Try this wonderfully flavored lychee cake (aka litchi cake) with pink biscuits. It is a lovely lychee dessert where pink color and tropical flavor make a fancy touch to finish your perfect dinner. Go pink, fresh, and cool!
Lychee cake with pink biscuits is a new pink dessert. It looks so girly that it is perfect for a girl's birthday party.
It is one of the top to-make cakes for Mother's Day and Valentine's day celebrations, too. If you have not tried making a lychee cake recipe, you should!
The exotic flavor of lychee and the melt-in-your-mouth Bavarian cream will bring you to heaven. Moreover, you will fall in love with the French pink biscuits.
Pink biscuits
Pink biscuits, Champagne biscuits, or Biscuit rose de Reims in French are traditional French biscuits.
They were created in 1960 in Reims, which is the biggest city in the Champagne region in France.
The French enjoy pink biscuits dunked in the Champagne; today, pink biscuits accompany a simple teacup.
Now you might get an idea to purchase a bottle of Champagne with pink biscuits as a gift for a Champagne lover.
Lychee cake belongs to the group of desserts called charlotte.
What is charlotte cake?
Charlotte is a French dessert layered with a sponge cake or biscuits and filled with Bavarian cream or fruit puree.
There are two main types of charlottes: charlottes with Bavarian cream and fruit charlottes filled with a fruit puree combined with whipped cream.
The separated type of charlottes is a Russian charlotte with a Bavarian cream lined with ladyfingers outside. Royal charlotte is lined with Swiss roll.
Bavarian cream: what is it?
Bavarian cream, or crème bavaroise in French, is a dessert made with milk thickened with eggs and gelatin and then added to whipped cream. It could be served in molds, unmolded, or used to make charlottes.
Why you should try this recipe
- Lychee cake is an all-year-round dessert since the canned lychees - one of charlotte's main ingredients - available at any time of the year.
- Pink-colored dessert is perfect for girls' birthday parties, Mother's Day, and Valentine's Day.
- This fruit dessert is full of tropical flavors due to lychee.
- The cake filled with Bavarian cream is light enough, even for those on a diet.
Ingredients
For ingredients and detailed instructions, refer to the recipe card below.
Pink Champagne biscuits: you will need 14 biscuits. Enjoy the rest of them with a glass of Champagne.
Pink-colored Italian sponge cake: follow this recipe and add a few drops of red food color to the cake batter.
Lychee in syrup: the recipe calls for canned lychee: you will need two cans.
Gelatin sheets: use sheet gelatin (gold) with a strength of 200 bloom. To substitute sheet gelatin with powdered gelatin, take into consideration that 3 ½ gelatin sheets equal one envelope of powdered gelatin. Use ¼ cup (60ml) of cold water per envelope.
Shredded coconut: you can easily replace it with desiccated coconut.
Granulated sugar, whipping cream.
How to make lychee cake
To make the sponge, follow the Italian Sponge Cake Recipe. Add about 5 drops of red food color to the ready batter and bake as directed (photo 1).
Check the biscuit's readiness with a toothpick: once you remove the clean toothpick out of the sponge, the biscuit is ready (photo 2).
Adjust a mousse cake mold to 7 inches/17-18 cm in diameter, line it with the acetate cake collar, and place it on parchment paper.
Even one of the ends of pink biscuits with a serrated knife and arrange them all around the ring (photo 3).
Cut the sponge Genoise in two halves crosswise using a serrated knife or a cake lever. Place aside one half and cut a biscuit disc out of another half.
The disk's diameter has to be enough to place it at the bottom of the mousse ring lined with biscuits (photo 4).
Drain lychees and keep the syrup. Soak the biscuit base of the cake with the lychee syrup.
To make the Bavarian cream, soak gelatin sheets in cold water for 5 to 10 minutes.
Crush the drained lychee (do not forget to keep one whole lychee for the decoration) in a food processor (photo 5). You will get 1 ¾ cup (400 ml) of the lychee puree.
Heat the lychee puree with sugar in a saucepan till the sugar is completely dissolved.
Remove the pan from heat, add drained gelatin sheets, and mix with a hand whisk (photo 6).
Cover the mixture with plastic film in contact and refrigerate until it colls down.
Whisk the whipping cream to get the whipped cream (photo 7).
Once the lychee preparation is cold, add the whipped cream, mixing with the hand whisk. Add shredded coconut and mix to combine (photo 8).
Pour the Bavarian cream into the mousse mold (photo 9) and refrigerate the charlotte for at least two hours, better overnight.
Remove the mousse mold with the acetate film. Make pink crumbs from the remaining half of the pink sponge genoise, using a fork or your hands.
Decorate the top of the cake with crumbs and arrange the whole lychee on top (photo 10).
Expert tips
- Flavor the sponge with a few drops of rose water while making the cake batter, if you prefer.
