Lemon Mousse Tart

Instructions

FIRST DAY

Make the sponge cake.

1. Grease a 8 inch Push-Pan, with butter. Sprinkle flour, remove the excess and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 320º F/160ºC.
3. Sift the flour together with the baking powder and salt. Set aside.
4. In a bowl add the egg whites together with the vanilla and milk, whisk until the mixture is homogenized.
5. In the bowl of the KA or of a stand mixer, add the butter together with the sugar. Beat with the flat beater at medium speed, until a creamy, aerated and white texture is achieved.
6. Begin to integrate the dry ingredients alternating them with the liquids.
7. Add 1/3 of the egg white mixture and beat at the lowest speed for a few seconds. Stop, lower the mixture from the sides and add 1/3 more of the dry ingredient mixture. Mix again at low speed for a few seconds.
8. Repeat the same process with the rest of the egg whites and dry ingredients mixture. Mix at low speed only until the mixture is homogenized.
9. Pour the mixture into the mould and place in the oven at medium height.
10. Bake for 70-75 minutes or until you prick it with a toothpick and it comes out clean.
11. Remove and let stand 5 minutes in the pan.
12. Unmould and leave to cool completely on a rack.
13. Once it is completely cold, wrap in plastic film and refrigerate until the next day.

Make lemon curd.

1. Wash the lemons well and dry with kitchen paper.
2. Grate the yellow part of the lemons, without reaching the white part because it would make the final result bitter. Set aside.
3. Squeeze the juice from the lemons and pour into a medium pot.
4. In a bowl add the eggs together with the yolks, the sugar and the lemon zest. Mix to combine.
5. Pour this mixture into the pot together with the lemon juice. Add the butter and the pinch of salt, mix until you get a homogeneous mixture.
6. Place at medium heat and do not stop stirring. We will observe that after about 10 minutes, it will acquire a denser consistency.
7. Remove the heat, pass the cream through a fine sieve to remove the lemon zest, cover with film and let it cool to room temperature.
8. Once it has cooled completely, refrigerate until the next day.

Make the syrup.

1. Pour the water  with the sugar in a saucepan. Place at medium heat and let it boil. The sugar should be completely dissolved.
2. Once it comes to the boil, turn off the heat and let it cool completely.
3. Place the syrup in a bottle with the help of a funnel, add Limoncello to taste, close and shake to mix well.
4. Set aside at room temperature.

SECOND DAY

Make lemon Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

1. In a heat-resistant bowl, add the egg whites along with the sugar.
2. Place on a water-bath at medium low heat. Stirring constantly, leave until the egg whites reach 165ºF/74ºC. For it we will help ourselves of a digital thermometer.
3. Remove from the heat, pour the egg whites into the bowl of the KitchenAid or a stand mixer and whip at medium high speed until a firm and shiny meringue is obtained.
4. Once we have the firm meringue, begin to add the butter cut into squares little by little and at the same time the mixer continues whipping.
5. Once we have all the butter added, increase the speed and finish whipping.
6. Stop, scrap the cream with the help of a spatula and add the lemon curd. IMPORTANT! This must be at room temperature.
7. Whip again at high speed until the ingredients are completely integrated.
8. Set aside.

Make whipped cream for the mousse.

• Before we get ready to whip the cream we must make sure of two things:
• Cream must be cold 24 hours before used it.
• The bowl in which we are going to make whipped cream must be cold. I recommend to use one aluminium bowl and freeze 20 minutes before beat it.
• If you want to know how to make whipped cream, you can do it in this video.

1. Pour heavy cream into freeze bowl and beat with an electric mixer into low speed.
2. Once cream is becoming to form stiff peaks, add sugar little by little stirring the whole time. Increase speed gradually but without reaches high one. Ideally use medium speed.
3. Before finish to beat the cream, add vanilla extract along  and beat until get a perfect whipping cream. Be sure not to over-beat, otherwise cream will become lumpy and butter-like.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and chill until used it.

Make lemon mousse.

