RECIPE > MOJITO PRALINE GENOISE

Want to know what I made for my birthday? A light and fluffy, alcohol inspired birthday cake! This recipe contains rum and a lot of whisking. I pretty much used  the same recipe as Lorraine Pascal for her mojito flavoured genoise, but I used less praline and more buttercream, I also changed the presentation to make it look prettier.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius and grease and line a 20cm cake tin. Bring a pan of water to the boil, when boiled, take off the heat and place a large heatproof bowl over the pan (make sure the bottom isn't touching the water). Add 250g of caster sugar and 6 eggs and whisk until fluffy and at least doubled in size, this can take up to 10 mins. Take off the pan and whisk for a further 5 mins or so until really foamy. Then pour 115g of melted butter around the sides of the pan slowly- you don't want to knock the air out of the genoise. Fold all of the butter in and then fold in 250g of plain flour- again making slow movements to retain all of the air. Once everything is mixed in, pour into the prepared tin and bake for around 35mins, the sponge should be a golden colour when cooked. Leave the cake to cool and then slice in half horizontally.

To make the buttercream, whisk 100g of soft cubed butter and 200g of icing sugar with the seeds of 1 vanilla pod, until the mixture is fluffy and buttercream-like. Add the zest and juice of 1 lime. I reccomend doubling this mixture for an extra-buttercreamy cake. Mmm calories.

To make the mojito syrup, melt 150 g of brown sugar, 40ml of water, the zest and juice of 2 limes, 80ml of white rum and a small handful of mint leaves until sugar dissolves over a low heat. Leave to cool.

Put a spoonful of the mix on a serving platter and but the bottom of the sponge on top. Then brush sponge liberally with the syrup. On top of this add a spoonful of the buttercream, using a knife to even out the quantitity. Cover the other half of the sponge with the syrup then add this to the bottom half. Again cover with buttercream.

For the praline, oil a baking tray. Put 100g of granulated sugar in a pan to melt over a low heat, once melted bring to the boil and cook for 1 min but DO NOT BURN IT. Add 100g of pecans and mix in, thenn pour onto the baking tray and leave to cool and harden. Once cooled, put mix in a plastic bag and smash with a rolling pin- maybe double bag if the bag splits. Once the praline is smashed into a nutty dust, press into the sides of the cake for a praline coating on top of the buttercream. Decorate with plenty of pecans and decorative lime slices!

The texture of the cake should be buttery and softer than a usual sponge and the flavour has extra zing and pow from the rum and lime. Serve with a glass of rum...uh I mean a cup of tea.

My finished cake!