Cake Roll with Earl Grey Poached Asian Pear

After reading the newspaper on pear desserts, I was craving for pear mousse dessert.

My sister has been making cake rolls & chiffon cakes, so I wanted to make something different but ended up making cake roll as well because of its simplicity.

Cake roll can be simple filled with some whipped cream but I wanted something more & it ended up with a caramel mousse & some poached pears as the filling.

The recipe for the cake base is from a chinese website.

It’s called japanese cotton cake, as the name said it’s indeed very spongy & light.

For the choice of pears, I prefer Asian pear as it’s juicy & crunchy with a refreshing fragrant.

I’ve used oolong tea to poach Asian pear for the oriental theme, this time I used earl grey tea instead. 

Everything goes wonderfully together & the caramel mousse doesn’t overtake the delicate note from the earl grey tea & the Asian pear.

Recipe:

Salted Caramel Sauce

180 g granulated sugar

80 g honey

300 ml double cream, warm

1/2 tsp sea salt

In a saucepan, caramelize sugar with honey over medium heat.

Remove from the heating & carefully pour in the double cream, stir until smooth.

Sprinkles the salt & stir until dissolve.

Pour into sterilised jar & store in a refrigarator.

 

Earl Grey Tea Poached Asian Pears

2 Asian pears, peeled, cored & diced

4 teabags of earl grey tea

50 g granulated sugar

200 g water

In a saucepan, combine sugar & water, bring water to boil & stir until sugar dissolved.

Remove from heating, put in the pears & teabags.

Leave to stand for 3-5 min then remove teabags but leave pears to stand for at least 1 h.

Drain the pears.

Japanese Cotton Sponge Cake Base (26 x 30 cm)

adapted from here (chinese)

50 g unsalted butter, softened

65 g plain flour, sifted

65 g full fat milk

5 eggs

75 g vanilla sugar

Pinch of salt

Separate 4 egg whites & yolks, refrigerate the egg whites until needed.

Line a piece of baking paper on a baking pan.

In a small saucepan, bring the butter to boil under gentle heat, remove from heating & immediately fold in the flour.

Pour & fold in the milk in 2-3 portions until combine.

Mix 4 egg yolks with 1 whole egg, pour & fold to the batter in 2-3 times until combine, set aside to rest for at least 15 min.

In a large bowl, combine egg whites & salt, whisk at high speed until it’s foamy.

Whisk in the sugar in 2-3 portions, continue whisking to just before stiff peaks.

Fold 1/3 meringue into the egg yolk batter until combined.

Pour the egg yolk batter to the remaining meringue & fold gently until smooth & combined.

Spread on the prepared tin & bake in a preheated oven at 170C for 20 min or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven, carefully remove the paper on the sides of the cakes, gently place a piece of baking paper to cover the top  & leave to cool. 

Caramel Whipped Cream

50 g salted caramel

250 ml whipping cream

1 tsp Cointreau

Bring 50 g whipping cream to boil, turn off the heat & pour into salted caramel, mix until combined then leave to cool.

Pour in the remaining whipping cream & add Cointreau, whisk to stiff peaks.

Assembling

Once the cake is cool, with a piece of baking paper on top turn the cake upside down, remove the baking paper  that stuck on the cake.

Spread the whipped cream on the cake, with a thicker layer of cream on one edge & leaving a small gap around the edges.

Place the pears along the edge with thicker layer of cream, roll the cake to cover them.

Refrigerate to set before serving.