This time does what it does and flies at the speed of thought… I don’t know where… It’s like yesterday was last year and it seemed like it was my birthday. Don’t ask me what happened in the meantime, because I don’t know anymore. I only know that it was the 25th of March and suddenly I realized that it is my birthday again… Another year has passed, with good, with bad, with all that there were. I thank God that he gave me and my loved ones health, that he kept us close and that we are happy and loved.
This year I celebrated my birthday with my family, with my loved ones, at our home. On this occasion, we prepared an Italian-style meal, namely: bruschette with tomatoes, breadsticks with basil and oregano, focaccia with olives and rosemary, seafood pasta, and Tiramisu for dessert. It took me some time to think about what cake to make, especially since it had to be in tune with the Italian evening. Initially, I wanted to make some panna cotta by the glass, but because it was too simple…I came up with the idea of combining it in a cake. In fact… there were two cakes, this one for the face and another one with chocolate, but that one didn’t get to be seen by the lens of the camera
What can I tell you about the girl’s cake…first of all…I wanted it to be pink, which is why I made a little mistake and added a little dye. Nah, on big days, it is allowed…I hope? 😀 You can do without the dye very well. Because it looks pretty good without it. What can I tell you, my talent struggled a bit and I wanted it to look a bit like a painting on the edges… I didn’t succeed, but at least I got the inside and the taste right. :)).
It is a cake with two types of top, one crunchy with hazelnuts and one soft and fluffy, with strawberry jelly and panna cotta in which I put lots of chopped strawberries. And, according to the husband, it came out like a stained glass window on the inside :)).
Even if it looks like a more sophisticated cake, the preparation method is not that complicated. The good part is that the cake tops can be made the day before, on the day of serving the cake you can prepare the strawberry jelly and panna cotta. If you have questions and concerns, I look forward to hearing from you here in the comments section.
(for a cake with a diameter of 20 cm)
for the crispy top:
150 g flour
100 g of roasted hazelnuts
75 g cold butter
2 spoons of sugar
1 pinch of salt
50-60 ml cold water
for the strawberry jelly:
400 g of strawberries
100 g of sugar
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
10 g gelatin granules
for panna cotta:
200 ml of liquid cream
100 ml of milk
75 g of sugar
1 tablespoon of rose water
7 g gelatin granules
250 g fresh strawberries
for the fluffy top:
1 egg
2 spoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of oil
2 tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon of baking powder
3 tablespoons of flour
1 pinch of salt
to syrup the fluffy top:
4 tablespoons water
2 spoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of rose water
for decoration:
200 g whipped cream
100 g mascarpone
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
fresh strawberries
edible flowers (optional)
put the hazelnuts in a blender and start the blender, mix for a few seconds until you get a beautiful composition. Add the flour, salt, sugar over the ground hazelnuts and start the blender again to mix everything well. Add the pieces of cold butter and start the blender again. At the end, pour the water and mix again for a few seconds until the composition starts to bind like a dough.
Remove the dough from the blender, and put it in a food foil, flatten the dough, wrap it in foil and put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours. After the 2 hours of standing in the refrigerator, heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius, remove the dough from the refrigerator, and with the help of the rolling pin, roll out a 1 cm thick sheet that you place in the shape of a cake. Prick the dough from place to place with a fork and shape it in the hot oven for 10-15 minutes until the dough is baked. At first, it will seem like a fluffy dough, but after it cools, it will become hard and firm like a giant biscuit. Leave the shaped top to cool completely, after which you can remove it.
Prepare the strawberry jelly: hydrate the gelatin in 3 tablespoons of cold water, set aside. In a saucepan, put the chopped strawberries together with the sugar, lemon juice and water. Let it boil for 10 minutes until the strawberries soften and form a sauce. Puree the strawberries cooked in this way with a blender until you get a fine puree. While the composition is still warm, add the hydrated gelatin and mix to dissolve completely. At the end, add the vanilla sugar. Let it cool down at room temperature, taking care not to let the jelly harden. If you happen to leave the jelly too long at room temperature and it seizes and congeals, put the jelly back on the fire for a few seconds until it returns to a liquid state.
For the panna cotta: in a bowl, put the gelatin together with 2 tablespoons of water and let it hydrate for 10 minutes. Put the liquid cream, milk and sugar in a saucepan and heat the mixture, being careful not to bring it to the boiling point. Add the hydrated gelatin, mix well to dissolve the gelatin, pour in the rose water and let it cool down at room temperature, then refrigerate for 10 minutes. Careful! check the panna cotta very often while it is in the fridge! You need a still liquid composition, not hard and firm! When the panna cotta has cooled down and has a thick consistency like cream, take it out of the fridge and you can fit it into the cake. You can find the way to assemble the cake below.
If it still happens to you and the panna cotta hardens in the pan while it is in the refrigerator, put it back on the heat for a few seconds until it reaches a liquid state again. Chop the strawberries into cubes and leave them aside.
For the fluffy top: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius, mix the egg together with the sugar until it turns white and doubles in volume. Add the oil, continue to mix, then add the milk and mix again. Finally, in a small bowl, mix the flour together with the baking powder and with the help of a spatula, incorporate it into the egg mixture. In a 20 cm diameter form, place baking paper, grease the paper with oil and pour the composition. Put the top in the hot oven for 10-15 minutes until the top is baked, insert a toothpick in the middle of the top. If the toothpick comes out dry, then the top is baked.
For the syrup: put sugar and water in a small kettle, let it boil for 5 minutes until you get a syrup. Let it cool completely, add the water of the roses and leave it aside.
ASSEMBLING THE CAKE:
Place the crispy top in the cake form with a removable ring with a diameter of 20 cm, seal the ring of the cake form. Pour half of the amount of strawberry jelly over the top. Level well. Place in the freezer for 10 minutes to harden the jelly completely. Remove the form from the freezer, test with your finger to be sure that the jelly is well set.
Pour 2-3 tablespoons of panna cotta over the congealed jelly, which should be as thick as cream (not hard!). Put the chopped strawberries on top. Pour the rest of the panna cotta over the strawberries. Place in the freezer for 20 minutes. You can shape it in the refrigerator for 1 hour or until the next day, if you don’t have enough time for the whole cake.
After the panna cotta is fixed and firm, place the fluffy top, prick the top with a toothpick so that it is evenly soaked with syrup, syrup the top with the prepared syrup. Place the second half of the strawberry jelly on top of the syrupy top. At this point, it is very likely that the jelly has set too hard and you cannot spread it on the counter. As I said, put it back on the fire for a few seconds until it has a liquid consistency.
At this point you are done with the assembly. Leave the cake in the refrigerator for 2 hours to be sure that all the layers of the cake are well fixed.
Undo the ring of the cake top, release the cake from the form. Mix the whipped cream with the mascarpone cream and the vanilla sugar. Spread the composition in an even layer over the entire surface of the cake.
On top, put strawberries, edible flowers, fresh mint, or whatever else you want.