Almond Cake with Elderflower Cream

Ingredients

• 6 Eggs
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 Vanilla bean
• 0.5 organic orange
• 100 g coconut blossom sugar
• 50 g spelt whole‑grain flour
• 125 g ground almonds
• 4 tbsp elderflower jelly
• 6 gelatin sheets
• 75 g honey
• 250 ml milk (3.5% fat)
• 8 elderflower buds
• 400 g low‑fat quark
• 250 ml Whipping Cream
• 75 g raw cane sugar
• 50 g toasted almonds

Instructions

1. 1.

   Separate the eggs for the base. Beat egg whites with salt into stiff peaks. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Rinse the orange hot, pat dry, and finely grate the zest. Set aside the orange. In a bowl combine yolks with vanilla seeds, orange zest, and coconut blossom sugar; beat with a hand mixer until thick and creamy. Sift flour and ground almonds over the mixture. Fold in the stiff egg whites gently with a rubber spatula.

2. 2.

   Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread the sponge batter 1–1.5 cm thick evenly on the sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 200 °C (180 °C fan, gas level 3) for 20–25 minutes until golden‑yellow. Remove, break the sponge, peel off the parchment immediately, let cool, and cut the sponge into three strips. Join two strips with jelly and place them in a square tin lined with parchment paper.

3. 3.

   Soak gelatin sheets in cold water for the filling. In a saucepan combine honey and milk; add elderflower buds and five whole buds. Heat while stirring until it boils once, remove from heat immediately, stir in the well‑pressed gelatin. Stir several times and let cool to room temperature. Strain the milk mixture through a sieve before setting.

4. 4.

   Drain quark well. Squeeze juice from half of the reserved orange. Mix quark with one tablespoon of orange juice and combine with the cooled milk mixture. Whip cream stiffly and fold into the mixture. Spread two thirds of the cream on the base, place the third base on top, spread remaining cream over it, and smooth. Chill in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.

5. 5.

   For garnish melt raw cane sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until light brown caramel. Drizzle some caramel over the elderflower buds with a spoon and let dry. Mix toasted almonds into the remaining caramel, spread onto parchment paper, cool, then break into pieces. Cut the cake into slices and garnish with buds and caramel.