Birthday cake with raspberry and sweet lemon – elderflower mousse and edible flowers

We are celebrating a birthday – that calls for a birthday cake.

Christian is not crazy about whipped cream, so he never eats layer cake. His father wanted a birthday cake with raspberries – because it is his birthday. That is why I chose to make a layer cake with mousse – 2 types lemon-elderflower at the bottom and raspberries on top.

We’ve eaten so many raspberries the last days. so I chose to use frozen berries for the mousse and fresh raspberries for garnish.
I use “Raspberry cubes” from “Frigodan”, it is a heat-treated seedless Raspberry Puree. The fact that it is heat-treated means that there is no risk of a virus. I have used these cubes before; in sorbet – because I do not have to strain/sieve my Raspberry Puree and in smoothies – I avoid viruses. Boil regular frozen raspberries if you want to be sure that they are bacteria/virus free.
If you use fresh berries from the garden, you already know how clean they are, and can use them directly in the recipe.

It requires some equipment, to make this cake. A springform – the one I used is 20 cm in diameter. Baking paper or plastic for the inside of the round cake pan. A mixer (and a hand mixer) and a sugar thermometer to the lemon-elderflower mousse.

Remember – pay attention to the temperatures!

The birthday cake is for 10-12 persons as a dessert.

I started with some good thick layer cake bottoms. Cut them so they fit into a springform 20 cm in diameter. I don’t have any of that plastic film to put on the inside of the cake pan. So I folded a piece of baking paper in half and put it on the inside instead.

Start with a cake layer in the bottom of the cake pan and begin making lemon-elderflower mousse.
Make the raspberry mousse while the lemon-elderflower mousse sets in the refrigerator.
When you have made the raspberry mousse; assemble the cake and let it set in the fridge.
Then decorate and serve.

Christian and I went into the garden. He found the most beautiful red raspberries and I went on a flower hunt. My plan was to decorate the cake with berries and edible flowers.

For my birthday, my mother in law gave me a book about edible flowers. It was a great gift.
We have many edible flowers in our garden; we have hosta, roses, lavender and hibiscus. Not counting the flowers that are on our herbs.

For the layer cake, I chose pink and purple flowers. I found some lovely light purple hosta flowers, pink English roses and purple lavender. I skipped the flowers from the mint plant – I thought they would be too dominant.

For printer-friendly version of “Lemon-elderflower mousse” press here

For printer-friendly version of “Raspberry mousse” press here

For the Lemon-elderflower mousse you will need:</

Ingredients:

Lemon-elderflower syrup:

20 g lemon juice (juice from approximately ½ lemon)
180 g Elderflower cordial (lemon juice + Elderflower cordial equals 200 g)
100 g sugar
75 g glucose
1 tsp vanilla powder or vanilla extract

Meringue:

120 g of pasteurised egg whites (3 cups egg whites)
1 tbsp. sugar (about 5g)
3 sheets of gelatine (remember soaking)
lemon zest (grated zest of 1 organic lemon)

Whipped cream:

3 1/2 dl whipping cream (room temperature)

Instructions:

Add 3 sheets of gelatine to refrigerator cold water. Let it soak for at least 15-20 minutes – if you make both mousses, soak all sheets at once.

Lemon-elderflower syrup:

Boil sugar, glucose, vanilla, lemon juice and elderflower cordial together. Keep an eye on the temperature.

Meringue:

At the same time beat the egg whites and sugar together in a bowl until fluffy meringue – use a mixer.
When the syrup hits a temperature of 115 C pour it gently over the meringue. Pour it in a thin stream while mixer is running on low speed.
Remove the gelatine from the water and melt it in the hot meringue. Wait 1 minute and add the lemon zest.
Whisk 30 minutes or so. The meringue has to be cool (less than 30 degrees C) when you are mixing it with the whipped cream.

Whipped cream:

Whip the cream to a light whipped cream.
Softly add the mixture in the whipped cream – you want to keep it fluffy.
If you want to use some of it to cover the cake now is the time to take approximately half the mass away. Put the mass in a piping bag, and refrigerate for later use.

Putting it together:

The mousse is ready for use immediately. Pour lemon-elderflower mousse on the bottom cake layer and let it stiffen in the refrigerator.

Then go ahead with the next mousse:

For the Raspberry mousse you will need:

Ingredients:

Raspberry-gelatine:

160-170 g raspberries (I used frozen raspberries cubes)
3 sheets of gelatine (remember soaking)

“Eggnog”:

70 g sugar
4 pasteurised egg yolks (forgot to weigh them)

Whipped cream:

2 1/2 dl whipping cream (room temperature – remember to take it out when you prepare)

Instructions:

Add 3 sheets of gelatine to refrigerator cold water. Let it soak for at least 15-20 minutes – if you haven’t done so already.

“Eggnog”:

Beat egg yolks and sugar light and fluffy until it is completely white use a mixer.

Raspberry-gelatine:

Put the frozen (or thawed) raspberries cubes in a pot.
When the raspberries are liquid – but still cold add the gelatine (remember to clench the water off).
Heat it up slowly and stir until the gelatine melts. when the gelatine has melted completely, take the raspberry puree of the heat – the puree is not hot.

Putting it together:

Whip the cream to a light whipped cream.

Like the Lemon-elderflower meringue – your raspberry should be poured very slowly into the eggnog. You have to be careful or you will end up with some strange omelette.
This is important if the puree is too hot or you pour too fast you might ruin it.
Then gently mix it with the light whipped cream.

Your raspberry mousse is ready to use immediately. Pour most of the mousse on the cake – save som for the top layer. Put the last layer cake on and pour the rest of the mousse on top. Let the cake stiffen in the fridge.

Then the fun part of decorating starts.

After thought:
Will I make Birthday Cake with raspberry mousse and lemon-elderflower mousse again? Yeaaah clearly!

Will I do something different – well, different things:

I’ve never coated a cake with a mousse before – and frankly, it is easy to see.
Next time, I will use most of the mousse in the cake be sure to have purchased the plastic strip to the edge and hopefully I will get a nice clean edge and a neat”naked cake”. If the edge is still not fine – I will use the same mousse on the side as on the top.

I will decorate with a few flowers – the surface was so fine and it was impossible to see because I covered it all in flowers and berries.

– With all that being said, it was a great success. I can’t remember the last time anybody ate SO much Birthday cake in our house – and we used it as a dessert, we’ve already had a starter and main course.

What do you say – do you want to make a Birthday Cake with mousse?