Bird's Milk Cake with Mascarpone

Course Dessert

Cuisine Eastern European

Keyword agar-agar, bird's milk, cake, chocolate, mascarpone, meringue, soufflé, sponge

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Servings portions

Calories 445kcal

Preheat oven to 350F. In a small bowl, combine eggs, sugar and salt and whip into a thick cream-color foam.
Note 1: One large egg is about 56g on average, without the shell. It is less than you need for the recipe.
Note 2: Start hydrating the agar. In a saute pan, combine 80 ml of water and 2 tsp agar powder.
Note 3: Make sure your Mascarpone is out of the refrigerator to become soft by the time you ready to use it.
Add flour and baking powder t the foam and combine well with a spatula.
Add oil and vanilla extract and combine well with a spatula.
Line baking sheet with parchment paper. I discovered the best way of baking a sponge without leftovers by using a perforated ring. Spread evenly the batter inside the 8" D ring and bake for 15 minutes.
Do not worry about the batter going through the perforation. It won't.
When baked, cut the sponge separating it from the ring. Remove the ring.
Flip the sponge parchment paper up and peel the paper. Let the sponge cool on the rack.

Use an 8" D cake mold with removable bottom. Place the sponge on the bottom.
Note: Line the sides of the mold with an acetate cake collar for better-looking sides.
In a cup, combine milk and vanilla extract. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Using a silicone brush, soak the sponge evenly.

To make this part easy, you need a culinary thermometer and a stand mixer. In a bowl of a stand mixer, combine room temperature egg whites and dry egg whites and whip them on medium speed until "shaving foam" thick and stop.
Note: Since we have to whip the whites without sugar, dry egg whites stabilize the foam instead.
Combine agar and water. Bring to simmer over medium heat and cook until thick.
Add sugar and glucose and cook stirring until the temperature of the syrup is 230F. Turn off the heat.
Note: Stirring is important for two reasons — it prevents agar from burning on the bottom of the pan and redistributes the heat evenly.
Give the syrup a few seconds to cool. Meanwhile, turn the mixer with the egg whites foam back on, high speed. Add citric acid and sugar syrup (should be not lower than 201F), slowly streaming it down the side of the bowl. Whip for 1-2 minutes.
Stop the mixer, add softened to room temperature mascarpone. Whip it at high speed for about 30 seconds. The foam will slightly deflate and become more liquidy, which is expected. Stop the mixer and fold the mixture a few times using a spatula. Fill the mold ring with the mixture. Work quickly, because agar sets at room temperature.

For the traditional chocolate glaze, melt chocolate combined with butter until 122F. The glaze should be 113F to successfully cover the cake.
You can also try topping the souffle with shaved chocolate and decorate the cake with chocolate pearls by Valrhona.