Esterhazy
10 servings
180 minutes
The Esterhazy cake is easy to recognize by the pattern on the icing. It has fondant icing, a chocolate pattern, and also apricot jam and almonds. It turns out tender and sweet, and the jam adds a sour touch to the whole picture. You'll need a lot of almonds - they're added to the dough and used to decorate the cake.
1
Pour 500 grams of sugar into a saucepan, add 150 ml of water, place on heat, bring to a boil and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add a teaspoon of lemon juice and boil for another minute. Then bring to a temperature of 115 degrees, remove from heat, pour the syrup into a clean container and let it cool to 40-50 degrees.
- Sugar: 750 g
- Milk: 300 ml
- Lemon juice: 1 teaspoon
2
Whip the cooled syrup with a wooden spoon, it will take 15 to 30 minutes. During this time, the syrup should whiten and thicken slightly. Cover the resulting fondant with film and leave it at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
3
Egg whites for the layers should be aged; cover them with plastic wrap so it touches them and leave overnight at room temperature. Whip the egg whites to soft peaks, then continue whipping while adding sugar in a thin stream until stiff peaks form.
- Egg white: 325 g
- Sugar: 750 g
4
Add sifted almond flour to the egg whites and gently fold in from the bottom up. Transfer the batter to a piping bag.
- Almond flour: 250 g
5
Pipe the dough onto parchment paper in the shape of round layers. For greater accuracy, you can draw circles on the back of the paper. You should have 6 layers with a diameter of 23 cm. Sprinkle the layers with powdered sugar, let sit for 10 minutes, then sprinkle again and send to an oven preheated to 170 degrees for 25 minutes. Let the finished layers cool to room temperature.
6
In a small saucepan, bring 250 ml of milk to a boil with 75 grams of sugar and vanilla sugar. Separately, lightly beat the remaining milk with the yolks, add wheat flour and starch, and mix until smooth. While continuing to whisk, pour the hot milk into the yolk mixture, then transfer everything back to the saucepan, place on low heat and stir with a whisk until thickened. Do not let the cream boil.
- Milk: 300 ml
- Sugar: 750 g
- Vanilla sugar: 10 g
- Egg yolk: 30 g
- Wheat flour: 20 g
- Cornstarch: 15 g
7
Transfer the resulting cream to a mixer bowl and beat at medium speed until it cools to room temperature. This will take 10-15 minutes. Gradually add the butter, continuing to beat, then add nougat and kirsch.
- Butter: 375 g
- Almond paste: 80 g
- Kirsch: 30 ml
8
Assemble the cake by covering each layer with cream. Place the top layer smooth side up and do not cover it with cream. Gently press down on the cake and spread the cream along the sides.
9
Heat the apricot jam in a saucepan to thin it out, strain it through a sieve. Spread the jam on the top layer. Sprinkle the sides of the cake with almonds and refrigerate for an hour.
- Apricot jam: 100 g
- Almond petals: 100 g
10
Mix a small part of the sugar fondant with cocoa and place it in a piping bag with a very small nozzle. Cover the top of the cake with white fondant, draw circles with chocolate fondant, and quickly run a skewer or toothpick through them to create a web-like pattern. Place the finished cake in the refrigerator overnight.
- Sugar: 750 g
- Cocoa powder: 20 g