Yields:
10 Servings
Difficulty: Medium
When I took my final exam in pastry school I wanted to impress with a cake that had a lot of textures and techniques so I chose Monte Carlo Cake. It requires a lot of time and prep but if you love meringue, almonds and apricots this is your cake to make. And on top of everything, this cake has alcohol in it 😉
I made it a few times and I can promise you the crowd is happy – if not from the taste, at least from the Amaretto :))
Ingredients
Adjust Servings
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Meringues
- Almond chocolate sponge
- Spiced Apricot Jelly
- Almond cream
- Decoration
Instructions
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Meringues
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Whip the egg whites until soft picks and start adding the granulated sugar while you still beat the eggs. When they get stiff, fold the icing sugar, Bake 2 discs of meringue with a diameter of 24 cm each and with the rest of the meringue make whatever shapes you wish - those will be used as decoration. Bake them at 100 degrees for 2-3 hours. When they are cooled brush the discs with the melted chocolate
Almond chocolate sponge
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Cut the marzipan in small small pieces and beat it with the egg yolks until smooth and light in color. Whip the egg wites with the sugar until is stiff as for the meringue. Put together the cocoa and the flour. Start folding the meringue and the flour in the egg yolk mix, starting and finishing with the meringue.
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Fold in the melted butter.
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Make 2 discs with a diameter of 18 cm each and bake them at 220 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes
Spiced Apricot Jelly
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In a pan, put the content of the apricot can, the lemon peel and the cinnamon stick and boil until the apricots starts to fall apart. Pick out the peel and the cinnamon stick and drain the syrup. Save the syrup for the chocolate sponge. Add the soaked gelatin in the crushed apricots and stir until is dissolved. Add the Amaretto liqueur and pour the whole mix in a 18 cm springform. Let it set in the fridge for 2 hours.
Almond cream
- Boil the milk with the split vanilla bean. Mix the egg yolk with the sugar. When the milk is almost boiling pour it over the egg yolk and mix continuously. Put the mix over the stove and cook until 82 degrees. Take it from the stove and add the marzipan and Amaretto. Add the soaked gelatin and stir. Let it cool to room temperature. Separately whip the heavy cream and fold the almond mix in. Creme chantilly
- Whip the creme, sugar and the vanilla extract until thick Making the Monte Carlo cake
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Get a 24 cm spring form and put one of the 24 cm meringue discs on the bottom. Lay a chocolate disc in the middle and use the syrup left from the apricot jelly to make it moist.
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Add the jelly disc on top and the other chocolate sponge and make it moist with the same syrup
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Pour the almond cream over the stacked discs until it covers the top chocolate disc. Cover it with the second meringue disk and add another thin layer of almond cream and put it to the fridge to cool. When the cream is hard take the cake ring out and start put the leftover meringue on the outside of the cake
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Add the Creme Chantilly on top and cover it with half apricots
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Continue decorating with the left over meringues and cocoa powder
