the coffee cat: Ispahan Entremét - New Year, New Resolutions

Layered entremét topped with rosewater gel, raspberries and lychees

Rose and white - Valentine's Theme Colors

I originally made this cake for my mom's birthday - as a yearly tradition from back in 2011, I have always took charge of her birthday cake. These traditions may sometimes be quite humorous when you take a look to the past. For example, I got quite horrified at the NYC-Style Cheesecake I made for her in 2011 - burnt edges, excessive amounts of sugar and cream cheese, cracked tops and canned toppings? A kitchen nightmare. Luckily mom did not know that I was going to make it a tradition back then.

To create this cake I drew ideas from multiple recipes, which were all fantastic but somewhat challenging. Since the only store that sells rosewater in the village of Raincouver was 40 minutes away from my house, I ended up making my own rosewater from fresh Costco roses (when you go to a school with no Costco in the area, the place becomes a dreamland). Fresh rose water is actually quite simple to make and can be used for many things, from baking to facial treatments (a natural toner).

clearly better than that burnt NYC cheesecake maybe?

The Inside
Also, I'm more than happy to announce that The Coffeecat officially launched a Nutrition and Heath section! As a NS major student this is something I've always looked forward in doing but could not start earlier due to the lack of experience and knowledge on this topic. The section will include tips on healthy dieting, battling the freshman 15, opinions on the latest health trends, and many more! Ultimately, this blog serves as a forum for both recipe-sharing, restaurant-hunting, and a record of my college adventures. Every recipe has a story, trust me.

Ispahan Entrémet

Makes one 9-inch cake

Special Biscuit Sponge

30g corn starch

30g all purpose flour

34g unsalted butter, melted

90g egg whites

80g egg yolks

80g caster sugar

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Spray with cooking spray or brush with oil on two 9 x 13 inch cake pans.

2. Sift flours together, twice, and set aside.

3. Beat egg whites in a bowl until foamy. Add 1/4 of the sugar and beat briefly, before adding in the remaining sugar. Continue to beat until stiff and glossy peaks are formed.

4. Lightly beat the egg yolks, add them to the meringue made in step 3 and gently mix till combined. Do not overmix.

5. Sift the flours again, into the batter from step 4 and fold the flours in gently till batter is glossy. Pour the melted butter into this mixture and fold gently to combine.

6. Pour batter into the lined tray, and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven.

7. Once baked, remove sponge from the tray and cover it with a clean tea towel. Leave to cool on a cooling rack.

Flavour for the sponge

70g water

24g caster sugar

2 tablespoon canned lychee juice

2 tablespoon lychee liquer (I used Myer's rum which also worked great)

2 tablespoon fresh rose water

1. In a saucepan, heat up water and sugar to make a sugar syrup. Remove from heat and add lychee juice, liquer and rosewater essence. Stir to combine. Set aside and let cool.

2. When sponge is fully cooled, carefully remove from pan and set aside.

3. Brush sugar syrup from step 1 over the sponges.

Crème Mousseline

470 g half and half milk

2 teaspoon vanilla

6 egg yolks

150 g caster sugar

40g all purpose flour

10g corn starch

270g unsalted butter

2 tablespoon canned lychee juice

2 tablespoon lychee liquer

2 tablespoon fresh rosewater

1. Bring milk and vanilla to boil in a saucepan, then remove from heat and set aside.

2. Whisk egg yolks and sugar till mixture is thick and pale yellow. Add flours to this and mix well. (this will happen fast, so watch carefully)

3. Pour the hot milk from step 1 to the egg mixture, and fold to mix thoroughly. Return this to the saucepan and bring to a boil on high heat. Stir continuously. This forms the pastry cream. Beat the pastry cream, whilst in the saucepan, until smooth, thick and glossy. It should resemble the gloopy filling you see in cream puffs. Remove the saucepan from the heat, and transfer the pastry cream to a clean tray. Cover the tray with cling film and let cool in the freezer. Do not allow it to freeze.

4. In a clean bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add the cooled pastry cream and beat until combined. At this point, beat in the lychee juice, liquer and essence of rosewater. This is your crème mousseline.

To assemble

200g raspberries, halved

7 lychees (I used canned ones), drained thoroughly and cut in half

1. Place the flavoured sponges into the ring of a cake pan.

2. Pipe a thin layer of crème mousseline onto the sponge. Spread this evenly.

3. Arrange the halved raspberries, cut-side facing out, against the inner surface of the mold ring. Arrange lychee quarters and remaining raspberries in concentric circles as you move inwards from the outer edges. Note that for the smaller mold ring, you won’t be able to put in extra raspberries in the middle, there will only be enough space for lychees.

4. spread another layer of crème mousseline on top of the raspberries and lychees and make sure you level this layer of crème (remember entremets need to be pretty and neat when you unmould them!). Place the cake in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Next, prepare the Ispahan jelly.

Ispahan Jelly

140g water

2 tablespoon canned lychee juice

2 tablespoon fresh rosewater

10g sugar

8 raspberries, washed

1 envelope of gelatin powder

1/2 teaspoon red food colouring

1. Bring water, lychee juice, essence of rosewater, sugar and raspberries to boil, remove from heat and then add softened gelatin sheet.

2. Run mixture through a sieve to remove any debris. Let cool slightly before using (but do not allow it to set).

3. Remove the cake from the freezer and gently pour the sieved liquid on top of the crème mousseline. Leave to set overnight in the fridge (mine took only a few hours, but best to do it overnight).

4. To unmould, warm sides of the mold ring with a warm towel. You will need to do this a few times before you even attempt to unmould it. Unmoulding the cake prematurely will only create mess, so make sure you do this after you’ve warmed the mold ring sufficiently!

*instructions for making your own fresh rosewater here.