This cake is so good, the buttercream is so silky and flavoursome and mixed with the springy tangy sponge, it really makes for a great cake not to mention the visual is so good.
This recipe is from Ottolenghi and Helen Goh from their book "Sweet". In their recipe, they don't use any creme fraiche in their buttercream and use 300 g of butter but I really like the tartness the creme fraiche adds. They also use 8 eggs for the cake but I love not having any leftover egg white and it works really well to use the egg whites leftover from the egg yolks used in the buttercream to make the sponge extra light.
The way you get the stripes is that the cake is essentially a big fat spring roll, less long but fatter, placed sideways on a cake stand and iced to look like a cake. So to make it, you need to cut out strips to make a long strip and roll the long strip up. One thing I learnt from making this cake twice is to not under-estimate how tall the cake will be because the roll may not seem wide when you are rolling it up but it will definitely appear taller once it's placed on the cake stand. So what I did to make sure it wouldn't be too tall and to make sure that my two thin rectangles would be the same, I baked my cake in 2 spring roll tins. At least with spring roll tins, they are mostly all about the same width and my two rectangles of cake would be the same size rather than using any old baking tray.
I didn't have 2 spring roll tins so I just divided the recipe in 2 and did it twice which is what you could do too if you only have one spring-form pan like me! you might think it takes a long time but it's really relaxing to fold in the ingredients which is all you really need to do, as everything else is the stand-mixer whisking.
You can really use any type of berries, from blackberries like in the recipe book, to summer berries to black forest fruit like me. I used frozen but you can also use fresh if you like.
Ingredients
For the sponge:
10 egg whites
6 egg yolks
160 g caster sugar
80 g plain flour
1 teaspoon of salt
the zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
For the fruit coulis:
300 g frozen or fresh black forest fruit
60 g caster sugar
For the buttercream:
4 egg yolks
250 g butter, softened
80 g creme fraiche
80 ml of the fruit coulis
Recipe
For the sponge:
Preheat the oven to 180C and grease + line 2 spring roll tins.
Whisk the egg yolks with 3/4 of the sugar for about 5 minutes, until super pale and thick.
Add in the flour + lemon juice + lemon zest and mix making sure to not knock out any air, not completely incorporating it in as you will mix again later.
Whisk the egg whites with the remaining sugar + salt until stiff peaks.
Fold them into the egg yolk mixture and then divide the mixture into the two tins. Level off and bake for 20 minutes or until golden and springy to the touch.
Take out of the tin and lay flat on a tea towel. Carefully peel away the baking parchment and dust lightly with icing sugar before rolling it in the tea towel. Repeat for the second cake.
For the fruit coulis:
Cook the fruit with the sugar until the berries have burst and can easily be squished with a spoon.
Pour 80 ml of strained fruit coulis into a bowl and reserve. With the rest, leave to cool in the saucepan.
For the buttercream:
Heat the golden syrup + caster sugar in a saucepan.
Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks until pale.
Once all the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is bubbling, pour it slowly into the egg yolks, beating all the while, in a slow and steady stream until everything is incorporated. Keep on whisking until the mixture is thick and cooled.
In a separate bowl, beat the butter until super light in colour.
Add the creamed butter in little bits into the egg yolk mixture, beating between each stage until all the butter is mixed in.
Fold in the creme fraiche.
To assemble:
Cut the edges of the spring roll cakes to make them completely straight then cut the spring-roll cakes in 2 lengthways.
Take one strip of cake and spread on some of the icing in a thin layer.
Roll up the layer.
Take a second strip of cake and spread on thinly some icing.
Take your rolled-up cake and place it onto the second iced strip of cake and roll the second strip of cake around the roll.
Repeat with the remaining two strips of cake and then place on the cake stand like a round cake.
Spread the remaining icing on the cake and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Take your rest of coulis and thin it out with a little water if it isn't the right consistency for dripping on a cake.
Pour the coulis on the chilled cake, making it drip down the codes of the cake.
And serve.
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