Night cake
One would think that this is an Opera cake, yet, it is not. It was in 1995 that I begged my mother to buy the Christmas edition of a magazine called Rausis, which at that time was 100% translated from the Swedish. I opened it and looked at every page as if all I saw was a miracle.
It was only 4 years after the end of the Soviet era and there was very little in the stores to buy, and if there was, it was very expensive and we didn’t have much money. I scoured the pages of the magazine and calculated how much each recipe could cost to see if we could afford to make it or not. We could afford some of the recipes, but not this cake, yet, every Christmas, I would open page 36 and dream of the day I could make Night Cake. The day when I would have money and not have a fear of ruining something, which meant that money was wasted.
Twenty-seven years later I finally made it. Night Cake from the 1995 Christmas issue of the magazine Rausis with a few changes of mine (mainly reduced sugar) and lots of love. And it tastes perfect.
sponge:
7 medium eggs room temperature
190 g golden caster sugar
1/2 vanilla pod, seeds only
pinch of sea salt
150 g all-purpose flour (55 or 65 in France)
90 g almond flour
50 g melted and cooled butter
custard cream:
200 ml of milk
35 ml espresso
pinch of sea salt
3 large egg yolks
100 g golden caster sugar
1 tbsp corn starch
250 g butter, room temp (better a
little softer than cold)
for added moisture:
140 ml espresso
1 tsp brown sugar
chocolate cream:
225 ml sweet cream
50 g butter
pinch of sea salt
225 g Amedei dark 70% chocolate
Heat the oven to 175 °C. Line a pan with baking paper.
Place the eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat for about 10 minutes until very light and stiff. Sift in flour, add almond flour and butter, and mix. Do it actively, but gently in a folding manner. Pour into the pan and bake in the center of the oven for 12-14 minutes. Test by inserting a toothpick in the center and if it comes out clean, the sponge is ready. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack. Cut into 3 equal parts.
Make the custard. Pour milk, espresso, and salt into a pot and boil until the milk starts to show the first bubble.
Once done, mix the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch in a bowl with a whisk. While continuing to stir, add a little heated milk. Stir. Then add a little more, stir. Do so 2–3 more times. When the egg mixture is more liquid, pour it into the pot with the remaining milk. Put the pot back on medium heat. Stirring continuously, heat until the cream thickens. When you get big, slow bubbles, keep stirring for another 20 seconds. Then immediately pour the cream into a clean bowl and place in a bowl filled with ice. Cool, stirring from time to time. When cool, use it right away or place in the fridge covered with a cling film.
Meanwhile, mix coffee with sugar and let cool completely.
For the chocolate cream, put the cream, butter, and salt in a pot and heat until the first bubbles appear. Add the chocolate and let it melt for a minute. Then stir until you have a nice cream. Pour into a bowl and let cool to room temperature. Do not put it in the fridge, as you need it to be spreadable.
Finish the coffee cream. When the custard has cooled, put the butter in a bowl and whisk with a paddle attachment for 1 minute to make it creamy. Then add 1/4th of the coffee custard and whisk in for 30 seconds. Repeat with another 1/4th of the custard, whisking 30 seconds more. Then, add another 1/4th and whisk in. And then add the last 1/4th. Change the paddle attachment to a whisk and whisk for a minute at medium-high speed to get a creamy and light cream. Cover the bowl and leave it at room temperature until you assemble the cake.
Assemble. In the original recipe, cream is used between 3 layers of sponge, but I like to carefully cut each layer in half to get 6 layers. It's fiddly work but worth it. Put chocolate on the first layer. Put another layer of sponge. Moisten with coffee using a brush and then top with a cream. Top with a sponge and chocolate. Then sponge, coffee, cream, etc. Cover the last layer with chocolate as well as the sides.
Put it in the refrigerator and let stand for at least 12 hours. Take out of the fridge 30 minutes before serving.
Serve dusting with cacao powder before.