I like the park of the Nymphenburg Palace a lot and I often go for a walk there (avoid Sundays, there are too many people). Every season is beautiful but winter is my favorite season in the park. Most of the time, I just go for a walk in the park but once in a while I visit the café on the grounds of Castle Nymphenburg. Back in January, I went to the café after my park walk and I ordered a pot of tea and a slice of the König Ludwig torte. I recreated this cake last year (to my delight, the café modified the torte; instead of a sponge cake bottom the torte consists of a shortcrust bottom, just as I suggested). After I paid the bill, the waitress brought me a little dessert cup with a crème bavaroise topped with a raspberry ragout as a thank you because of a two month winter break of the café. It was literally a very sweet gesture. After my café visit, I craved Bavarian cream and raspberries for days and days.
I just had to make a Bavarian Cream with raspberries but I wanted to make little cakes instead of the classic Bavarois.
I love how my petite cakes turned out. The cake do not only look pretty but the cakes have a such a creamy and light consistency. I think my cakes are the perfect dessert for a full course dinner because no one (at least I) wants to end a long evening with a heavy chocolate cake.
My cake creations also reminds me of my childhood. Whenever I visited the opera with my parents, I always requested vanilla ice cream with a hot raspberry sauce during the intermission. I never wanted to have cake but ice cream with raspberry sauce. Over the years this has changed and I prefer cake but next time I visit the opera I will order vanilla ice cream with hot raspberry sauce in order to reminiscing my childhood.
RASPBERRY RAGOUT
- 300 g / 2 1/3 cups raspberries *
- 20 g / 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 3 g / 2 sheets gelatin, soaked
- Place defrosted or fresh raspberries and granulated sugar into a saucepan and gently heat the mixture until it is warm. Remove the saucepan from the heat, add the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.
- Fill the raspberry ragout into moulds (5 cm / 2 inches in diameter; 2,5 cm / 1 inch in height). Place the moulds into the freezer. Let the ragout freeze for at least 3 hours.
ALMOND SPONGE CAKE
- 30 g / 5 tablespoons almond flour
- 20 g / 2 1/2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 egg (medium size)
- 15 g egg yolk, equals egg yolk of a medium sized egg
- 30 g egg white, equals egg white of one medium sized egg
- 1 pinch of salt
- 25 g / 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 35 g / 5 1/2 tablespoons pastry flour
- 15 g / 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C / 355 °F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place the almond flour, powdered sugar, egg and egg yolk in a medium sized bowl; whisk until creamy.
- Place egg white and salt in a small bowl and whisk until almost stiff. Gradually add the granulated sugar and whisk until stiff.
- Fold the egg white into the almond flour and egg mixture.
- Spread the batter (the size of 25 cm x 25 cm / 10 inches x 10 inches square) onto the baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake the sponge cake for 7 to 8 minutes or until the cake is golden in color.
- Let the sponge cake cool completely on a wire rack. Carefully remove the parchment paper. Cut out circles with a cookie cutter (5 cm / 2 inches).
BAVARIAN CREAM
- 250 ml / 1 cup whole milk
- 10 cm / 4 inch piece of vanilla bean
- 40 g egg yolks, equals egg yolks of 2 1/2 eggs
- 35 g / 2 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 6 g / 4 sheets of gelatin, soaked
- 230 g / 1 cup heavy cream
- Prepare a big bowl with ice water. If you do not have any ice cubes on hand, use very cold water.
- Pour the milk into a large saucepan. Split the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape out the seeds (use the tip of your knife or the dull side of the knife). Add the vanilla seeds and the empty vanilla pod to the milk. Bring the milk almost to boil and set aside.
- Whisk egg yolks and granulated sugar fluffy. Slowly add the hot milk to the egg yolk mixture and mix well. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Heat the mixture over medium heat - stir constantly - until the mixture has reached the temperature of 82 °C / 180 °F to 84 °C / 183 °F. You will notice that the egg yolk mixture has thickened. Remove from the heat; add the gelatin and stir well. Pour the mixture through a sieve into a bowl. Place the bowl into the prepared ice water. Stir until the mixture has cooled (you will also notice that the mixture starts to gelatinize). Remove from the ice water.
- Whisk the heavy cream until creamy. Fold the heavy cream into the egg yolk milk mixture. Fill the Bavarian Cream into a piping bag and use immediately.
ASSEMBLING
- 100 g red seedless jam / 1/3 cup (I used a strawberry rhubarb jam that I made summer; I passed the jam through a sieve in order to get a smooth texture.)
- 10 fresh raspberries, cut into halves
- Roughly chopped unsalted and roasted pistachios
- Line a board with parchment paper and place cake rings onto the board.
- Unmould the frozen raspberry cores. Place the raspberry cores onto the sponge cake circles . I sprinkle on the sponge cake circles a mixture of wheat starch and starch flour which prevents the raspberry ragout soaking through the sponge cake bottom. Place the circles into the middle of each cake ring
- Pipe the Bavarian Cream into the cake rings.
- Freeze the cakes for at least 4 hours.
- Dip the cake rings, be carefully not to dip the bottom of the top in water, in hot water for a few seconds in order to unmould the frozen mousse cakes. You can also use a blowtorch which I use for unmoulding the cakes.
- Place each petite cakes onto a cake board.
- While the cakes are still frozen, spread a thin layer of jam on top of each cake. Decorate each cake with raspberry halves and chopped pistachios. Let the cakes defrost in the fridge. It takes about 2 to 3 hours until the cakes are completely defrosted.
