This week's recipe features Boone Bake’s 13:07-minute long video from YouTube. This is one of the most delightful cakes we've ever seen, and thousands of reviews say it is equally delicious. Honey is one of the precious ingredients, and bees pollinate many fresh fruits. The cake artist recommends that you use your favorite fruits in the recipe.
Watch the video all the way through. Getting the ingredients and measurements together wasn't easy, but you'll find it all below. This is a long post, but once you watch the video you can follow along easily.
A few preliminary steps: use a cake form that is 18 cm * 7 cm (7" x 2.75"), prepare ingredients at room temperature, sift your flour, warm the milk and butter ahead of time, consider preparing the soft sponge cake the day before, preheat the oven to 170C (338F), and line the cake form mold with non-stick paper.
Vanilla Genuise (Sponge Cake)
4 eggs (200 g - 235 g) at room temperature
100g or ½ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
5 ml or 1 teaspoon of Vanilla extract
25 g or 3 Tablespoons of honey (you can substitute maple syrup for honey and/or vanilla extract)
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40 g or 1/3 cup of warm milk
125 g or 1 cup of *cake flour powder cake mix
40 g or 1/3 cup of unsalted butter
(To make *cake flour measure 1 cup all-purpose flour, remove 2 tablespoons and add 2 tablespoons cornstarch and sift together 3-5 times. This recipe doesn't use baking soda to make the cake rise so make sure your flour doesn't have it.)
Crack the 4 eggs gently into a glass mixing bowl and beat them. Add the sugar, salt, vanilla extract and honey, careful not to lump up the sugar. Once well stirred, place the mixing bowl on top of a double bath and set the temperature to 38C-42C or 100F-107F. In a separate pan of hot water, place a glass mixing bowl with butter and a jug with milk to warm them.
Whip the egg mixture with an electric eggbeater at high speed for 2-3 minutes until the color turns ivory and volume thickens, then on slower speed until it is stiff enough to hold its shape for 3 seconds. Add warm milk (40C-45C degrees) to batter to improve the fluidity of the dough before adding flour. Next add the flour in 2 portions. First add half the cake flour, pouring it into the mixture through a sieve and mixing it with a hand beater. Use a spatula to mix and cut, until you don’t see any raw flour powder, then repeat with the rest of the flour. Add a little dough to the unsalted butter that was melted at 55C-60C (131F-140F) in a small mixing bowl and stir it in with the spatula. After sifting, pour the buttery mixture into the big mixing bowl of batter and mix it all quickly and smoothly, cutting with a skewer to aerate air bubbles. Pour the mixture into the round cake pan lined with non-stick paper and make sure the batter is smooth. Place cake pan in the oven preheated to 170C (338F) and reduce to 160C (320F). Bake for 35 minutes.
Assorted Fruits You Love
While the cake is baking, it’s time to prepare some fruits. Prepare your favorite fruits as you consider the colors you want in your cake. Slice each fruit thin and place on paper towel so juice runs off a bit, and also slice the rounded sections into halves. Strawberries, kiwis (remove skin with spoon), mango (use spoon to scoop from skin, slice thin). You end up with about 12 thin slices of mango, 9 thin slices of strawberry, 8 thin slices of kiwi on paper towel to drain juices. On a separate plate you have 9 strawberries cut in half, 14 slices of kiwi and 17 half-moon slices of mango.
Remove cake from oven, turn it upside down onto a cake rack to cool. Horizontally slice the soft cake into 4 sheets, using a stainless-steel leveler. Each slice should be 1 cm thick. Let these rest on the cake rack.
