Blueberry Lemon Charlotte Royale

For the June daring bakers challenge Rebecca from BakeNQuilt.com challenged us to make Charlotte Royale and Charlotte Russe from scratch.

I know this looks like some kind of crazy ice cream cake.  It's actually a creamy blueberry jello type filling covered in lemon cake that's been soaked in blueberry jam!  The outer cake layer is made of spirals, created by spreading blueberry jam on a thin flat cake and rolling it up, freezing, then slicing.  I actually didn't do my best work with this challenge.  I had to bake the lemon cake twice because the first time I over-baked it and it was too dry to roll up without breaking.  Then I thinned out my blueberry jam too much and it soaked into the cake so the spiral detail had a messy look to it.  All that aside, it tasted great, and I was really happy with the blueberry bavarian cream filling!

My cake won't win any beauty contests (and what is up with this photo that won't load properly no matter what I try?!) but in flavor it can definitely hold it's own!

This recipe is my interpretation of Rebecca's Charlotte Royale recipe challenge.  For the original recipe, you can find the challenge PDF here!

Blueberry Lemon Charlotte Royale
Serves 6.

Lemon Sponge Cake
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons oil
A touch of yellow food color, if desired
Juice plus the zest of one large lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of baking soda
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a jelly-roll sheet pan about 17" by 12" with baking spray and line the pan with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat eggs with a hand mixer on high for 5 minutes until light. Gradually add sugar until combined.

Add oil and gel food coloring until the desired shade of yellow is achieved. Add lemon juice and vanilla extract and mix briefly.

Gradually add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to the liquid ingredients. Mix until combined.  Pour your batter into the prepared pan (it will be a very thin layer).

Bake for 13-15 minutes until the cake is set and the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Do not over bake or the cake will be dry and will crack when you roll it.

Meanwhile, select a round bowl that holds about 6 cups.  You will be lining the bowl with plastic wrap, lining the bowl with cake slices, filling with bavarian cream, and covering with a round base of cake.  Once chilled and set, you'll flip it over onto a platter, remove the plastic wrap, garnish and serve :)

While the cake is still hot, you will need to set aside a piece for the base and roll the remainder in a towel as described here:.  Quickly flip the cake upside down out of the pan and remove the parchment paper.  Trace the round top of your bowl onto half of the cake.  This will be used for the base. Trim the remaining cake into a rectangle.

While the cake is still hot, roll the remaining rectangle of cake up tightly in a dishtowel. Roll from the longest side with the darkest side of the cake on the inside. Cool the rolled cake/towel on a wire rack.

Assembly stage 1

You will need 1/2 cup blueberry jam, room temp and whipped to a spreadable consistency.  Warm slightly if needed to soften.

When ready to fill, gently unroll the cake and leave it on top of the towel. Spread up to ½ cup of blueberry jam in a thin layer on top of the cooled cake, leaving it on the towel.

Roll up the cake as tightly as you can in plastic wrap and then foil and freeze until firm enough to slice, at least a couple of hours.

Lightly oil your 6-cup round bowl and line it as smoothly as possible with plastic wrap, leaving a small overhang of plastic. 

Slice the cake roll into ¼ inch slices. To line the bowl with cake slices, place 1 slice in the center and place other slices around it in a single layer as tightly as possible to try to avoid gaps.

The width of your bowl and the width of your slices will determine how far up the bowl you can get. You may not get all the way up the sides and will have to trim to create a clean edge. If your spirals do go all the way up, trim the last ones even with the edge of the bowl. If not, you can trim them when you put in the cream.

If there are any gaps between the spirals, plug them with trimmings from unused spirals. If you are using a glass bowl, you can hold it up to the light and see where light comes through. You want to plug these spots to prevent the Bavarian Cream from leaking through.

Blueberry Bavarian Cream

12 ounces frozen blueberries
2 tablespoons plus 1/4 cup blueberry Pom juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 ounce unflavored gelatin powder (1 packet)
1 cup heavy cream

Combine frozen berries, sugar and 2 tablespoons juice in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer 15 minutes, uncovered, stirring often. Strain and press mixture through a wire mesh strainer into a bowl (you'll have about 1 cup juice). Cool to room temperature.

Combine 1/4 cup juice and gelatin in a small saucepan and let stand 5 minutes. Melt on medium-low heat just until liquid. Whisk into your blueberry juice. Using an electric mixer at high speed, beat heavy cream in a bowl until stiff peaks form.  Fold your blueberry mixture into the whipped cream.

Assembly stage 2

Spoon the blueberry cream into the lined bowl until it comes up to the top of the bowl or to the top spirals. Trim the top spirals above the cream if necessary.

Place the cake round on top of the cream. Press down gently on the edges of the cake circle so it makes contact with the edge of the spirals.

Cover tightly and refrigerate until set, at least 8 hours.

To unmold, invert onto a plate and lift away the bowl, tugging gently on the plastic wrap to release it. To prevent drying out, leave the plastic wrap in place until serving. If desired, decorate with whipped cream and fresh fruit.

Enjoy!

Mexican Chocolate Battenberg Cake

I love the little bonus flavors you find in mexican chocolates...vanilla, cinnamon, coffee, almond, cayenne...and what better way to highlight the individual flavors than in this pretty little cake?

Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.





