Here I am again with an extraordinary recipe that I owe to my pastry friend Anne Fashauer from Escale gourmande (who was herself inspired by chef Jean Michel Perruchon): a loaf cake with exotic flavours. The photo on Anne’s blog immediately made me want to make it. And as I own the same mould as her, I reproduced it identically.
For info, it’s the Stella Del Circo mould from my partner CuisineShop . In reality, Stella Del Circo is a complete kit, very handy when you want to make pretty entremets. Here, I simply used the largest mould to bake my loaf cake. What I particularly like about this mould is that it has a sort of well that allows you to add any preparation (here, a mango passion fruit confit). It has to be said that it adds a bit of zing to this loaf cake. Anne had only used passion fruit purée but not being too keen on its acidity, I also added mango purée to soften the whole thing.
This loaf cake was a unanimous hit with my colleagues! I myself am starting to discover and enjoy coconut-based desserts, which is fairly new. Well, I must say I a-do-red it! One to make again with my eyes closed (besides, I didn’t even manage to save a slice for my darling… a good reason to make it again) 🙂
Ingredients & Method
4 components · Full recipe
Cake
Ingredients
- 160 g (5.6 oz) butter
- 160 g (5.6 oz) sugar
- 180 g (6.3 oz) eggs
- 100 g (3.5 oz) plain flour (T55)
- 4 g (0.1 oz) baking powder
- 60 g (2.1 oz) almond flour
- 60 g (2.1 oz) desiccated coconut
- 40 g (1.4 oz) apricot jam (or neutral glaze)
Method
1
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter and sugar together, then gradually add the eggs (at room temperature).
2
Sift the flour with the baking powder and fold into the previous mixture.
3
Stir in the almond flour, desiccated coconut, and apricot jam (Anne suggested replacing it with neutral glaze if you don’t have any — that’s what I used).
4
Preheat the oven to 150°C / 300°F (fan-forced). Fill a greased and floured mould to three-quarters capacity (no need to flour a silicone mould).
5
Bake for about 50 minutes (check doneness with the tip of a knife or a skewer).
6
Leave to cool for a few minutes, then unmould onto a wire rack.
7
Using a pastry brush, soak the cake with the passion fruit punch, then leave to cool completely before filling with the confit.
8
Tip: it’s easier to soak a hot cake with a cold syrup, or a cooled cake with a warm syrup — whichever you choose, the contrast in temperature helps absorption.
Passion Fruit Punch
Ingredients
- 175 g (6.2 oz) 30° sugar syrup (equal parts sugar and water)
- 125 g (4.4 oz) water
- 80 g (2.8 oz) passion fruit purée
Method
1
Make the 30° sugar syrup by bringing equal parts water and sugar to the boil.
2
Add the water and passion fruit purée, then set aside.
Mango Passion Confit
Ingredients
- 100 g (3.5 oz) passion fruit purée
- 100 g (3.5 oz) mango purée
- 30 g (1.1 oz) sugar
- 5 g (0.2 oz) NH pectin
Method
1
Note: I added a few passion fruit seeds at the end, but looking at the photos you can see the juice around the seeds is slightly lighter than the confit itself. If I were to make it again, I’d stir the seeds directly into the confit.
2
Heat the fruit purées, then whisk in the sugar and NH pectin mixture.
3
Bring to a full boil.
4
Pour over the cooled cake (the CuisineShop mould holds enough to create a good 5 mm layer of confit) and leave to set.
Assembly
Ingredients
- neutral glaze
- coconut powder
Method
1
Glaze the cake with a neutral glaze heated and thinned with 10% water (I had leftover passion fruit punch, which I warmed and set with gelatine — the amount of gelatine depends on how much punch you have left, so I did this by eye).
2
Press coconut powder onto the sides of the cake.
Gallery
