Makes: 16 small round cakes (~5cm in diameter)

Time required: 2 hours over 2 sessions (~2 hour at a time)

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

One of the things I love about entremets is that you can take different desserts, flavours and textures and layer them into a small delicate cake. For this cake, I wanted to “recreate” a lemon meringue pie – have all the elements of a normal lemon meringue pie (buttery crust, lemon curd, meringue) but create it in a different form. To add a twist … I included a bluberry gelee which oozes out when you cut into the cake – the sweetness (but also subtle flavour) of the blueberry is a great contrast to the sour lemon curd.

Elements of this cake:

• buttery biscuit base
• lemon curd mousse
• blueberry gelee
• meringue
• blueberries and chocolate leaf to decorate

Ingredients:

Tart base:

• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 150g plain flour
• 1 pinch of salt
• 70g pure icing sugar
• 120g butter, cold

blueberry gelee:

• 125g blueberries
• 30ml water
• 70g caster sugar

Lemon curd:

• 200g caster sugar
• juice from 3 lemons
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 whole eggs
• pinch of salt
• 50g butter

Lemon mousse:

• lemon curd made above
• 2 gelatin sheets
• 450ml whipping cream
• juice from 1 lemon

Meringue:

• 2 egg whites
• 120g caster sugar
• 40ml water

To decorate:

• blueberries
• tempered chocolate leaves

Instructions:

Tart base:

1. whisk together the egg yolks and vanilla and set aside
2. in a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and icing sugar
3. cut the cold butter into 1cm cubes and beat into the flour mixture until it resembles a coarse sand. Careful not to overmix
4. mix the egg into the flour/butter mixture until just combined
5. roll into a flat disc and refrigerate for at least an hour
6. once all the other elements of the cake have been prepared roll the dough to 0.5cm thickness and cut out 16 circles just slightly larger than the round moulds
7. bake at 170C for 12 minutes until the edges of the biscuit base is golden

Blueberry gelee:

1. bring all ingredients to a boil and then simmer for ~5 minutes until the mixture thickens
2. place into a piping bag and then set aside in the fridge to cool as you prepare the lemon mousse

Lemon curd:

1. whisk together all ingredients except for the butter
2. place all ingredients (including the butter) into a saucepan over medium heat and continue whisking until the mixture thickens into a curd
3. place three quarters of the curd into the fridge to cool while leaving the remaining quarter at room temperature

Lemon mousse:

1. bloom gelatin sheets in iced water for 10 minutes
2. bring the lemon juice to boil then melt in the bloomed gelatin sheets
3. mix in the room temperature lemon curd and set aside while preparing the rest of the mousse
4. in a separate bowl, whisk the cream to medium peaks
5. whisk together the room temperature lemon curd with the cold lemon curd until light and airy
6. gently fold into the whipped cream to form the mousse

Meringue:

1. place sugar and water over low-medium heat to create a sugar syrup
2. meanwhile, begin whisking the egg whites in a large bowl
3. when the sugar syrup is ready, pour the sugar syrup in a slow steady stream while constantly whisking the egg whites at maximum speed
4. continue whisking until stiff peaks

To assemble:

1. pipe the lemon mousse into the round moulds 3/4 full
2. pipe in a blob of the blueberry gelee then top the remaining of the mould with more lemon mousse
3. Freeze the moulds for at least 3 hours, until they can be smoothly removed from the moulds
4. remove the mousse from the moulds then place each lemon mousse piece over a biscuit base
5. pipe on the meringue, torch the meringue then decorate with blueberries and chocolate

 

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