Fly Away On My Peach Zefir Torte #CakeSliceBakers
Mercy gracious, what a summer.
It feels like I've hardly had time to sit down! Traveling, two of my kids' birthdays, and collegiate ministry have made the past couple of months zoom by.
I need a vacation from my summer vacation.
Someplace with gentle breezes? Hey, is this a recipe for a cake made out of gentle breezes?
Oh wait, zefir. I was way off.
But there is a connection--the confection is named in honor of Zephyr, the Greek god of the westerly wind, because it is light and airy.
Zefir is a type of Russian marshmallow with a lovely texture. Like if you put a StayPuff (from an unopened bag, not one of the hard ones from a half-used bag that inevitably sits in my pantry until I throw it away 6 months later) and marshmallow cream on a spectrum and then put a dot smack in the middle. Soft, fluffy, creamy, and sweet.
The zefir in this recipe calls for agar agar, a seaweed derivative that functions like gelatin but sets at room temperature. It also calls for gelatin-gelatin though--mostly for flavor. After several mistakes, I learned some valuable pointers about agar agar when I made the Bird's Milk Torte, so I knew more about how to use the stuff. And like the Bird's Milk Torte, the wine (or juice with vinegar) is really needed to balance the sweetness of a cake made of marshmallow. And again, like the BMT, you really only need about half of the cake soak that the recipe calls for.
I enjoyed this cake! The peaches that I bought were not very good, so unless I found some deliciously ripe ones during the 2 hour window when you can get good peaches here, I would try canned peaches that have been diced and very well dried off with a paper towel. I also wish that the zefir had a punchier peach flavor. It could be a preference thing, but with fruity flavors, I generally like them to slap me in the face (but not as much as my Lavender Cake did. BTW I did make it again with a couple tiny drops of essence and it was everything I had dreamed). I was hoping to eat a marshmallow that was quite peachy, but it was more like a marshmallow truck had driven by a peach orchard. But, as I said, that could be a preference thing. This is an Eastern European cake, and maybe my American taste buds just couldn't appreciate the subtlety.
So try this Peach Zefir Torte. If you're like me, you'll have the Red Hot Chili Peppers song stuck in your head while you're baking it, too :)
Peach Zefir Torte
(from The European Cake Cookbook by Tatyana Nesturuk)
Cake:
1 c flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 c almond flour
6 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
Whipped Cream:
1.5 c cold heavy cream
1 c powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Filling (Cake Soak): (I only made half of this recipe and it was plenty. But this is as written in the book)
1.5 c peach jam
1/2 c sweet wine or juice with 1 T vinegar
Zefir:
3/4 c water, divided
1/4 cup peach jello powder (not the whole packet--measure it out:)
2 teaspoons agar (see tips at the end of the Bird Milk post!)
2 c sugar
3 egg whites
1 T lemon juice
2 peaches, diced up to use while layering
__________________________________
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 3 eight-inch pans with parchment paper circles in the bottoms.
2. Whisk the eggs, vanilla, and sugar on high until quite fluffy and lightly colored (4-6 minutes).
3. In another bowl, mix the flours and baking powder, then sift gently into the fluffy mix. Divide the batter between the prepared pans.
4. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool completely, then split each cake in half with a serrated knife.
5. Make the whipped cream by whisking the powdered sugar, cream, and vanilla until you get stiff peaks.
6. Make the cake soak by combining the jam and booze (or juice with vinegar) in a small bowl.
7. Make the zefir after the other components have been prepared (it will set and be unusable if you let it sit too long). Combine the 1/4 cup water and gelatin in a small saucepan. Cook until the gelatin is dissolved (a couple of minutes over medium heat).
8. Mix the remaining 1/2 cup water and agar in another saucepan and cook over medium heat until it starts simmering. Add the sugar slowly and cook until it begins to boil--the boil for two minutes.
9. In a stand mixer, whisk the egg whites on high for a bit until soft peaks are achieved. Pour in the agar syrup carefully while the mixer is running on medium speed. Then add the peach gelatin syrup and lemon juice, crank the speed to high, and beat for 6-8 minutes (the marshmallow should thicken and pull away from the sides). Put this mixture promptly into a piping bag fitted with a star tip.
10. To assemble: put a cut layer of cake in the bottom of your spring form pan. Spread the jam mix and 1/3 of the whipped cream and top with a second layer of cake. Pipe a layer of zefir over the top of the second layer, top with peaches, then add more zefir to seal in the peaches. Top with another layer of cake and repeat. Pipe dollops of zefir to cover the top. Pipe any extra zefir on to a cookie sheet sprinkled with powdered sugar, then sift some over the top to form little marshmallows.
Enjoy!
- Peach Zefir Torte
- Dacquoise Fraisier
- Berry Ricotta Mousse Cake
- Strawberry Swiss Roll
Dacquoise Fraisier
Strawberry Swiss Roll
Berry Ricotta Mousse Cake
- Note - this cake was not chosen by any group members
It was very delicious!
ReplyDeletexxooxxooXoXXx (ten points if you know which movie this comes from <3)
DeleteThis is pretty amazing! Can't wait to try it!
ReplyDeleteWow, great cake! Your window for great peaches sounds just like ours, except you could take 1.5 hours off that for our window, so canned peaches it would be for me. I laughed out loud at your comment "but it was more like a marshmallow truck had driven by a peach orchard", because I think too that it is kind of false advertising if something doesn't taste like the fruit.
ReplyDelete