1. Fill a bowl with very cold water and put the gelatine sheets inside. Let it hydrate for 15-20 minutes.
2. Whip the egg whites. To do this, we will do it in the same way as if we were going to make SMBC. In other words, place them in a water-bath with the sugar until they reach 165ºF/74ºC and then assemble them. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl add the cream cheese, at room temperature, and soften with a silicone spatula.
4. Add the lemon curd and mix until completely homogenized.
5. Drain the gelatine and put it into the water, previously heated to 55º-58ºC. Dissolve with a teaspoon.
6. Pour over the mixture of cheese and lemon curd, mix well until homogenized.
7. Add a small quantity of whipped cream and begin to integrate with the help of a silicone spatula. We will do it with soft and enveloping movements, without stirring the mixture.
8. Once it is integrated, add another small amount of whipped cream and repeat the same process. We will do this step in several batches and will not add more until the last one is completely integrated.
9. Repeat this same process with the meringue. We integrate it in batches and with soft and enveloping movements.
10. Set aside.

Assemble the cake.

1. With the help of a cake cutter, cut the sponge cake in 4 equal parts. Remove the upper part, which will be slightly curved, and from here we cut the layers. I recommend you to leave this step done before making the mousse because it will start to curdle in the bowl.
2. Place some SMBC into a piping bag with smooth tip.
3. Place an anti-slip disk on the base of the Push-Pan mould 8 inch/20 cm to fix the cake disc.
4. Put the disc and a small amount of SMBC on it, this will help us fix the cake.
5. Place a sheet of acetate inside the mould. This will help us to remove the cake in a cleaner way.
6. Place one of the sponge cakes and press lightly.
7. Soak with some Limoncello syrup.
8. Pipe SMBC around the edge of the cake. This will help us contain the lemon curd.
9. Place 4-5 tablespoons of lemon curd inside the SMBC ring and smooth lightly.
10. Place another sponge cake, press lightly and moisten with syrup.
11. Pour the mousse and smooth lightly.
12. Place another layer of sponge cake and moisten with syrup.
13. Pipe SMBC around the edge and fill the centre with 4-5 spoonfuls of lemon curd.
14. Place the last layer of sponge cake, press carefully and moisten lightly with syrup.
15. Cover the surface with film and refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours or, if you wish, until the next day.

THIRD DAY

Cover the outside of the cake with SMBC.

1. Unmould the cake and remove the acetate carefully. Place it on a cake stand.
2. Spread the SMBC with a spatula over the entire surface and remove the excess with the help of an edge smoother. This layer will help us to "pick up" possible crumbs from the cake that could come to the surface when we decorate it.
3. Be very careful when you arrange the SMBC by the layers of mousse. We must do so with care not to remove part of it and that it integrates with the cream.
4. Refrigerate for 30 minutes for the SMBC to harden.
5. Remove from the cold, place another layer of SBMC all over the surface, smooth out the excess and cool for 60 minutes.

Decorate the cake.

1. Put SMBC in a piping bag with a religious tip, mine is from Decora 795. I use too a Wilton 6B tip for small decorations.
2. Decorate the cake the way I show you in the video.
3. Fill the holes of the decorations with lemon curd. Sprinkle some edible gold powder and decorate with gold leaves and petals.
4. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until we are going to consume it.
5. Remember that the SMBC is better when we leave for a while at room temperature.
   

Notes

• I used a Push-Pan 8 inch/20 cm, but this quantity is valid for moulds with a diameter of 9 inch/23 cm.
• The baking time of the sponge cake will vary depending on the size of the mould you use.
• If we refrigerate the sponge cake overnight, we help the flavors ripen as well as facilitating the process of cutting the sponge cake. It crumbles less.
• Follow all the steps to get a good SMBC.
  
• If we have SMBC leftovers, we can refrigerate it for 2 days or freeze it for 30 days. Although in this case we'll have almost nothing left over.
• Of the amount of mousse I make in the recipe, I add all in the cake except what we put in a common glass with a capacity of 200 ml. I thought it was too stuffed. The surplus can be eaten without problems like a mousse.
  
• To make the syrup you can use the liquor you want.
• You can make the top decoration completely to your liking.
• To preserve the cake we must keep it refrigerated for 3-4 days.
• The ideal thing before consuming it is to temper it during a while, it will depend on the external temperature.
  

Archivado en

• Breakfast
• Butter
• Lemon
• Vanilla
• Whipped Cream