• A cake with an appearance inspired by nature, by yellow Mimosa flowers! From Mimosa Flowers... to Mimosa Cake
Mimosa cake has quite recent origins. The recipe is said to have been created in the 1950s by Adelmo Renzi, a chef who owned a restaurant in the center of Rieti, Italy.
His dessert became famous only in 1962, when the chef Renzi, participating in a confectionery competition in Sanremo, presented the Mimosa Cake, with the intention of paying tribute to this city of flowers, on which occasion he won this competition.
Although quite recent, the original recipe used by Renzi has not been found until now.
According to other sources, the recipe was created in the 1950s, in Rome.
The name of the cake comes from the name and appearance of the flowers that inspired its creation. These are the yellow Mimosa flowers, whose appearance and color are reproduced in the final pose of the cake.
The Mimosa species with yellow flowers is the most cultivated in the Mediterranean basin, these flowers being a symbol dedicated to the celebration of women. Due to this close connection created but also because they bloom in the first days of March, the Mimosa Cake has also become a symbol of the celebration of women, being widely used on the occasion of the 8th of March.
Recipe provided by Pastry Chef Riccardo Magni
Riccardo Magni – a professional who has been active for over 20 years in the field of confectionery, chocolate and gelato, known in Italy but also abroad, co-author of the book "Reverse Fusion", published in 2016.
He began his professional career working in the family's confectionery laboratory, alongside his father, Pierpaolo Magni, another master of Italian confectionery. At the beginning, he alternated work in the production laboratory with a professional development program, participating in numerous training courses under the guidance of great teachers from the International Confectionery Schools: Ecole Lenôtre and Bellouet Conseil, France; Richemont, Switzerland; Cast Alimenti and Arte Dolce, Italy.
Accumulating a rich experience in the field and participating in various national and international competitions, he collaborated over the years with various well-known companies in the confectionery-chocolate field, from Italy and from other countries.
He was a member of the Swiss team, participating in the finals of the "Coupe du Monde Pâtisserie 2015 Lyon" competition, where he won second place, in the "Entremet glacé" category.
He has published and continues to publish articles in the most important magazines of the sector.
Currently, Riccardo Magni carries out much more complex activities: consulting and professional training for important companies in this sector, being involved in many projects worldwide, as well as teaching activities in renowned schools in the culinary sector, such as Cast Alimenti, Dado School Pomati, Chef's School Hong Kong, Arte Dolce Rimini, Con Gusto Gourmet Institute Milano, Hangar 78.
Pineapple Mimosa Cake – a revised version of the classic recipe
With these quantities, 2 cakes with Ø 14 cm are obtained
The cake consists of the following components:
• Sponge cake
• Orange and peach syrup
• Chantilly cream
• Pineapple cubes
sponge
Ingredients:
450 g – Eggs
540 g – Sugar
20 g – Honey
400 g – Flour
200 g – Corn starch
2 g – Baking powder
350 g – Egg yolk
1/2 – Vanilla pod (or 2 g vanilla)
Preparation:
Combine eggs with sugar and honey; foam the composition with the mixer, at medium speed.
Gradually add, continuing to mix, the yolk combined with the core of the vanilla pod.
Add the sifted flour, starch and baking powder.
Pour the dough obtained in this way into stainless steel frames to form:
– 2 tops with Ø 14 and h 3 cm, in stainless steel frames with h 5 cm;
– 1 top, in frame 27 x 20 x 5 cm.
Place in the oven and bake at 180°C for about 20 minutes. Cool down.
After cooling, cut the top from the rectangular frame into small cubes.
Chantilly cream
1. Prepare a boiled pastry cream
Ingredients:
400 g – Milk
100 g – Whipped cream
1/4 – Lemon – grated peel
200 g – Sugar
1/2 – Vanilla pod (or 2 g vanilla)
35 g – Corn or rice starch
0,5 g – Salt
200 g – Egg yolk
Preparation:
Combine milk, cream, grated lemon peel, a small amount of sugar and vanilla; bring the composition to the boiling point.
Combine the starch, salt, the rest of the amount of sugar and the egg yolk; homogenize.
Add the first composition, hot, on top of it and homogenize; then bring it back to the boil, stirring continuously.
Cool the cream quickly, in a shock freezer, with food foil applied to the surface of the product.
Store, after cooling, at 4°C
2. Finish with the Chantilly Cream
Ingredients:
900 g – Cooked pastry cream
800 g – Whipped cream
Optionally or for modern torture variants, you can use:
6 sheets of gelatin + 30 g water
Preparation:
After cooling the pastry cream, add the well-beaten cream and gradually incorporate it into the cream, mixing gently.
You will get a light cream, but with a consistent taste.
When using gelatin: when the cooked pastry cream is at a temperature of 28°C, add the gelatin, hydrated in the amount of water.
Store in the refrigerator until use.
Orange and peach syrup
Ingredients:
200 g – Water
50 g – Sugar
75 g – Glucose syrup
80 g – Peach puree
25 g – Orange liqueur
(for the non-alcoholic version: juice from an orange or canned pineapple syrup)
Preparation:
Bring the water to a boil; add sugar and glucose syrup; stir to melt the sugar.
Add the fruit puree and the amount of orange liqueur.
Use the syrup obtained at syruping sponge cake discs.
Final preparation
Assemble the cake as follows:
1. Cut a round top into two disks;
2. Sponge sponge disc, syrupy;
3. A layer of Chantilly Cream, small pineapple cubes, a new layer of cream;
4. Sponge sponge disc, syrupy;
5. Press gently and evenly on the surface to fix the layers and to form a dome; put in the shock freezer for stabilization;
6. Apply, with a spatula, a layer of Chantilly Cream on the entire surface of the cake;
7. Place the sponge cubes evenly over the entire surface of the cake, pressing gently with your palms to fix them in the cream layer;
8. splash with syrup all over the surface;
9. Apply a thin layer of lemon yellow dye (spray paint or liquid dye applied with airbrush); sprinkle the surface with powdered sugar.
The yellow coloring is optional. It can also be added to the composition of the sponge cake, before baking, to obtain a more intense shade of yellow. The dye can be replaced with curcumin powder.
10. Store in the refrigerator at a temperature of 4°C.
The cake can be preserved in the refrigerator:
– 1 – 2 days, in the case of using fresh pineapple;
– 3 – 4 days, in the case of using canned pineapple cubes.
For a special effect, the Pineapple Mimosa Cake can be decorated with a few bunches of red currants, with violets or other types of flowers or edible flower petals. If using edible flowers or petals, lightly brush their surface with egg white and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
This recipe was worked on in the Lab Confectioner Isteț from Brasov.