 

Since I don't have a fancy Battenberg pan to separate the cake batters, I created divides using folded parchment paper. It was easy and worked like a charm!

Then it's loads of trimming and shaping to create your perfect little square strips of cake. Luckily this is a sturdy almond cake so it's not falling to pieces when you create the lengths of cake. I found it fun and easy to work with. And so pretty!

I glued my cake together using a simple chocolate ganache. It was easy to spread and the texture was nice and creamy in the finished cake.

I wrapped my cake in chocolate plastique. This was the most nerve-wracking part of my Battenberg journey but I carried it off without a hitch and it turned out wonderfully!

I tend to create beautiful things that are a little rough around the edges. We'll say "quaint," and this cake is no exception. It's crooked, but cute!

And in that same vein, I didn't properly groom my slices of crumbs prior to photos either. But it sure did taste good! I broke my piece up with my fork and combined multiple flavors in each bite. The texture was nice and sturdy but creamy throughout and the flavors balanced nicely. Not bad for a first time on the Battenberg!

You can find the recipes for a traditional Battenberg in this original DB challenge PDF. Those recipes are for a four-square cake. I wanted 9 squares so I doubled the recipe (written for an 8 by 8 tin) and used a 9 by 13 tin. It worked out just fine. Also, if you are confused by some of the tricks such as how to separate batters or assembly, check out the PDF link above. There are photo tutorials for pretty much everything here.

Mexican Chocolate Battenberg

Chocolate Plastique:
Must be started 2 hours ahead of time, or the night before

14 oz Good Quality Dark Chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup Light Corn Syrup

1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, stirring occasionally.
2. Once completely melted, remove from heat and allow to cool a bit.
3. Stir in corn syrup. Continue stirring until it's evenly mixed and it comes away from the side of the bowl.
4. Transfer chocolate onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Spread the chocolate out then seal with another piece of plastic wrap.
5. Leave overnight on the counter or refrigerate for about 2 hours until completely firm.
6. Turn out from the plastic and break it into smaller sized chunks. Knead on a surface dusted with powdered sugar. At first it will just break into smaller pieces, but as you knead, it will warm up and start to become pliable.
7. Knead until it's pliable enough to roll out without cracking, 5 - 10 minutes. This will take some serious elbow grease!

For the Cake:
1.5 cups (3 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened & cut in cubes
1.5 cups Caster Sugar
4 Large Eggs, room temp
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2.5 cups Flour
1 cup Ground Almonds
5 tsp Baking Powder

4 tsp milk, divided
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cayenne
1 tsp red gel food coloring (or more for deeper color)
3 tsp instant coffee
1/2 tsp almond extract
8 Tbsp Dutch cocoa powder, sifted
4 Tbsp milk

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease a 9x13 baking tin with butter.
3. Line the tin with parchment paper with some hanging over each end. Creating two divides by pulling up some paper and creasing, 2.5 inches and 5 inches from one end with the parchment in order to separate your batters.
4. With a mixer, beat together butter and sugar until combined.
5. Mix in eggs, vanilla, and the next 3 dry ingredients and beat just until it comes together.
6. Spoon 1 cup of the mixture into a separate small bowl and stir in the cayenne, cinnamon, food coloring and 2 teaspoons of milk.
7. Spoon 1 cup of the mixture into another small bowl and stir in the almond extract, instant coffee and 2 teaspoons of milk.
8. To the remaining batter in the large bowl add the chocolate powder, 4 tablespoons of milk and mix well.
9. Spoon the batters into the sections of your prepared pan. Chocolate goes into the large section.
10. Smooth the surface of the batter with a spatula, making sure batter is pushed into each corner.
11. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the cake is well risen, springs back when lightly touched and a toothpick comes out clean (it should shrink away from the sides of the pan just slightly).
12. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to cool thoroughly on a wire rack.
13. Once completely cool, trim the edges of the cake with a long serrated knife so no browned edges are showing.
14. Cut each small section in half so that you are left with 2 strips of sponge of the red and 2 of the lighter brown.
15. Cut the large section into 5 equal strips of cake (close in size to the other colors-you will have extra chocolate cake).
16. Trim all pieces so they are uniform in length and are uniformly square.

Chocolate Ganache:
For gluing the strips of cake together.

Heat 1/2 cup heavy cream to a boil. Pour the hot cream over 5 ounces of chopped bittersweet chocolate. Whisk until smooth. Let cool slightly before spreading. When chilled, the ganache is creamy and soft, not crunchy. I sprinkled some cinnamon and a pinch of cayenne over my chocolate before I poured on the cream. It was a nice touch!

Assembly:
Glue all of your cake pieces together in your desired pattern using a thin and even layer of ganache. Roll your chocolate plastique out into a 12 inch by 12 inch square, trimming one edge into a perfect line with a sharp knife. Cover the long sides on the outside of your cake with a thin layer of ganache. I left one long side to cover in ganache after I had the thing partially rolled in plastique to reduce the mess. Starting at a bottom corner, roll your cake up in the plastique, pressing out air and smoothing as you turn and shape. Trim your remaining rough edge and seal the chocolate at the corner. Trim the ends of your plastique at one half of a finger's length and fold in like you are wrapping a gift. Score the top of your cake, if desired, and decorate with sugar pearls and edible gold dust.

Slice your cake with a very sharp knife. And enjoy!