Happy birthday to me - Peach Melba Cake

It had to happen sometime - it is my turn for a birthday today, so I made myself this triple layer Peach Melba Cake, consisting of a cream cake filled with peach mousse and topped with raspberry cream, from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes. If you love baking, do consider buying this book - it is magnificent, and most of the cakes are super easy (even though they are sometimes timne-consuming because of the number of steps involved). It is the best cake book that I own, and I have quite a few.

I loved the look of the Peach Melba cake - especially with the addition of edible glitter on top! The peach and raspberry flavours (especially the peach mousse) were also fabulous, but I wasn't so excited about the base cake. All three layers sank after being unmoulded (even though I let them cool for a fair while in the tin), and the taste was OK, but in my view, nothing exciting. It is not a diet cake - it has nearly a litre of cream in it, but hey, birthdays are special occasions, so my view is: go for it!

To make a Peach Melba cake, you will need:

Cream Cake

1 3/4 cups cake flour
3 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup pouring cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons buttermilk

Peach Syrup

1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup cold water
1/4 cup peach liqueur (I used brandy mixed with peach juice)

Peach Mousse

2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cold water
2 tablespoons peach liqueur (I used brandy mixed with peach juice)
450g peeled and stoned peaches, sliced (I used drained, canned peaches)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon gelatine
1 cup pouring cream

Raspberry Cream

350g frozen raspberries, thawed (including juice)
1 cup pouring cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon rosewater

For the cake

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and grease and line 3 x 8 inch round cake tins.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together into a bowl and set aside.

Whip the cream and vanilla essence with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, then beat in the sugar. Beat in the eggs and egg yolks until soft peaks form.

Combine the dry ingredients with the cream mixture by hand in three lots, then mix in the buttermilk.

Pour one third of the batter into each prepared cake tin, and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until cooked through. Cool the cakes in tins for 10 minutes before unmoulding onto a wire rack to cool. (I unmoulded one cake at 10 minutes and it sunk; I let the others cool in the tin before unmoulding, and they also sank - I am not sure why, because the cakes were cooked.)

For the syrup

Put the sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil; simmer until the syrup is reduced to 1/2 cup in volume. Remove the syrup from the stove and stir through the liqueur.

For the mousse

Pu the peaches, sugar, water and lemon juice in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer until the peaches are soft, then put the mixture in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Reserve one cup of the peach puree for garnish, and put the rest into a mixing bowl.

Soak the gelatin in the peach liqueur for about 5 minutes in a microwavable bowl, then microwave the mixture for aorund 10 seconds, and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Stir the gelatin into the peach puree in the mixing bowl.

Whip the cream until stiff, then fold into the gelatin/puree mixture.

Stage 1 - Cake assembly

Put one of the cake layers on a cardboard cake board. Brush it with 1/4 cup of the peach syrup.
Spread half of the mousse onto the cake layer, and place another cake layer on top of the mousse. Repeat with another 1/4 cup of peach syrup and the remaining mousse. Place the last cake layer on top, and brush with the remaining syrup. Cover the cake and refrigerate until the mousse has set (~1 hour).



For the raspberry cream

Put the raspberries and juice into a small saucepan and cook on the stovetop, squashing the berries with the back of a spoon, until they have released all of their juices. Remove the berries from the heat and process into a puree in a blender or food processor, then strain the puree to remove the seeds.

Mix 1/3 cup of the puree with the sugar and rosewater in a bowl. Mix the remaining puree with sugar to taste and reserve for garnish.

Whip the cream until stiff, then fold into the raspberry and sugar mixture.

Stage 2 - Cake assembly

Remove the set cake from the fridge, and frost all over with the raspberry cream. Reserve a small amount of raspberry cream to pipe decorations of your choice on the cake.

Serve the cake with small spoonfuls of peach and raspberry purees decorating the plate.