Mimose (pineapple) cupcakes
Why I Love This Recipe
The Mimose cake is a very popular cake in Italy, especially in occasion of 8th March - International Women's Day - since on this day women in Italy are given mimose flowers.
It is really delicious and moist, the cream is rich and yet not heavy, and the addition of fruit like pineapples makes it really irresistible.
Instead of making one big cake (as it is usually done), I decided to make cupcakes and I was more than happy with the result.
If the instructions seem difficult to understand check for more pictures on my blog: http://dajana-bakerscorner.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html
Ingredients You'll Need
Ingredients for sponge cake:
6 medium size eggs
150 g sugar
75 g plain white flour
75 g potato (or corn) starch
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Ingredients for pastry cream:
6 eggs
1/2 l milk
180 g sugar
70 g flour
a vanilla bean
Plus you'll need a 500 g can of pineapple (approx.) or other canned fruit, like peaches e.g.)
200 ml whipping cream
100 g powdered sugar
and a small glass of Grand Marnier
Directions
Put the whole eggs, sugar ,vanilla and a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until thick and pale (about 10 minutes).
Add flour and starch and fold them in gently with a wooden spoon.
At this point you can pour the batter into a 24 cm round cake form or like me into muffin moulds. I used sillicone moulds, and greased them only because they were new (just followed the instructions), otherwise if you are using traditional cake / muffin moulds grease them and flour before putting the batter in.
Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for 20 minutes (for muffins) or 40 minutes (for a cake).
Do not open the oven until they are almost done, and do the toothpick check (it must come out clean). Let the cakes cool completely.
For pastry cream, put 400 ml of milk (leave 100 ml apart) in a pot and add a vanilla bean cut in half lenghtwise.
Bring to boil, and then set aside for 10 minutes.
In the meantime, beat eggs, sugar and flour until thick. Add 100 ml of cold milk. Pour the batter into hot milk (remove the vanilla bean first), and cook at low heat mixing continuously until the cream is very thick.
Let it cool completely, covering with a piece of baking paper or a wet cloth to avoid the "skin" forming in surface.
When the pastry cream is completely cold, add the cream you have whipped with powdered sugar, and mix well.
Take the pineapple from the syrup, drain well and cut into small pieces. Divide the cream in two and add pineapple pieces into one half.
Cut the top of the cakes and remove the center creating a hole.
Mix the pineapple syrup with the liquor (or use only syrup like I did) and moisten the inside of the cakes.
Fill the hole with the pineapple cream and put the top back.
Cut the scooped parts of the cakes into small cubes.
Spread some cream on the top and decorate with cubes,
so that it looks like mimose flowers.
Decorate with the rest of cream.
I made little ladybugs from marzipan, coloured with red colour, and then decorated them with melted chocolate.
