Whose prints are these on the cake? We got a call from Laura, our favourite food blogger (do you remember when she made us biscuits?), saying she’d left a rolled pie out to cool on the window sill, only to find it covered in prints. Apparently those of a playful kitten. We’re obviously joking, but what is NOT a joke is the fact that this pie is delicious for the eyes as well as for the taste buds. This is Laura’s recipe.
Ingredients: 3 eggs, 70 g flour, 70 g sugar, 1 pinch of salt, ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract, 200 ml cream, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 2-3 tablespoons of dark cocoa powder, food colouring.
Directions: Preheat the oven to 180° C. Whip the egg whites and a pinch of salt, until stiff. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and the vanilla extract, to create a dense, light-coloured cream. Add the flour and continue mixing. Gently fold in the stiff egg whites.
For the decoration, use 2 spoonfuls of dough and add a couple of drops of food colouring of your choice, and mix well.
Place the coloured mixture in a pastry bag and use it to create whatever design you want on a baking sheet placed on a baking pan (26 x 37 cm). To simplify this operation, draw the motif with a pencil on the baking sheet first and then turn the sheet over: the lines will still be visible but won’t come into contact with the dough, and the decoration will be more accurate.
Once the decoration is ready, bake it for 2 minutes at 180° C. Remove the pan from the oven and pour the rest of the dough over it, gently levelling it out. Bake for another 7-8 minutes at 180° C. In the meantime, whip the cream with the sugar and the cocoa.
Once the dough is baked, remove the pan from the oven and turn it upside down on a cutting board sprinkled with flour and delicately remove the baking sheet. Trim the edges with a knife. Turn the biscuit upside down again, with the decorated side on the cutting board, and spread the cocoa cream on top. Level it out and gently roll the biscuit. Keep refrigerated until it’s time to serve.