White Ganache Monte Fresh Cream
80 g or ¼ cup of white chocolate
80 g or 7 Tablespoons of warm fresh cream
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20 g or 2 Tablespoons of condensed milk
25 g or 3 Tablespoons of sugar
5 ml or 3 Tablespoons of Kirsch liqueur (optional)
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350 g or 1 ½ cups of Cold Cream, fresh heavy cream or whipped cream
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Syrup
35 g or 3 tablespoons sugar
50 g or 4 tablespoons water
2.5 g or ½ teaspoon of Kirsch liqueur (optional)
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Pour 80 g of white chocolate chips into a glass mixing bowl. Warm 80 g of fresh cream in a small saucepan and stir. Add to the white chocolate and stir until it is all melted. Add Kirsch, sugar, and condensed milk, and stir with a spatula. The condensed milk should be 50C or cooler; it is not good to add it if it is too hot. Let the temperature drop to 30C. Place the mixing bowl into a larger bowl with ice cubes and water to help it cool. Add 350 g cold fresh cream and whip it with an electric beater. Once it thickens so it folds without losing form, pour about 200 g aside as icing cream for the cake top design in a separate smaller glass mixing bowl. Whip firmly until you get stiff peaks. To prepare the syrup, measure the water and sugar and melt it in the microwave, then mix in the Kirsch and set aside.
Putting It All Together
Get the cake platter you wish to set the finished cake on and put a small dab of cream in the middle, and top it first layer of cake. “Set” it with your fingers. Brush the cake with syrup and top with whipped cream. On top of the cream place 13 half strawberries face down in a circle around the outer edge of the cake and 5 more in the inner circle so the entire cake surface is covered. Top with a big scoop of whipped cream, flatten it out to cover the strawberries and fill the gaps.
Place the next layer of the cake on top. Twirl the cake, covering the outer edge of the cakes with cream. Smooth it to perfection and apply a layer of cream on top, then position the mango slices 7 at the outer edge, 5-6 in next circle and 3 at the center. Top with a generous portion of whipped cream and smooth it out well to fill in the gaps and cover all fruit.
Add the third cake layer, smooth cream around the outer edge. Brush with syrup and top with whipped cream, smoothed to perfection. Position slices of kiwi this time, 9 slices on the outer edge, 6 slices in the middle circle and 2 face to face in the center. Top with a generous portion of whipped cream well spread so it covers the fruit and fills the gaps between pieces. Smooth the outside of the cake with cream.
Top with the final slice of cake, apply syrup, followed by thick whipped cream. Smooth it to perfection on top and then add lots of cream to the sides. Smooth it all out. Press the thinnest slices of fruit into the “walls” of the cake all the way around—red, gold, green—for a beautiful visual. Then add a few smaller pieces here and there, it looks like a stained glass mosaic. Smooth the cake top again and run the tool over the outer sides, firming the fruit slices into place.
Decorate the top of the cake neatly with a piping tool so icing comes out looking like 18 rippled shells around the outer edge. Boone Bake uses frosting tip Matfer PF16 nozzle. Fill the center with an assortment of fruits and flowers—3 full strawberries, 8 half strawberries, 4-5 slices of mango and 3-4 slices of kiwi along with a few daisies she positions with tweezers. To make the daisy flowers she recommends this video.
NOTES FROM THE CAKE ARTIST: Boone Bake says if you can’t buy or make cake flour or find cornstarch, use all-purpose flour, but the texture will be a little heavy. You can also use baking soda or powder. If you don’t like white chocolate, you can substitute Mascarpone. When baking this sponge cake, pay close attention to the dough temperature. After you make the eggs foam richly at low speed, cut a large air bubble in small slicing moves. No chemical leavening is used in the Genoise sponge cake in her recipe, so this cake requires a certain temperature and proper mixing. If you're a baking newbie you may wish to substitute the sponge cake with a basic one that uses a rising agent.
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We sincerely thank Boone Bake for creating something of beauty for us all to enjoy, a video that is soothing and inspiring as she creates a true culinary masterpiece. Nearly 2 million people have watched this cake video in just six weeks, and it seems to be stirring the emotions and souls of many of us.
If you have fallen in love with this enchanting cake, serene video presentation, and the gentle cake artist, be sure to visit Boone Bake YouTube channel and subscribe or at least click "Like" to show some love. You'll find many other great recipes there, too.
If you make this magical cake, please tell us how it turned out over on our Facebook page!
