Lemon Mousse Torte

So, much apologies for the delay in posting about my recent baking happenings, but I was enjoying the company of my parents over the past week and was too busy with fun things like sightseeing and eating in new restaurants to settle down with the laptop and work on the blog. I'm sure you can understand. So here's the first of a few updates regarding last week's excellent classes.

In Monday's Cakes class, we made a Lemon Mousse Torte. This picture is courtesy of my friend Gilly. I had planned to take a photo when I got home (because I purchased the cake so Mom and Dad could sample), however, the 30 minute hot and sweaty car ride did not prove favorably to the torte and it was no longer picture worthy.



Anyway, the Lemon Mousse Torte has a few layers. From the bottom up, it is a yellow genoise (the same sponge cake as last week) which is coated with simple syrup. On top is a ring of chantilly cream filled with lemon curd. Next is a japonaise meringue layer which contains almond flour. And then the chantilly cream and lemon curd layer is repeated and capped with another yellow cake layer. The chantilly icing is basially just whipped cream, made of heavy cream and confectioner's sugar.

This was the first time I decorated a cake knowing the proper professional method. In the past, I had just slathered icing on and tried to make it work as best as possible. We used a large bread knife to designate 16 equal slices of cake, which were capped with a rosette made with a piping bag and then decorated with a 1/4 slice of lemon. Needless to say, my professional cake decorating skills need a lot of work, but it wasn't bad for a first effort.

The cake had a really strong lemon flavor because we made the curd from fresh lemon zest and freshly squeezed lemon juice. My favorite part of it was actually the japonaise meringue layer, which added crunch in the center part of the cake.

I'll get to practice more of these skills in upcoming weeks so I hope to become a much better cake decorator through this process. Regardless of what it looked like when I finally got the torte home, Mom and Dad seemed to generally enjoy it, so that made the whole experience well worth it.