Heavenly Cake - Apple Caramel Charlotte

ב''ה

Hope you all enjoyed meeting the Mrs last week. It feels like a while now since I've baked so I was able to get back into this with a bit of energy. Sure looks pretty, but I have not got to try it yet! I stuck it in the fridge and am eagerly waiting for the requisite 8 hours. Rose mentions in her video where she poaches some pears that it gets better as it it sits in the fridge. I wonder if the same holds true for this cake?

Mis en Place:

The camera battery died with the pictures of the apple poaching process. Please enjoy my grainy cell phone shots. :)

There was no way I was going to miss out on the full affect of the bavarian cream, even if the only dairy was a bit of heavy cream! So... got some cake pans for the biscuit that will fit in my toaster.

Mixing the batter.

I learned that if I prop up the Sunbeam just so against the edge of the dish drainer it stays put! ;)

Divide the batter evenly and take turns...

OK, so I got a little distracted on the last one there. No harm done, I was able to cut around it.

I had a good five inches in between.

Cut em up! I was able to get the measurements that Rose called for with a bit to spare. This  turned out really helpful later.

Spread on the preserves.

A little under, not to bad. I probably could have beaten the yolks a tad longer, maybe warmed them up. I wonder why Rose says that if you use Wondra it would be thinner but more tender. I always get a higher cake with Wondra?

I used the bottom of this pan to cut out the bottom circle.

Why in the world were we supposed to cut these out? No instructions reference them later in the recipe and three layers is not enough to fill the rest of the cake. Only the 1/4 inch scraps are mentioned as being of use.

On to the custard!

Egg yolks. Small pot one.

Kosher gelatin with the poachy juice.

O.K. mrs. fancy pants, I do not have 3 small pans to put on the stove at the same time! I have just two. I brought the poachy juice to a boil then transfered it to the pyrex on top of the heated toaster. 

For the caramel. Small pot two. ;)

Strainer.

You get a pretty color when you add the poachy juice to the caramel.

Mix in to the egg yolks.

Strain and Wallah!

I measured the first piece, then used it as a guide for the rest.

Starting out. Looks good. I used a regular 9x2 inch pan since I do not have any dairy bottomless, spring-form or flan ring etc. I really aught to get one. At any rate, I crisscrossed two plastic wraps underneath and I am hoping we can pull it out by their handles. I think I saw someone do that for a cheese cake once.

Aaak! I had the exact measurments, yet this is all it got up to. Perhaps if my cake had been just a wee bit taller. At any rate, baking in the 4 toaster pans saved me as there was plenty of extra cake to measure some more layers out. Was there something we were supposed to do with those extra three layers right about now? Well, I used em, and made more layers as well.

A gory cake-y mess!

Finally!

Italian meringue.

Whipped cream.

Whisk em into the custard.

Pour it into the mold.

Cut the apples. I used the peel from a red delicious apple for the color while the poached apples where granny smith.

Layer them gently.

I really had a lot of fun with this. It was not quite as taxing as the Honore trifle was and it seems just about as fancy. The individual components tasted fabulous so I'm hoping the whole thing will as well. I may just save it for Sukkot holiday that is coming up this week (If we can control ourselves that long...)

O.K., so what do we do with all the arrowroot left over? ;)