Assembly of Strawberry Cake with Bavarian and Yellow Chiffon Cake with French Buttercream

Day 2: Recipes for French Buttercream, Italian Buttercream, Vanilla Bavarian Cream

Italian Buttercream
250 g Sugar
2 oz Water
125 g Egg Whites
375 g Butter
2 oz Butter
½ tsp Lemon Juice
¾ tsp Vanilla

-Bring the water and sugar and lemon juice to 240 degrees.

-Whip the egg whites. They should be a little beyond foamy, almost lightly whipped.

-When the sugar has reached 240, steam it into the beating egg whites. Whip until a stiff meringue.

-When the meringue has cooled, add the butter.

-Whip until the butter is combined and the icing is fluffy.

Vanilla Bavarian Cream
22 g Gelatin
5 oz Water
Creme Anglaise
125 g Egg Yolk
125 g Sugar
2 cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla
2 cup Heavy Cream

Assembling Vanilla Bavarian
Have a cake board, cake ring, and acetate lining the inside of the ring. Torte the Genoise. Cut off the top to make sure it’s level. Cut the cake in half. Use another cake ring to cut/press out a circle of the cake. Put the bottom layer inside the ring with the acetate on top of the cake board.
For the Anglaise, bring the milk just to a boil; don’t scorch the bottom. Bloom the gelatin in cold water. Add the sugar to the egg yolks and whisk them. Temper the eggs with the hot milk and pour the egg milk back into the pan and cook to napé; when it coats the back of the wooden spoon. Stir in the vanilla. Have an ice bath ready. Add the gelatin to the Anglaise; it needs to melt. Once it is cooled, fold in the whipped cream. Brush the cake generously with a rum simple syrup. Line the cake ring with sliced strawberries along the side; only the inside slices of the berries, not the end pieces.

Whip the cream on speed 2 to soft mounds; pretty soft and loose peaks. You want the gelatin cream to start to thicken when folding in the whipped cream. Add the cream and fold. Pour the mixture into the cake ring; you may see some of the tips of the berries. Spread it smooth with a spatula. Put the other piece of cake on top, and brush with the rum simple syrup.

Finishing Bavarian Torte
-Reduce the apricot glaze and water by bringing to a boil. Brush on sides of cake after removed from cake ring.

-Crumb the edges with ground candied nuts, pressingly lightly.

-Have the piping bag ready with a large round tip.
-Starting in the center, pipe a continuous circle swirl out.
-The bag should be straight up, with the tip away from the surface, forming a full, rounded coil.
-Find the back of the cake and make a large rosette on top.
-Cut a few strawberries in half, with the green top remaining.
-Dip the berries in apricot glaze and arrange on top and around the rosette.
-Sprinkle a few more candied nuts on top of the cake.

French Buttercream
250 g Sugar
60 ml/ 2 oz Water
90 g/ 3 oz Egg Yolk
300 g Butter
¾ tsp Vanilla

Preparing French Buttercream
Bring the sugar and water to 240 degrees. Whip the egg yolks on speed 3 until they are light and fluffy. On speed 2, pour in the sugar, then move it back up to speed 3 to cool. You want the butter soft to the touch. The warmer the meringue, the colder the butter can be. The egg yolks make it soft anyways; you don’t want it to be too soft. Be mindful of the sugar temperature.

Finishing Chiffon Cake with French Buttercream
-You want no crumbs in the area on and around the cake turntable.
-Don’t let the spatula come in contact with the cake- use a lot of buttercream.

This was a difficult buttercream to work with after using Italian buttercream for so long. The egg yolks make it such a soft cream that it nearly melted off the cake as I tried to smooth it on. The icing is not as fluffy and the recipe does not make as much product as the standard Italian buttercream either.