From: Oh la vache!
First published: 21 September 2014
One of the things I fell in love with when I first came to France, was the type of cake they call entremets. The word originally referred to a dish served between two main courses, but now refers to a cake, or a mousse-based dessert. You see them every where in shop windows, usually covered with a shiny jelly, which is knowns as a miroir or mirror. They are perfect as celebration cakes or desserts as they are really light. They also keep for ages in the fridge, if you can resist.
Even though they look really hard to make, they are actually quite simple but require precision and the correct equipment, namely a stainless steel patisserie ring. These are essentially baking tins without bases and if you can’t find one you could use a springform tin without the base. This would actually make it much easier to remove from the tin.
I’ve been wanting to design a dessert based on the margarita cocktail for a long time and decided that an entremets was the way to go. There are three essential elements, the biscuit base, the mousse, and the jelly topping and I divided the flavours of the cocktail between each of them so that when they are eaten together you get the taste of the cocktail. The flavours are tequila, lime juice, and cointreau (an orange flavoured liqueur). I added orange juice to reinforce the flavour of the cointreau and to add an unexpected colour to the jelly.
You can garnish your entremets anyway you like. They are often topped with fresh fruit or chocolate, depending on the flavours. I added three slices of lime which I had boiled for 10 minutes in sugar syrup. I also used some sugar daisies, since the name of the cake la marguerite a french rendition of margarita, means daisy in English.
La marguerite—cocktail in a cake: recipe
Active time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 5 hours 30 mins
Total time: 6 hours
Serves: 8-10
Ingredients
For the biscuit dacquois:
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75g egg whites
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12g caster sugar
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60g ground almonds
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60g icing sugar
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12g plain flour
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3 tablespoons tequila
For the lime bavarois:
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5 sheets of gelatine
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450g fromage frais
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6 tablespoons lime juice
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110g caster sugar
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250ml single cream
For the jelly topping:
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1 leaf of gelatine
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100 ml fresh orange juice
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100 ml water
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50g caster sugar
Equipment:
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20cm patisserie ring
Instructions
Make the biscuit dacquois
- Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC.
- Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Add the sugar and whisk until incorporated.
- Sift the almonds, icing sugar, and flour into the bowl.
- Fold in with a spatula, being careful to keep as much of the air in the egg whites as possible.
- Pour the mixture onto a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper and spread out until about 5mm thick.
- Bake for 15 mins. Leave to cool completely and then cut a disk out with the patisserie ring. Leave the biscuit in the pastry ring.
- Using a brush, feed the biscuit with the tequila.
Make the lime bavarois
- Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 10 minutes.
- Bring two tablespoons of water to the boil. Squeeze all the water out of the gelatine leaves and then dissolved them in the boiling water. Leave to cool.
- Whisk together the fromage frais and the sugar in a bowl.
- Add the lime juice and stir until incorporated.
- Add the gelatine and water and stir until incorporated.
- In a stand mixer, whisk the cream until stiff peaks are formed.
- Fold the cream and fromage frais mixtures together. They will be quite liquid at this stage.
- Pour the mixture into the mould on top of the biscuit. Make sure you leave at least a 5mm gap at the top. Refrigerate for at least three hours, if possible, overnight.
Make the jelly topping
- Soak the gelatine in cold water for 10 minutes
- Put the orange juice, water, and sugar in a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes.
- Squeeze the water out of the leaf of gelatine and dissolve in the orange juice. Allow to cool.
- Add the cointreau to the orange juice mix.
- Pour the jelly on top of the bavarois which will now be set. Refrigerate for at least two hours until the jelly has set.
- Run a knife round the inside of the ring and remove. Bon appetit!