Coffee Giotto cakes with coffee caramel

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 600 g flour
• 2 packets of baking powder
• 400 ml natural yogurt, Greek
• 400 ml oil, neutral
• 8 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla paste, optional
• 400 g sugar, extra fine
• 2 pinches of salt
• 2 shots of coffee liqueur or 2 – 3 tbsp instant coffee powder
• 360 g egg whites (from about 9 eggs)
• 250 g sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 700 g butter, soft
• 200 g white chocolate, melted, slightly cooled
• 2 stalk(s) confectionery (Giotto balls)
• 70 g butter
• 100 g cane sugar, light
• 160 g cream (preferably 32% pastry cream)
• 1 ½ tsp espresso powder
• 2 tsp vanilla paste
• 1 tsp sea salt, optional
• 120 g white chocolate
• 30 g cream
• 1 tsp butter
• Food coloring, turquoise blue
• some food coloring, blue (paste color)
• sugar sprinkles

Instructions

Working time approx. 5 hours; Rest time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 6 hours 30 minutes

Dripping Cake

For this cake, I used two batches of my basic Wunderkuchen recipe and a fine coffee liqueur as the creamy ingredient. Dough: Put the eggs and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and beat the mixture until light and fluffy. This takes a few minutes, but the finer the beaten mixture, the finer the cake base will be. Mix the oil and any additional liquid—in this case, natural yogurt—in a separate bowl before pouring the mixture into the egg and sugar mixture while the machine is running. You’ll notice the foam getting a little lighter and firmer, which you’ll notice immediately. Fold in the sifted flour, mixed with baking powder and salt, either with a food processor or with a spatula. Don’t beat the entire volume out of the batter; it should stay nice and fluffy. Fill two 20cm (8.5″) baking tins with the batter. Spray the tins with anti-caking oil and line the bottoms with baking paper, then dust the entire tins with flour again. Bake the bases in a preheated oven at 160°C (convection oven) for about 50 minutes. Remove from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes, remove from the tin and let cool completely on a wire rack. Buttercream: Make a Swiss meringue buttercream from the buttercream ingredients and finally stir the liquid (but no longer warm!) chocolate into the completely whipped cream. To make the Swiss meringue buttercream, heat the egg whites and sugar over a bain-marie, stirring continuously; the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water. Always stir the sugar-egg white mixture well to prevent it from curdling. When the mixture has reached 60°C (140°F), remove from the bain-marie and place the bowl in the food processor. Heating to 60°C (140°F) pasteurizes the egg whites. Using the whisk on the food processor, whip until stiff peaks form, letting cool. Replace the whisk with the flat beater on the food processor. When the egg whites and the very soft butter are both at room temperature, gradually stir the butter into the egg whites; it will take quite a while until the two are well combined. Finally, stir the vanilla paste and the melted (but no longer warm!) chocolate into the glossy, whipped cream. Sauce: For the coffee caramel sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan, then add the sugar, cream, espresso powder, and vanilla paste. Simmer over moderate heat for at least 3-5 minutes. The sauce should be nice and thick. If you like, add a teaspoon of sea salt, but that’s a matter of taste. There are also good ready-made caramel sauces available commercially, but this espresso sauce is so quick and easy to make that it’s worth a try. Assemble the cake: Level the tops of both cake layers and cut each in half horizontally twice. Set aside just over half of the buttercream for frosting and decorating. Now halve the buttercream for the filling again and add the finely crushed Giotto biscuits to one half, mixing well. Stick the first cake layer to a plate with a little buttercream to prevent it from slipping during filling. Cover the first cake layer with Giotto cream. Place the second layer on top, spread the buttercream, and drizzle with the cooled espresso caramel, making sure to leave the edges of the cake free so the sauce doesn’t run out. Place the third layer on top and fill with the Giotto cream. Place the fourth layer on top and fill with more buttercream and caramel. Place the fifth layer on top and cover with the rest of the Giotto cream. Finally, place the sixth and final layer on top, flat-side up, and press down lightly. Place the cake in the refrigerator for half an hour. Leave the reserved Swiss meringue buttercream covered at room temperature so it will be easier to work with later. Now cover the cake with some of the cream to give it a nice, smooth surface. Ganache: Make a ganache from white chocolate, the cream, and a teaspoon of butter, then tint it with turquoise-blue paste color. The finished cake must be thoroughly chilled, and the ganache should only be lukewarm for the dripping! Then, using a small piping bag, pipe the blue ganache down the edge of the cake in little drizzles. When the cake is nice and cold, it will set very quickly. Immediately decorate the drip with sugar sprinkles; it’s best to pick them up with tweezers and press them into the ganache. Tint the remaining buttercream partially turquoise blue and fill a piping bag with a heavily serrated star nozzle, alternating layers. Pipe the decoration onto the edge in a kind of braided pattern. The cake is decorated with small, matching blue-colored macarons and even more sugar sprinkles.