Cake Criollo

Cake Criollo is a light gluten-free dessert with the refined taste of lime and ginger. The cake is for real connoisseurs of French pastries. The taste and smell of Paris are in every bite!

Cake Criollo is my first courageous attempt to make and taste the real France with its creative pastry recipes. The combination of the dark chocolate with the zest of lime and ginger brings such the unique note in taste that the desire to feel its aftertaste grows with every bite. One delicious bite at a time...

When I served the cake Criollo, no one of guests (and even my family members whose taste receptors have already been trained, I think) could guess what ingredients give such the discriminating taste to the dessert. They were trying to look at the cut of the cake to figure out the magic ingredients. They were chewing the cake longer trying to dissolve it into the mouth. Nothing was helping till the moment I announced that the lime and ginger are those magicians of the cake's taste. Finally, some people noted that uniqueness of the cake, some of them felt nothing. Well, there is the time to develop the sensitivity of the taste buds! Just stay with me!

The cake Criollo is not difficult to make in spite of that there are many steps. Its preparation is divided in two days: the coconut dacquoise is made on the first day  and is kept in the fridge over night, the rest of the cake is made on the second day; although, you might try to make the whole cake on the same day if you are short in time. Moreover, if you wish to omit the cake decoration with the chocolate glaze, I believe, you can do this: just sprinkle the surface of the cake with the cacao powder. As for me, I always follow the authenticity of the recipes:)

There is one moment I should mention in making the cake Criollo. I have no idea of how and why the quantity of the ingredients for the coconut dacquoise is not enough to make two disks, but it is the reality. So, I made the first dacquoise and ended up that I did not have the preparation enough for the second disk! I made the deep research in the Internet through French bloggers who have already made the cake Criollo, and everyone admitted that you would need to double the recipe of the coconut dacquoise to make two disks for the cake. So, I made the second disk separately.

I still wonder if the the eggs of French chickens are larger than the American ones?! Does Pierre Hermé has a special supply of eggs?! And, by the way, I used the extra large American eggs! You might laugh right now, but I cannot help but suggesting you to double the recipe for the coconut dacquoise. The rest of the recipe is perfect. And the taste of cake Criollo is magic!

Ingredients:

For coconut dacquoise:

• 40 g coconut flour
• 60 g almond flour
• 90 g icing sugar
• 3 egg whites
• 35 g caster sugar

P.S. Double this recipe to make two disks of dacquoise!

For caramelized bananas:

• 250 g bananas
• 10 g lemon juice
• 25 g brown sugar
• 20 g butter

For chocolate mousse with lemon and ginger:

• 175 g dark chocolate (66% cacao)
• 70 g sugar
• 30 ml water
• 1 egg
• 3 egg yolks
• 250 g whipping cream
• 1 lime (zest)
• 3 g ginger

For chocolate sauce:

• 50 g dark chocolate
• 100 g water
• 30 g caster sugar
• 50 g heavy cream

For chocolate glaze:

• 100 g dark chocolate
• 80 g heavy cream
• 20 g butter, softened

For decoration:

• shredded coconut
• banana

Instructions:

Heat the oven to 300 degrees F/150 C.

To make the coconut dacquoise one day before, sift the coconut and almond flour with the icing sugar. Whisk the egg whites into the snow, gradually incorporating the caster sugar. Pour the dry flour/icing sugar mixture into the egg whites and mix gently with a spatula.

Place the preparation in a pastry bag with a plane tip #12 (12 mm) and push 2 spirals/disks of 22 cm in diameter on a sheet of parchment paper.

Sprinkle them with the sifted icing sugar, let stand for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with the icing sugar again, let stand for 10 min. Bake for 35 minutes. Cool, wrap the 2 discs in a plastic wrap and leave in the fridge overnight.

For caramelized bananas, cut bananas into slices of 1 cm thick. Drizzle them with a little bit of lemon juice and brown sugar. Heat the butter over high heat, quickly fry the bananas, set aside.

To make the chocolate mousse, bring water and sugar to boil for 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat when the large bubbles form (at 257 F/125 C). Whisk the egg yolks and one egg while pouring the hot sugar syrup until the mixture is white, tripled in volume and cool.

Melt the dark chocolate, add the zest of lime and fresh ginger chopped or grated very finely.

In a separate bowl, whisk the whipping cream. Add the whipped cream to chocolate.

Then gently add the eggs/sugar mixture. The mousse has to be use immediately.

To assemble the cake, arrange the acetate sheet along the edges of the cake mold (24 cm in diameter). Pace the first dacquoise disk in the center of the mold. Cover with ⅓ of the chocolate mousse, arrange the banana slices...

Cover with the mousse again. Then place the second dacquoise disk...

and cover with the mousse again. Refrigerate the cake for at least 6 hours, better over night.

To make the chocolate sauce, chop the dark chocolate and place it into a saucepan with a thick bottom. Add water, heavy cream and sugar. Bring everything to boil over low heat and cook, stirring with a spatula, until the sauce becomes oily and stops draining off the scapula. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.

To prepare the chocolate glaze, chop the dark chocolate. In a saucepan with a thick bottom, bring the cream to boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat and gradually add to the hot cream a little chocolate, each time mixing well from the center in a circle, increasing the radius. When all the chocolate is added and melted, cool the mixture to 140 F/60 C.  After that, add pieces of butter, stirring as little as possible, then, with minimal stirring, add the chocolate sauce. The mass should be homogeneous. This glaze has to be used warm (at 95 F-104 F/35 C-40 C). 

To decorate the cake, take it out of the fridge, remove the mold, remove the acetate sheet. Top the glaze over the entire surface. Cover the edges of the cake with the shredded coconut. Decorate the surface of the cake with four slices of banana, laid out by a fan.

Happy baking and enjoy!

Tips:

• Double the recipe of the coconut dacquoise to make two disks.

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The nutritional information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator such as Verywellfit.com and is intended for informational purposes only. These figures should be used as a general guideline and not be construed as a guarantee.

The recipe was adapted from http://c.rosine1.free.fr/. All posted pictures are mine.