Bavarian cream cake

Today I'd like to share a recipe for a beautiful autumn no-bake cake, filled with two fluffy layers of Bavarian cream.

 

The recipe is simple, and the outcome is mind-boggling! The bottom layer is intensely chocolate, upper layer has a subtle pear flavour, but both are light, fluffy and just melt in your mouth. There is a noticeable alcohol note in the glaze, but this just adds a bit of an edge to the dessert. If you have a special occasion soon, don't hesitate and prepare this cake.

You'll find a list of ingredients and method below.

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Ingredients (for a 23 cm circular tin)

Chocolate bavarois

• 3 gelatin leaves (or gelatin in other form in quantity recommended for 450 ml of liquid)
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup (100 g) caster sugar
• 300 ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 150 g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)
• 300 ml whipping cream

Pear bavarois

• 5 gelatin leaves (or gelatin in other form in quantity recommended for 750 ml of liquid)
• 4 egg yolks
• 3/8 cup (75 g) caster sugar
• 200 ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 1 tbsp pear vodka
• 150 ml whipping cream
• 2 pears (~150 g after slicing)

Topping

• 2 gelatin leaves (or gelatin in other form in quantity recommended for 300 ml of liquid)
• 125 ml water
• 1/4 cup (~50 g) sugar
• 1 tbsp pear vodka 
• 2 pears (~150 g after slicing)

Also

• 150 g sponge fingers
• 70 g round biscuits

Sposób przygotowania

1. Prepare the chocolate layer. Put 3 gelatin leaves into a bowl filled with cold water and set them aside to soak. Pour 4 egg yolks into a large bowl. Add 100 g caster sugar and whisk together until combined. Pour 300 ml milk into a pot and add 1 tsp vanilla paste. Mix them together and heat them up almost to the boiling point. Pour half of hot milk into egg and sugar mixture, whisking constantly. Once egg yolks get fully incorporated, pour them back into the pot and stir.
2. Put custard on low heat and, stirring, cook slowly until it starts to resemble cream. Take pot off heat then and pass is through a fine sieve into a separate bowl. Add soaked and squeezed gelatin leaves and 150 g dark chocolate. Stir the contents of the bowl and set aside to cool.
3. Line the bottom of a 23 cm circular baking tin with baking paper and place a layer of round biscuits in it. Line the sides with sponge fingers cut to tin height.
4. Once chocolate custard is cool, whip 300 ml cold whipping cream to stiff peaks. Fold cream carefully into the custard in two batches with a silicone spatula. Transfer the mixture into the baking tin lined with biscuits. Put the tin into a fridge for one hour to set the cream.
5. Prepare the pear layer. Put 5 gelatin leaves into a bowl filled with cold water and set them aside to soak. Pour 4 egg yolks into a large bowl. Add 75 g caster sugar. Whisk  the contents of the bowl together until combined. Pour 200 ml milk into a pot and add 1 tsp vanilla paste. Mix them together and heat them up almost to the boiling point. Pour half of hot milk into egg and sugar mixture, whisking constantly. Once egg yolks get fully incorporated, pour them back into the pot and stir.
6. Put custard on low heat and, stirring, cook slowly until it starts to resemble cream. Take pot off heat then and pass is through a fine sieve into a separate bowl. Add soaked and squeezed gelatin leaves and 1 tbsp pear vodka. Stir the contents of the bowl and set aside to cool.
7. Rinse, peel and core two medium pears. Slice them into 1 cm cubes.
8. Pour 150 ml cold whipping cream into a bowl and whip it to stiff peaks. Fold cream carefully into cool pear custard with a silicone spatula, in two batches. Transfer half of pear Bavarian cream into the tin, onto the chocolate layer. Place cubed pears on top. Cover them with remaining pear cream and spread it carefully. Return cake to the fridge for another hour.
9. Prepare a glaze. Put 2 gelatin leaves into cold water and set them aside to soak. Pour 125 ml water into a small pot and add 50 g sugar. Heat up the contents of the pot, stirring, until sugar dissolves completely. Pour the syrup into a separate bowl. Add soaked gelatine and 1 tbsp pear vodka to the syrup. Stir the contents of the bowl until fully combined. Set glaze aside to cool, ideally until it just starts to thicken up.
10. Rinse and core two pears. Cut them into thin, 1 mm slices. Arrange pear slices one by one on top of the cake, overlapping them. Brush pear slices carefully with the glaze. Put cake into a fridge for the glaze to set, for some 30-60 minutes.
11. Enjoy!

Approximate nutritional value

100 g

• 291 kcal
• Carbs: 29 g 
• Fat: 17 g
• Protein: 5 g
• Fibre: 1 g

1 slice (assuming 12 slices)

• 412 kcal
• Carbs: 41 g 
• Fat: 24 g
• Protein: 7 g
• Fibre: 1 g