ISPAHAN CAKE

INGREDIENTS (FOR INDIVIDUALS)

Sugar dough:
300 g. Butter
60 g. Powdered almond
190 g. Icing sugar
0.5 G. Powdered vanilla
120 g. Eggs
2 g. Guérande "fleur de sel"
500 g. Traditional flour

Lychee jelly cubes:
500 g. Lychee purée
20 ml. Yellow lemon juice
15 g. Caster sugar
3 g. Gellan gum
1 g. Rose oil

Ispahan meringue biscuit:
a) French meringue: 2 kg. Powdered almond, with 50% powdered sugar, 350 g. Fresh egg whites, tbsp. Cocoa paste, 12.5 G. Strawberry red coloring, 12.5 G. Carmine red coloring.
b) Italian meringue: 1 kg. Caster sugar,  250 ml. Water, 375 g. Egg whites,  6 g. Powdered egg whites.

Raspberry jam: 1 kg. Whole raspberries,  600 g. Caster sugar, 15 g. Nh pectin,  100 ml. Yellow lemon juice.

PREPARATION

Sugar dough:
Knead the butter until it is an even mass and add, one-by-one, the rest of the ingredients in the order indicated. Set aside in the refrigerator covered with plastic wrap. Spread the dough and cut out 8cm. diameter discs; place them on black sheets covered with silicon paper and place a sheet of aluminum foil over each one. Bake in the over at 170ºC for approx. 10min. (place chickpeas on top of the aluminum foil to keep it from lifting while baking). Remove from the oven, remove the chickpeas and papers, and spread butter on the discs; place the dough in the bottom of each disc and set aside in the freezer.

Lychee jelly cubes:
Combine the gellan with the caster sugar and add the lychee purée at 45ºC. Heat to 85ºC, stirring regularly. Add the rose oil and the lemon juice, and blend with the mixer until the mixture is even. Pour immediately into a 35 x 55 mould, with a silpat on the bottom, and pour 2.2kg. of lychee jelly over it. Allow to cool and, once cold, cut out cubes measuring 1cm. a side. Set aside in the freezer.

Ispahan meringue biscuit:
a) French meringue: Combine the powdered almond and 50% powdered sugar, with the egg whites, cocoa paste and colorings. Set aside.
b) Italian meringue: Heat the sugar and water at 117ºC, remove when the sugar reaches 108ºC and set aside. Little by little, in a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and the powdered egg whites. Once slightly stiff, reduce the speed of the mixer and gently add the boiled sugar. Allow the Italian meringue to cool to up to 50ºC approx.; remove the mixer and gradually add this meringue to the French one, stirring constantly. Set aside. Make 60mm. diameter meringue discs on a sheet covered with a silpat and bake in a hot air oven, with steam release, at 160ºC for 8min.

Raspberry jam:
Grind the fruit in the mixer for 10-15min. until all of the seeds disappear. Set aside. Meanwhile, mix the sugar with the pectin and set aside. Pour the fruit purée into a large pan with the rest of the sugar and heat to 45ºC. At that point, add the sugar and pectin mixture. Allow to cool and store in a hermetically sealed container in a cool place.

TO SERVE

Use a curved spatula to spread a thin layer of raspberry jam over the bottom of each sugar dough disc and, on top of that, alternate a raspberry and a lychee jelly cube until reaching the center. Over that layer, place a rose meringue disc and decorate the top with a red rose petal highlighted with a dew drop made of glucose.