Lemon Tiered Cake with Raspberry Mousse and Lychee Gelee

yield: 2 tiered cake (bottom 8" square | top 4" square)

Lychee Gelee

1 20 oz can of lychee will give you what you need
210 g lychee, diced (reserve the syrup)
400 g syrup (will need to top off with water)
15 g powdered gelatin, bloomed

Line the two pans with cling wrap.

Warm the syrup to a light boil and then add the bloomed gelatin; stirring to dissolve.

Add the lychee pieces and then divide between the two pans. Refridgerate until firm. Take out of the freezer and as soon as able, trim the larger one to 7x7 and the smaller one to 3x3. Keep in the fridge until needed.

Lemon Simple Syrup

1/2 c lemon juice
1/2 c sugar

Heat in a small pan until the sugar is completely dissolved. Let cool.

Cake

10 oz flour, sifted
40 g cornstarch
2 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup canola oil
1 cup milk
4 large eggs, room temp
2 tsp vanilla (or 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp lemon)
zest from 2 lemons

Preheat oven to 350F. Prep your two pans with parchment liners and place on a cookie sheet to protect your oven from any drips.

Sift all the dry ingredients together. Put the wet ingredients into another bowl and whisk thoroughly.  Add the wet to the dry and whisk to combine.

Cook for 33 min and check for a clean toothpick. They both need to be cooked to an internal temp of 207F. 

Let cool for about 10 min and then turn out onto wire racks and let cool completely.

Raspberry Purée

100 g fresh raspberries
10 g super fine sugar
splash of lemon juice

Add everything to a saucepan and heat to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 5 min until the berries have softened. Purée the mixture in a mini food processor and then pass through a sieve to get the seeds out. Cover with cling wrap and cool completely in the fridge.

Cream Cheese Frosting

10 oz cream cheese, room temp

5 oz unsalted butter, room temp

4.5 c powdered sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

Cream together the cream cheese and butter, about 2 min. Stir in the vanilla and salt, mix for 30 sec. Slowly add the powdered sugar and beat thoroughly until light and airy.

Some of the frosting will be reserved for the grass and water color effect.

Raspberry Mousse

100 g raspberry purée
35 g super fine sugar
1.5 gelatin leaves, bloomed
250 ml heavy cream, whipped to soft peak

Bring puree and sugar to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the softened gelatin. 
Set aside until cooled to 86-95 F. 

Incorporate 1/3 of soft peak cream to the purée and stir with whisk. Pour the purée mixture gently into the cream and fold through with a rubber spatula. Mixture should be voluminous and airy.

Assembly

1. Cut each tier into three layers.
2. Place the first large layer on your presentation stand, brush lightly with the lemon syrup. Rim the interior with frosting about 1" wide, place the larger lychee gelee in the center.
3. Place the second large layer on top of the first, brush lightly with the lemon syrup, rim with frosting and then fill the interior with about 2/3 of the mousse.
4. Place the third large layer on top of the second, brush lightly with the lemon syrup.
5. Skim coat the three layers with frosting and cool for about 30 min in the fridge to allow the frosting to set up.
6. While the large part is setting, repeat steps 2-5 with the small layers.
7. Once the frosting is set, give both layers a second coat of thicker smoothed out frosting. Place back in fridge.
8. Add some green food coloring to the remaining frosting. Using an offset spatula, gently smear some of the green frosting on the sides of the layers to produce a water color effect. You can stop here or continue on.
9. Center the smaller tier on the larger one and then using a grass tip, Cover the tops of each tier with a grass effect.
10. Switch out to a finer tip and if needed use to adhere the rolled wafer cookies to the outside.