Coconut & Lemon Curd Torte With Fresh Seasonal Fruits

When I was in first grade, I had a vision of a cake; soft yellow chiffon filled with tangy curd and fragrant desiccated coconut shards, masked in whipped chantilly cream and more desiccated coconut then capped with fresh seasonal fruits.  I saw that cake in the afternoon Telenovela Alondra, which I watch every day, every afternoon. In that show, Alondra, always has the same cake on a glass cake platter. Gone are the days of Mexican and Spanish Telenovelas, time slots are now occupied by Asianovelas or Fantaseryes. But believe me, it stuck it my young head until I grew up, one day I'll make Alondra's cake, and so I did.

Of all summers I had in my country I think this year's summer is what I kind of love. It's not as fricking hot as the past summers plus the fruits are abundant; cherry picked and cheaper. If you are a follower of this blog you knew by now that I have an admiration with coconut and mango, coconut and caramel or coconut and pineapple. I guess coconut is a prime ingredient, a native in this country that has a unique body of aroma and flavor.

For this recipe I used desiccated coconut and lemon as my flavor affiliations.  I really wanted to use fresh passion fruit for this but it’s hard to find some down at South, so I used lemon. The result is more than I expected.

The components of this cake are as follow: Yellow chiffon cake, coconut lemon curd, whipped cream, toasted desiccated coconut and fresh fruits.

 Yellow Chiffon Cake

125 g Cake Flour 

6 g Baking Powder

3 g Salt, iodized

100g Sugar

63 g Egg yolks

85 g Water

63 g Vegetable Oil

125 g Egg Whites

63 g Sugar

pinch Cream of Tartar

Sift the dry ingredients for about 3 to 4 times. I'm sorry, I'm just Obsessive Compulsive! You may sift it just 2 times :)

Mise En Place before mixing anything.

In a bowl, combine together water, egg yolks, vegetable oil and the sifted dry ingredients.

Whisk until you get a lump-free, uniform mixture like this. You may set aside while preparing the meringue.

Put the egg whites in your very dried and clean kitchen aid bowl...

Start whipping from number 1, increasing the speed gradually to create fine and stable air pockets

Once the egg whites had turn this white with a little body, add the sugar and cream of tartar and continue whipping until stiff peaks

Soft Peaks

Stiff Peaks

Yellow Chiffon Sponge and Meringue

My favorite part is the combining of two mixtures together, before learning this technique, I always end up with a failed chiffon cake base. My mentor taught me of this method which ever since has served me well in baking.

Remember Tempering? (which I talked about in my Pot de Creme entry)  The mixing technique of two different mixtures with different temperatures, it also applies in mixing meringue and a base like chiffon sponge.  Fold the meringue INTO the sponge, not the sponge into the meringue. First as you can notice in the photo, I folded small amount of meringue into the sponge to help loosen the batter and avoid under mixing and deflating the meringue, then continue folding meringue by about 2 to 3 additions.

Although I don't always mention it, you have to pre heat your oven ahead of time.  For this recipe, pre heat the oven at 170/170C

Pour the uniform batter of Yellow Chiffon cake into a cake mold lined with foil, no need to grease and to tap the pan before baking. Again, Don't tap the pan! Bake for about 40 mins or until done.

Coconut Lemon Curd 

1/2 c Sugar

4 pcs Egg yolks

3 pcs Lemon, juice

40 g Desiccated coconut, toasted

Fragrant toasted desiccated coconut is the picturesque of my childhood summer

Combine all the ingredients together, except for the desiccated coconut. Cook the Lemon curd over bain marie or over low heat, once the curd started to form,strain it then continue cooking until thick in consistency. I would like to state this reminder that if you don't have a silicone coated wire whisk, use a wooden spoon. Using a metal coated wire whisk will create a chemical reaction to your curd and make it taste like rust and color will turn grayish. Fold in the desiccated coconut off the heat and set aside.

I obviously tested the cake's doneness :) Cool down competely before slicing into two.

Imbibe with simple syrup to make the cake moist, then fill with the sour coconut and lemon curd.

Whip cream until stiff peaks and mask the cake.

I'm personally in a love affair with chiffon masked in whipped cream <3

Coat the masked cake with more, toasted desiccated coconut

And make that Victorian looking rosettes, very Alondra inspired!

Isn't she a beauty?

She is.

Coconut & Lemon Curd Torte With Fresh Seasonal Fruits

Alondra's cake is topped with sliced oranges, grapes and quartered kiwi fruit, mine has riped mango for that complete summer affair.

My parents will love this..

Glass Cake Platter owww! Alondra! Alondra!

