Japanese Floral Design Cake

By stancec44

See video on link for good instructions.
Special equipment: https://global.rakuten.com/en/store/majimaya/item/ms0107/?l-id=rgm_search_en_rvp_widget
Small flower shaped cookie cutter.

Ingredients

• For floral Designs:
• 10 g. unsalted butter
• 10 g. icing sugar
• 10 g. cake flour
• 10 g. egg white
• green, yellow (for sure) and pink, red (or purple or blue or ???) food colors
• toothpicks
• 4 small piping bags
• parchment paper
• little canola or veggie oil
• Cake:
• 50 ml. water
• 60 g. cake flour
• 50 g. sugar
• 30 ml. veggie oil
• vanilla
• 2 egg yolks
• 3 egg whites
• Yogurt Cheese Mousse:
• 50 ml milk
• 5 g gelatin in 2 Tbsp water
• 100 ml whipping cream
• 50 g cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 30 g. sugar
• 100 g. unsweetened yogurt
• 7-8 Large strawberries

Details

Adapted from youtube.com

Preparation

Step 1

For floral decorations:
Draw simple floral decorations on piece of paper (see video) enough to fit about 3/4 of a 10" x 10" (25 cm x 25 cm) jelly roll pan.

Line the bottom and sides of the pan with parchment paper.

Whisk all ingredients, except food colors, well. Separate into 4 mise in place bowls (just a bit of the mix for yellow, little more for green for leaves and more for petal colors) and add a drop of food color to each to make colors desired. Fill 4 piping bags and set aside.

Place floral design on pan matching one corner. Cover drawing with parchment paper and smooth down. Using a piece of paper towel or wax paper, wipe entire piece of parchment paper with some oil.

Pipe yellow centers of flowers, and then green leaves, using the drawing as a guide. Run a toothpick through the green leaves to remove air bubbles and fill out leaves if necessary. Place pan in fridge for 5 minutes.

Fill in rest of flower petals, using remaining two colors for petals, and covering up yellow centers after filling in rest of flower. Use toothpick (one for each color of petal) to remove air bubbles, but try not and hit yellow centers. Tap bottom of pan on counter - can drop it from a short height a few times. Put back in fridge while making the cake.

Cake:
Sift cake flour twice. Set aside.

Add 1/2 of sugar to 2 egg yolks and mix, using hand mixer, until ribbon forms. Add water and mix well. Add oil and mix well. Add few drops of vanilla and add flour and mix well, 8-10 minutes. Set aside.

Meringue:
Beat 3 egg whites until foamy. Add 1/3 of rest of sugar beat until well mixed and a smoother foam forms. Add 1/2 of the rest of the sugar, and beat again. Add the rest of the sugar and beat until stiff peaks form (unless you are at high altitude, then until soft peaks).

Fold a bit of the meringue into the egg, then add the rest about a 1/3 at a time, and fold gently until combined, but still fluffy.

Preheat the oven to 340 degrees.

Put about 1/3 of the cake batter into a piping bag with a small round tip. Pipe batter around each of the flowers (or cluster of flowers, filling in all the spaces, and extending to the edge of the pan between one short end and the edge, but not on the other half of the pan). Run a toothpick through the batter between the flowers, then tap the bottom of the pan and drop it from a small distance a couple of times.

Use the piping bag and cover the flowers, and bring the batter to the edge of the pan (should be same width as the flower sheet underneath). Spoon some of the rest of the cake batter to fill in the flowerless side of the pan so it is even with the batter on the flower side, and stir with a toothpick to release the air bubbles and urge into the corners. Evenly fill the whole pan using the remaining batter. Using a bench scraper, smooth the top of the batter, making sure it fills in the whole pan evenly. Tap it all over the bottom with your hand and drop it on counter again a few times.

Bake at 340 for 12 minutes until lightly golden brown. Place a piece of parchment paper over the pan and invert onto a wire rack. Pull parchment paper (and flower design) off of cake and put another piece of parchment paper over the cake. Place the jelly roll pan bottom side down on top of the cake, and invert the cake again. Peel off the parchment paper. (I am not sure if you cool the cake now, but would guess so. At least a bit.)

Trim just a bit off the long edge next to the flowered side to make edge straight, and also the edge of the flowers that comes closest to the pan edge on the other side (not the edge of the flowers that has a gap between the flowers and the pan). Trim into a 5 1/2" x 7" piece and a 3" x 7" (the 5 1/2" wide piece will have the flowers, and the 3" piece will be the blank side). Set the 3 x 7" piece aside. Remeasure the 5 1/2" x 7" piece and trim if necessary. There will be a bit of scrap left over from the flowered piece.

Cut two semi-circles of parchment paper to fit the ends of a half round cake mold (https://global.rakuten.com/en/store/majimaya/item/ms0107/?l-id=rgm_search_en_rvp_widget) and reserve. Cut a piece of parchment paper 7" x 7" and check the mold with the paper to be sure it fits - there should be just a touch sticking over the edge. Take the paper and lay it over the flowered cake layer and invert. Place the layer, paper and flower side down, in the mold and press gently to make it fit. Insert the two semi-circles at either end of the mold, fitting between the cake and the ends of the mold.

Check to make sure the 3x7" piece fits on top of the mold, but don't put it in yet. Trim if necessary. Set aside.

Yogurt Cheese Mousse:
Whisk softened cream cheese and sugar in a bowl until blended. Add yogurt and whisk until blended. Add lemon juice, ditto. Add milk, ditto. Add gelatin, melted over a bowl of hot water, and mix ditto.

Put whipping cream in separate bowl and mix with hand blender until about 70% whipped. (Your guess is as good as mine what that means, but I am pretty sure it is just a bit before soft peak stage.).

Gently whisk whipping cream into yogurt mix. Put a few lg. spoonfuls in bottom of cake mold on top of flowered layer of cake and smooth with small spatula, pushing mousse into corners. Put cake mold in fridge.

Using small flower shaped cutter, cut out enough shapes from large strawberries to form a 7" long column, trimming sides so they are all the same width (length can vary). Place the strawberry flowers down middle of mousse in cake mold so they fit in an even row.

Put rest of mousse in a piping bag with a lg. tip. Pipe mousse to fill in gaps around sides of strawberries and then over the top so it is just barely below the top edge of the cake (may not use all of mousse). Smooth mousse.

Place 3 x 7" cake piece on top of mousse, and wrap mold with lg. piece of plastic wrap. Let it set in the fridge. Remove plastic and invert onto serving tray. Remove parchment paper gently.

Cut in finger wide (a bit more) slices to serve.