons of Baileys. Whip the cream that must be very cold. When the coffee mixture has completely cooled, pour first the mascarpone and beat until they are integrated and then pour the whipped cream mixing in enveloping movements until the cream is homogeneous.
Now comes the part of the assembly, which is somewhat complicated to explain. To begin with, wrap a semi-spherical bowl about 24 cm in diameter with transparent film. Cut out a circumference of about 32 cm in diameter from the cake you baked on the baking sheet. Reserve the remaining cuts.
Cover the entire bowl with the round cake you just cut, pressing so that the walls of the bowl are covered. Soak the cake lightly with a brush and Baileys and sprinkle well with cocoa powder. Fill with the coffee cream more or less to half. Sprinkle the cream with cocoa powder.
Cover the cream with the biscuit cutouts that you have left over. Soak them in Baileys and sprinkle with more cocoa powder. Pour more coffee cream until the bowl is almost filled to the brim. Sprinkle the cream with cocoa powder. Cover with the cake you have baked in the round mold and soak this last layer with Baileys.
Cover the bowl with more transparent film and freeze for at least 6 hours, but ideally with one or more days in advance.
To prepare the meringue, heat the sugar with the water in a saucepan. Insert a kitchen thermometer to control the temperature of the syrup.
Meanwhile, beat the whites in the bowl of the blender with the salt and vinegar at a low speed, so that they get foamy. When the temperature of the thermometer reaches 100 ° C, rise the speed of the mixer rises to medium-high.
When the temperature of the syrup reaches 118ºC, remove from the heat and without stopping the mixer, pour into the egg whites very slowly and in the form of thread while you continue beating the egg whites at medium-high speed. Be very careful and do not pour the syrup on the rods in motion or you can splash and burn. Continue beating at high speed for about 10 more minutes, until the meringue cools down.
Fill a piping bag with the meringue and make meringue on two baking trays. Bake in the preheated oven at 100ºC for 1 hour. For the oven and let the meringues cool inside with the door closed.
To serve the cake, whip the cream. Take the bowl out of the freezer and unmould it. Coat the whole cake generously with the whipped cream. Chop the meringues into large pieces and spread them all over the cake with grace.
Keep the cake in the refrigerator until serving. In the refrigerator, it lasts about 5 hours without the filling getting thawed completely.
Notes
I recommend that you prepare the cake at least one day in advance to ensure that it is well frozen. I made it a week before serving, it is perfectly preserved several days in the freezer before decorating it. If you do not want to make the meringues you can buy them already done to save some time.
Sweet dreams,
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