The curd is just thick enough, I thought it will be too thin! It has a powerful tang that dominates the cake. - Just the way I visioned it.

Tends to be a little messy <3

The result is a moist, soft yellow chiffon cake with a thin layer of a very sour lemon curd but justified by the whipped chantilly and balanced with the texture of desiccated coconut. May I just say that desiccated coconut works so well with fresh fruits, especially mangoes? It's superrrrrrr yumm! 

Love always,

Grand Marnier Pot de Crème and Sunkissed Laiya

Grand Marnier, a classic Orange flavoured liquor with a fancy bottle that reminds me of Twilight's Volturi

Holla! I really have Time Management issues here, this one is on my draft for 2 weeks already. So, the cat has been busy lately filling papers and documents for my Big Aussie Move, I had to juggle Quezon City, Makati City and Alabang for several days, owwww. I'm so sorry about hanging up. Now, lets start..

In my French Patisserie class, which was around 2008, I first saw a bottle of a Grand Marnier. The bottle is so nice and very regal. Although I personally didn't appreciate the orange liquor then, aside from I don't really drink, its flavor is quite strong for my preference. However, I have a lot of "acquired tastes" now.. from bleu cheese, chicken liver pate, salmon, wines (Gewurtzraminer!!!) and pecan. My list includes Grand Marnier. Though I never tried gulping from the bottle, that would be off, ladies, let's put in desserts everything we wish we could gulp straight from the bottle.

Pot de Crème literally means "Pot of Custard". Compared to Crème Caramel, Creme Brulèe, Tocino del Cielo and Leche Flan, Pot de Crème is more loose in consistency.  

Pot de crème is made with eggs, egg yolks, cream, milk, and a flavor, often vanilla or chocolate. The milk and cream are heated and flavored, then mixed into the whisked eggs and egg yolks. The mixture is strained and poured into cups, which are then baked in a water bath at low heat, Sometimes people will not add milk and freeze -Wikipedia

Grand Marnier Pot de Crème

Grand Marnier Pot de Crème

200 g Heavy Cream

90 g Fresh Milk

120g Egg yolks

75 g Sugar

1 Tbsp Grand Marnier

1 pc Sunkiss Orange, zest

In a sauce pot, combine fresh milk, heavy cream, sugar and grand marnier. In a separate container, set aside egg yolks.

Place the sauce pot over low heat and cook just until Scalding point or until the tiny bubbles begin to surface

Make sure that all the sugar completely dissolves before pouring the mixture into the egg yolks. This technique is called Tempering, where we gradually combine together different mixtures with different temperatures, say hot and room temperature or chilled and simmering.

Slowly pour in the scalded milk mixture into the egg yolks while stirring. If the milk mixture is cooked too hot, it will cause the eggs to curdle and cause a lumpy custard.

The custard has to be a uniform mixture.

Strain the impurities twice..then pour on prepared containers. I used ramekins, but I like the idea of baking in glasses and jars too :)

Custards has to be Steam Baked or bake over warm bath, the water has to be warm to let the eggs in the custard cook without curdling  and to let the steam circulate evenly for a nice coagulation in the egg protein. Huwaatt??

My nerdy observation: Did you know that custards has to be cooked not more than 160 C? I don't really know the scientific term, but since eggs has rich protein content, the protein are likely to pull each other, that's why cheesecakes break in the middle while baking, so did my crème brulèe after baking, so did why baked meringue shrinks after cooling down. Anyways, this one is too technical to explain, simply cook your custards at not more than 160C because it will curdle and break while cooking

Bake over warm bath until 20-25 minutess, custards baked in glasses and jars take longer to cook by the way.

Chill and let to completely set before serving

Grand Marnier Pot de Crème

It's summer in the Philippines now, and twice (first was last year, same date!) that I had a Laiya beach adventure with my little darlings, I'd like to show everyone my favorite photos in my short beach escapade..

Grilled Fresh Tilapia, Green Mango and Tomato Ensalada and Malatang Kanin cooked in the beach. Prepared by the hands of the one and only madam!! It feels so good to have a mother.

The Christian bear had injury after this shot, nice try brother!! He's never athletic, but he spiked that volleyball and fell on his knees! I'm a proud sister!

Jelly fishyyy. Take care when you swim in the summer

Tired from girl huntings!

What I love about Laiya, and what makes us coming back every year is the quietness and serenity of the beach unlike Boracay and Puerto Galera. Look at this, I'm so proud of the secluded Philippine beaches.

It's not my butt that made this long trace of sand. HAHAHA
It was my butt, and the others' okayyy!

My good good girl pal, Aiza

"Beautiful people just don't happen" -Elizabeth Kubler Ross