- Make the sponge cake one day in advance, wrap it in a plastic film, and refrigerate.
- Drain lychee puree with a mesh strainer to obtain lychee juice and follow the same recipe to make the Bavarian cream. You will get the cream smoother than that with the lychee puree.
- Decorate the top of the cake with fresh raspberries or mini marshmallows if you prefer.
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PrintRecipe card
Lychee Cake With Pink Biscuits
Try this wonderfully flavored lychee cake (aka litchi cake) with pink biscuits. It is a lovely lychee dessert where pink color and tropical flavor make a fancy touch to finish your perfect dinner. Go pink, fresh, and cool!
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 7 1x
- Category: Cakes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: French
Ingredients
For charlotte:
For the Bavarian cream:
- 500 g canned lychee (2 cans of lychee in syrup)
- ⅓ cup + 1 ½ tablespoons (100 g) sugar
- 4 gelatin sheets
- 1 cup + 4 teaspoons (250 g) whipping cream
- 0.5 oz (15 g) shredded coconut
For the decoration:
- 1 drained lychee
*Don't you have the correct baking pan on hand right now? Try this simple Cake Pan Converter!
** If needed, please refer to Baking Conversion Charts.
Instructions
- To make the sponge, follow the Italian Sponge Cake Recipe. Add about 5 drops of red food color to the ready batter and bake as directed. Check the biscuit's readiness with a toothpick: once you remove the clean toothpick out of the sponge, the biscuit is ready.
- Adjust a mousse cake mold to 7 inches/17-18 cm in diameter, line it with the acetate cake collar, and place it on the parchment paper. Even one of the ends of pink biscuits with a serrated knife and arrange them all around the ring.
- Cut the sponge Genoise in two halves crosswise using a serrated knife or a cake lever. Place aside one half and cut a biscuit disk out of another half. The disc's diameter has to be enough to place it at the bottom of the mousse ring lined with biscuits.
- Drain lychees and keep the syrup. Soak the biscuit base of the cake with the lychee syrup.
- To make the Bavarian cream, soak gelatin sheets in cold water for 5 to 10 minutes. Crush the drained lychee (do not forget to keep one whole lychee for the decoration) in a food processor. You will get 1 ¾ cup (400 ml) of the lychee puree.
- Heat the lychee puree with sugar in a saucepan till the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove the pan from heat, add drained gelatin sheets, and mix with a hand whisk. Cover the mixture with plastic film in contact and refrigerate until it colls down.
- Whisk the whipping cream to get the whipped cream. Once the lychee preparation is cold, add the whipped cream, mixing with the hand whisk. Add shredded coconut and mix to combine. Pour the Bavarian cream into the mousse mold and refrigerate the charlotte for at least two hours, better overnight.
- Remove the mousse mold with the acetate film. Make pink crumbs from the remaining half of the pink sponge genoise, using a fork or your hands. Decorate the top of the cake with crumbs and arrange the whole lychee on top.
Notes
- Flavor the sponge with a few drops of rose water while making the cake batter if you prefer.
- Make the sponge cake one day in advance, wrap it in a plastic film, and refrigerate.
- Drain lychee puree with a mesh strainer to obtain lychee juice and follow the same recipe to make the Bavarian cream. You will get the cream smoother than that with the lychee puree.
- Decorate the top of the cake with fresh raspberries or mini-marshmallows if you prefer.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 338
- Sugar: 37.9 g
- Sodium: 26 mg
- Fat: 13.4 g
- Saturated Fat: 7.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 49.8 g
- Fiber: 0.7 g
- Protein: 7.1 g
- Cholesterol: 75 mg
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 https://www.meilleurduchef.com/. It was originally published on February 07, 2019. The recipe has been revised to include improved content and photos. All posted pictures are mine.
Stephanie says
This looks so delicious! I can't wait to make it. Thank you for sharing.
Irina says
Thank you, Stephanie! Happy baking and enjoy it!
Beth Pierce says
Yummy!! Looks so delicious. I can't wait to make this.
Irina says
Thanks, Beth. Please, enjoy the recipe!
Luci Petlack says
I've only ever had lychee fresh. I never would have thought to mix it with bavarian cream. And I have to look for canned lychee. I assume they're pitted in the cans? That would be so much easier!
Irina says
Yes, Luci, the canned lychees are pitted, and the taste is very close to the fresh ones. If you love lychees, you will love the cake, for sure. It is so fruity and refreshing!
Biana says
This looks amazing! Thank you for the step by step recipe for this Lychee cake, I am looking forward to making it.
Irina says
You are welcome, Biana. Happy baking! 🙂
Cathleen says
Wow, I love the colour of this cake!! I have never heard of Champagne biscuits before, but I am looking it up 🙂
Irina says
Oh, Cathleen, these pink biscuits are fantastic to use to make desserts and in their own, with a glass of Champagne:)