Mojito Genoese

For my husbands family birthday dinner, I am making Lorraine Pascale's Mojito Genoese, because he just LOVES mojitos! (if you don't know, a Mojito is a lime and mint, rum based cocktail) Seems pretty easy, although there are a lot of elements! I'll try and break them down to see if it is easier!

Sugar Syrup
150g soft brown sugar
40ml Water
80ml White Rum
Finely grated zest and the juice of 2 limes
Bunch of Mint Leaves


Put the sugar, water, lime juice and rum in a medium pan over a low heat. Cook until the sugar dissolves, then boil for 2–3 minutes until the syrup thickens. Add the mint and lime zest and set aside. (I made the sugar syrup a day ahead, so I strained it out after about 30mins, and then put it in the fridge.)
It looks like this:

 It's gooey, sweet, definite lime taste with a mint after taste - delish!!

Next I made the Pecan Praline. I had never made praline before, I was always too scared to try it I think, but it was a lot easier than I thought.

Pecan Praline
200g Pecans (I only used 130g and I thought it was enough - but if you like pecans add more!)
200g Caster Sugar

Put the sugar in a medium pan over a low heat and leave to melt, stirring as little as possible. If any sugar sticks to the sides of the pan, dip a pastry brush in water and brush it off. Once the sugar is melted bring the mixture to the boil and cook for 1 minute making sure it does not burn. Add the nuts and pour the mixture onto the prepared baking tray (instead of adding the nuts, I put the nuts on a lined tray, and then covered them in the sugar). Leave to cool. Once this has cooled right down, blitz the praline in an electric mixer or put it in plastic bag, smash it with a rolling pin and think of your boss. (I used a food processor)

After blitzing it will look like this:

I also made this a day ahead, and it was a very rainy day, so it was a bit moist! If making ahead, make sure you keep in an air tight container.

Next we move on to the Genoese itself! A genoese is a special cake, it has no raising agent in it - other than the eggs. You only use plain flour in it, and don't add any Baking Powder etc...

Genoese
260g Caster Sugar
6 eggs (room temp preferably)
115g butter (melted)
260g plain flour

Fill a large saucepan around a third full of water. Place over a high heat and bring to the boil, then remove from the heat. Set a large heatproof bowl over the pan, making sure the base isn’t touching the water. Add the sugar and eggs to the bowl and whisk. This causes them to foam up and gives a lighter, fluffier cake. The egg mixture should be whisked for about 10 minutes, then remove the bowl from the pan and continue to whisk for a further 5 minutes. The mixture is ready when it holds itself well in the bowl and, you can draw a ribbon of the mixture on top, and it takes 3-4 seconds to sink back in.

Once you have reached this ‘ribbon stage’, pour the melted butter into the bowl, around the sides (pouring it into the middle knocks out all the air). Fold the butter into the egg mix, (using a spatula or similar) moving the bowl around and scooping down to the bottom to fold the mixture over itself, using as few movements as possible to retain the air.

Next, add the flour and fold in until the mixture is uniform and smooth. I found that a lot of the flour and butter sunk and sort of got stuck to the bottom of the bowl, so make sure when you are folding you scrape the bottom as well to make sure it's all incorporated!

Pour gently into the prepared tin and bake in the centre of the oven for about 30–35 minutes. When cooked, the sponge should spring back when pushed lightly, will be a light golden colour and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake will come out clean. Leave to cool for 10 minutes or so, then remove from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

 Now on to the buttercream!

Buttercream
100g softened butter
Juice and zest of 1lime
200g icing sugar
    (I used probably about 500g because I wanted more icing! for this I also added some milk to make it smooth and creamy)
Vanilla to taste (I didn't add this)

Beat the butter until it is coming together nicely, and is smooth and creamy. Add the lime juice, and some of the icing sugar (2 spoonfuls at a time), and keep mixing. If the mixture is looking a bit dry, add a splash of milk. If it is too runny, add some more icing sugar. When you are finished, add in your lime zest, and mix. I also added some green food colouring (as a Mojito is green!) to make it add some vibrance!

Here is what it looks like:

Smooth, creamy, sugary and tastes like lime!

Now onto the assembly! You need to cut your cake in half, across it, to make 2 even halves. You can either use a knife, some string, or a cake cutter. Try and get the 2 halves as even as you can.

Once you have cut the halves, cover both on the "inside" halves with the sugar syrup. If you dont have a pastry brush, you can just use a spoon and drizzle it on, and then "rub" in.

Once you have done that, use some of the awesomely green icing, and cover the BOTTOM half with it (this is to help hold the 2 halves together).

Join the 2 haves together, and then transfer to your serving plate. Cover it all in the icing. It may be easiest to blob the icing onto the top of the cake, in the centre, then using a palette knife (of just a regular knife will do if you dont have a palette knife), and spread around and around on top. It will then start to go down the sides of the cake, so then start to cover them, and go around and around. Add more icing as necessary, making sure the whole cake is covered and you can't see any of the bare cake underneath.

Be as fancy or as boring as you wish! After you have iced it, put the crushed up praline over the sides of the cake, using your hands. It will get messy, but it will look awesome!

Decorate with cut up limes, or leave as is... Be as creative with the limes as you want! Quarters or slices, put evenly around on pieces, or in a clump like I did... You can even squeeze the lime over a piece of your cut cake.

I'd love to know if you make it! It looks delish - and I'm sure it will taste it too!

Happy baking!
Rach

** After tasting this amazing cake, it really does taste like Mojito! One tip after eating it is don't be stingy with the sugar syrup in the middle, it doesnt make it soggy or anything. I wasnt sure how it would go, so I didnt go crazy, but if you put a fair bit in there, it shouldnt go soggy.


Click here to go to Lorraine's recipe...