Cardinal Cake

The cake one day our friends brought us was so nice and we found out it was Cardinal cake (Tarta de Cardenal in Spanish), made by two merengue type sponges and white cream filling between them. It should be served with chocolate sauce poured on top.

To hear the others, everyone seems love it. We can find a small individual one and a big whole cake for several people, and also you can buy chocolate sauce separately.

As I wanted to make it at home, I was searching for a recipe but I couldn't find any...

There is a cake also called Cardinal in Austria, made by striped sponge with merengue, and filled with whipped cream, it seems closest to what I am looking for.

Then one day I was watching a documentary on Mallorca's bakery and casually what they were making was Cardinal! I couldn't see exactly how and from what they were making but they were mixing whipped cream and merengue for the filling. The volume of the cream was of merengue

According to the information I got, I made a recipe by myself, which my Cardinal Lover friends recognize better than those we can buy. So I hope you will try this popular sweet in Spain (maybe just in Barcelona?)♪

 

Side view：I shouldn't use alminum foil, it does't look nice...

＜Recipe＞
Egg white                     5
Sugar　                      85g
Powder sugar            55g
Almond powder        65g
Flour    　　               65g

1.　Whip egg white adding sugar, and make merengue.

2.　Sife powder sugar, almond powder and flour, and add them into 2 and cut them in until they are mixed. 

3.　Put this mixture into a piping bag and pipe it from center in order to make a 22cm diameter circle(x 2)
4.　Powder powder sugar on top, leave it for 10 minutes and do it once again, then bake in a oven for 25-30minutes (180℃)
5.　Once cooled, fill with whipped cream (if you like merengue, you can add merengue into the cream)

Just before eating, cut it into pieces and pour chocolate sauce on top.

As the sponge is sweet, I recommend you to use dark chocolate with more than 70% cacao for chocolate sauce.

Bon profit!!!

Macaron with Hazel nuts

I had leftover egg white from making custard cream the other day and kept in freezer, so I decided to make Macaron and unfroze it. But I found no almond powder anywhere! The egg white has almost been unfrozen! What shall I do???

Then I made them with Hazel nuts.

We can see Hazel nuts (avellana) everywhere in Spain, but not Hazel nuts powder. Why???

Anyway, I don't grind them but buy the powder (Noisettes en Poudre) in France. It is so curious for me that these 2 countries are so different even they are neighbors.

As the pound cake with Hazel nuts with espresso from my friend was so delicious, I made Cafe Macaron.

My husband said it tasted Nutella. Nutella is Chocolate Cream with Hazel nuts and so popular here like Chocolate Cream=Nutella. So Macaron with Hazel nuts with chocolate can taste Nutella, but I worked hard to make them and the result is Nutella??? Little bit sad, no? Anyway if you want to try Nutella taste macaron, here is the recipe♪

＜Recipe＞

－Macaron－
Egg white　                        40g
Powder sugar                    40g
Hazel nuts powder          　40g
Powder sugar　　　  　　　 40g
Instant coffee          　　　　 4g
Water 　　　　　　　　　　　 4g

－Filling－
Cream　  　　　　　　　　100g
Chocolate 　　　　　　　　60g
Instant coffee        　　　　 5g

1.  Sift Hazel nuts powder and powder sugar.
2.  Mix instant coffee and water.
3.  Beat egg white adding powder sugar and make stiff and glossy merengue.
4.  Add 1 into 3 and mix roughly.
5.  Once they are mixed, add 2 and mix them doing Macaronage.
(Macaronage is the process to crush foam of merengue, you have to mix the mixure passing flexible rubber spatula along the side of bowl, but if you do too much, the dough will be loosen, so you should be careful. Depending on the amount, but around 60 times is recommended).
6. The dough becomes glossy and if you spoon the dough, it should fall like ribbon, then put in a piping bag and pipe on a baking tray with baking sheet (for petit macaron, around 2cm diameter, for big macaron, around 4cm).
7. Leave them for around 1 hour so that the surface becomes dry.
8. Put them in the oven heated to 200℃ and around 5 minutes later lower the temperature to 160℃ and bake for 15minutes in total.
9.  Heat cream in a pan until just before starts boiling and add chocolate and instant coffee and mix them.
10. Once macaron become cool, fill them with the cream.

They are more delicious the following day. I used 70% dark chocolate for the cream so they were not too sweet.

Bon profit!!!

Choux&Eclair

If your friends invite us for lunch or dinner, we are supposed to bring some dessert or/and wine as a sign of politeness in Spain.
This time I decided to bring Eclair which I didn't get to eat in France.

I love Eclair, I don't know what is so special, but I cannot keep myself from buying. When I was child, we used to go Ginza Seigetsudo, which does not exist any more, for lunch, and I was asking my dad to buy all remaining eclairs in the shop. So when the restaurant was reopened as LINTARO, I and my dad were so disappointed and missed the old one.

In Spain I don't see them. Here there are petit choux, which they call Lionesa, normally filled with whipped cream or ganache, but leave something to be desired.
So, I made not only Eclairs but also Choux with Custard cream(Crème pâtissière) and with Whipped cream&strawberry, four each♪

＜Recipe＞

－Choux－

Water　　　　　　　80cc

Milk　　　　　　　100cc

Sugar　　　　　　　  5g

Salt　　　　　　　　　5g（If you use salty butter, do not add.)

Butter　　　　　　　70g

Flour　　　　　　  100g

Egg 　　　 　　　　 　3

1.　Put water, milk, sugar, salt and butter in a pan and heat until it comes to boil.
2.　Remove 1 from the heat, add sifted flour at once in it and mix them.
3.　Once mixed, place the pan over the heat again and keep mixing the dough.
4.　When the dough becomes like a ball and is taken off from the wall of the pan, remove it from the heat.
5.　Add egg one by one and mix them well, until becomes smooth. (When spoon the mixure, the dough should fall slowly)
6.　Put the dough in a piping bag and pipe small amount on a baking tray with baking sheet.
7.　Brush the top with beaten egg and bake them in a oven(200℃, for 20－25min)

8.　You should not take them out when they are done, but leave them in the oven for 10min to prevent choux from collapsing.
9.　Cut it into half and fill them with any cream you like.

－Custard cream(Crème pâtissière)－

Milk　　　　　　　　  350cc

Vanilla beans　　         1pod

Yolk　　　　　　　　 　 4

Sugar　　　　　　　　　70g

Cornstarch　　        　30g

Butter　　　　　　　　  30g

1.　Put yolk, sugar and the seeds taken from vanilla pod, and whisk them until becomes white.
2.　Add cornstarch and mix them roughly.

3.　Put milk and vanilla pod in a pan and heat it until just before starts boiling.
4.　Add the half of 3 into 2 and mix them. Once mixed, put the mixture back into 3, place it over the heat and stir.
5.　Once it comes to boil and the mixture becomes creamy, remove the pan from the heat, remove the pod from the cream and put the cream in a bowl.
6.　Put ice in another bowl and place the bowl with the cream in this with ice.
7.　When the cream becomes lukewarm, add the butter and mix them.

*If you want to have chocolate custard cream, break down 200g of chocolate into a small pieces and add into the hot custard cream(5) and mix them.

This time we visited a French-American couple. The favourite of french husband was eclair(he gave me a passing score♪), the american wife's one was ring choux with ganache and banana(there is no photo of this...), my spanish husband's one was custard cream choux, everyone has own taste!

Anyway

Bon Profit!!!