Blood Orange Cheese Cream Cake

Tips for making:

1. You need 10 – 11 blood oranges (the size of a tennis ball) for 750 ml of juice and 3 – 4 slightly larger for the fillets. It is advisable to prepare the sponge cake dough, coating, base and jelly a day before the final production. The subsequent cooling and gelling of the quark mass of at least 5 hours (at best overnight) must then be calculated additionally. That means the cake needs at least 2 days.
2. Explanation about cake flour: It is a mixture of wheat flour and cornstarch and is often used in American pastries. It loosens the dough and is quick to make yourself – if you stock it up. The dough made here is an American preparation. It is permanently elastic and is also very suitable for rolling because it does not break.

Blood orange jelly:

1. Since this needs to be firm, it should be done first. To do this, squeeze out the 10-11 oranges and put 500 ml of the entire juice together with the preserving sugar in a saucepan. Bring everything to the boil while stirring and then simmer gently for 4 – 5 minutes at a slightly reduced temperature. Then transfer to a shallow bowl and let it set. Keep the remaining 250 ml of juice, you will need it later for the ceiling.

Sponge cake for the coating and filling:

1. Separate eggs. Whip the egg yolks with half of the sifted powdered sugar until they are white-yellowish and frothy. Pour in water, beat again. Then pour in the oil and vanilla flavor and whip again. Then gradually sift in cake flour while stirring. When the flour has combined with the egg mixture, stir everything at the highest level for at least 5 minutes (if a machine is available, 10 minutes). While doing this, break up the egg whites. When it starts to set, gradually sift in the rest of the powdered sugar and whip everything until the mixture is tough, shiny and the tips remain when you pull out the paddle.
2. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. When the dough is stirred enough, fold in the stiff egg white, cut it in half, distribute it evenly on the 2 baking trays and smooth it out. The baking time on the 2 rails from below is 12-14 minutes. If you only have 1 tray, you have to bake the dough one after the other and line the tray with paper again.
3. To overturn the dough sheets, spread a large cloth on the table and sprinkle it with sugar. Then, with the help of the baking paper, place the baked pastry sheets on the cloth so that the paper is on top. Brush this lightly with a wet cloth and carefully peel it off the dough sheets after waiting for 1 minute. Now spread a thin layer of the blood orange jelly on one plate, place the other on top and press lightly. Then straighten the edges and cut the joined panels in half again across. Brush one of the halves with the jelly again and put the second half back on top. A 4-layer rectangle has now been created. Wrap this in cling film and place in the refrigerator until the cake is full.

Bottom and casing:

1. The next day, push together a cake ring to a diameter of 22 cm and place it on a serving plate lined with baking paper. Lightly grease the inside of the ring and line it with an equally wide strip of parchment paper. The paper may protrude a little. Then finely crumble the biscuits, melt the butter over a mild heat and then mix everything together. Put the butter crumbs in the cake ring and press firmly with the back of a tablespoon and smooth.
2. Then coat the paper on the inner wall of the ring with blood orange jelly and cut strips of the 4-layer dough sheet as wide as the remaining height between the bottom of the biscuit and the top edge of the ring. Then cut the strips into 5 mm thin slices and press them all around upright against the inner wall. If some of them don’t stick, simply spread some jelly on the inner wall again. The remainder of the plate is used as a biscuit layer in the interior. If there is still something left, just nibble away.
3. When the mold is now completely lined, let the couverture melt over a mild heat, coat the walls and floor with it and let it set in the refrigerator. So everything gets a better stability. Before the couverture has set, straighten the top edge of the dough along the cake ring with a sharp knife.

Filling and cover:

1. First cut the fillets from the 3 larger oranges (see photo) and keep them ready. For the filling, mix the quark, powdered sugar and vanilla sugar in a larger bowl. Then stir in the instant gelatin vigorously with a whisk and roughly fold in 500 g of blood orange jelly (or the remaining remainder) (bits and pieces of it can still be seen). Branch off 12 pieces of the orange fillets for decoration, cut the rest into large pieces and fold them into the curd mixture. Finally, whip the cream until stiff, also fold in carefully and then only pour half of the mixture into the prepared form. Place a layer of the pastry sheet, also cut into 5 mm thin slices, on top and pour the rest of the quark mixture over it. The edge of the dough should protrude at least 5 mm at the end so that there is still space for the top.
2. Put the cake in the refrigerator for about 1 hour. Soak the gelatine in cold water. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 250 ml of juice with the powdered sugar (do not boil) and then dissolve the soft, lightly squeezed gelatine in it. Take the cake out of the refrigerator for a moment (it doesn’t have to be completely firm, just the surface), place the fillets on the surface for the decoration and pour the icing, which is still very liquid but lukewarm, over it. It should cover the surface so far that it no longer shines through. But the fillets can look out. Then put the cake back in the refrigerator and – as I said – ideally it is overnight.
3. Before serving, slide an angular pallet between the baking paper and the base, lift the cake slightly, pull out the paper and put the cake back down again. Then loosen the cake ring, pull it up and peel off the baking paper all around. So the cake is right on the serving platter and you don’t have to make it “artfully and acrobatically”.
4. Making this cake sounds complicated. But there are always only a few work steps, then there is a break again. So you are not always busy. There are also plenty of rest periods and breaks. The only thing you need is patience, then “the result will also work” …….. ;-))))