Mimosa cake

Instructions

• 1 The first step to making the mimosa cake is to prepare the sponge cake: you'll need two discs of the same diameter but different heights. Place about 280g of sugar, 8 whole eggs, and the grated zest of one lemon in a bowl. Using an electric whisk, or better yet, a stand mixer, beat for about 15 minutes until the mixture is almost white, soft, and firm. Now add the flour and potato starch, previously sifted twice, and mix gently from bottom to top. Bake the two sponge cake discs, dividing the batter between two 24cm baking pans. Pour about 2/3 of the batter into the first, and the remaining batter into the second, which you'll use for decorating. Bake in a preheated oven at 150°C (300°F) until cooked through, which you can check with a toothpick. Be careful because the second disc will cook very quickly and you must avoid burning the surface.
• 2 While the sponge cake is baking, prepare the custard: combine 250 ml of fresh milk and 250 ml of fresh cream in a saucepan and heat until just below boiling. Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks, 150 g of sugar, and the cornstarch in a separate bowl. Add the mixture to the saucepan once the milk and cream are almost boiling. Stir constantly until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Turn off the heat, transfer to a cold bowl, and let cool, covering the surface with plastic wrap.
• 3 Now prepare the Chantilly cream: simply whip the remaining liter of fresh cream with the powdered sugar and vanilla bean pulp using a mixer on high speed. Once ready, gradually fold in 500 g of pastry cream, stirring from the bottom up to avoid deflating the mixture. Now the filling for your mimosa cake is ready: just let it rest in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.
• 4 Prepare the syrup: to do this, add the water and remaining sugar to a small saucepan. We recommend adding a generous amount of lemon zest to flavor your syrup. Heat and combine everything, but do not bring to a boil. Then turn off the heat and let it cool.
• 5 Now take the first sponge cake disk, carefully removing any toasted surface. Using a knife, cut out three layers from the cleaned disk, moistening each layer with the syrup that has now cooled to room temperature. Now stack the three disks neatly, spreading a layer of cream between each layer using a spatula. Spread the cream on the final layer after you've placed the last disk, and refrigerate.
• 6 As a final step, take the second sponge cake disc and cut it into small cubes: these will be used to decorate the top of the mimosa cake. To make it easier to cut the cubes precisely, you can freeze the disc for half an hour: this will ensure the cubes are more precisely formed. Sprinkle all the pieces over the top of the cake, perhaps drizzling them with a little syrup to compact them, and finish with a dusting of powdered sugar. Let it rest in the refrigerator for an hour to firm up. Enjoy!