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Mimosa Cake

17/11/2023

The Mimosa Cake is a classic Italian dessert, perfect to celebrate International Women’s Day. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs
  • 120 g of sugar
  • A pinch of salt
  • 120 g of 00 flour (pastry flour)
  • Grated zest of 1 untreated lemon
  • 1 sachet of vanillin or vanilla extract
  • For the custard:
    • 500 ml of milk
    • 4 egg yolks
    • 150 g of sugar
    • 40 g of 00 flour or cornstarch
    • Zest of 1 lemon
    • 1 sachet of vanillin or vanilla extract
  • For the syrup:
    • 100 ml of water
    • 50 g of sugar
    • Liqueur (optional) to taste (e.g., Alchermes, Maraschino)

Preparation

  1. Start with preparing the sponge cake: beat the eggs with the sugar and a pinch of salt until you have a foamy mixture. Gently fold in the sifted flour, lemon zest, and vanillin.
  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered and floured mold and bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C for about 30 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool.
  3. For the custard cream, heat the milk with the lemon zest. In a bowl, whisk the yolks with the sugar until they become foamy, then add the sifted flour and vanillin.
  4. Combine the hot milk by straining it and mix. Put back on the heat and bring to a boil, stirring continuously, until the cream has thickened. Let it cool.
  5. Prepare the syrup by boiling water with sugar until you get a syrup. Once ready, you can add the chosen liqueur.
  6. Cut the sponge cake into three layers. Crumble one layer to create the “mimosa” that you will use for the final decoration.
  7. Soak the two sponge cake layers with the syrup, then fill them with a generous layer of custard cream. Stack the layers, cover the entire cake with a layer of cream, and decorate with the previously crumbled sponge cake.
  8. Let it rest in the refrigerator before serving to stabilize the dessert.

Curiosity

The Mimosa Cake takes its name from the small pieces of sponge cake on the surface that resemble the yellow flowerlets of the mimosa tree. It’s a tradition in Italy to give a small bouquet of mimosa to women on March 8th, and this cake has become a symbolic dessert of this holiday.