This month's challenge is about the work of Berthe Morisot, a French impressionist who was born in a bourgeois family in Bourges, France. It was normal for the women of her 'class' to have art lessons. In fact, Morisot and her sisters started lessons so that they could each make a drawing for their father's birthday. Most of Morisot's paintings depict domestic scenes. She painted what she experienced on a daily basis. Most of her paintings portray the public space and society of the late 1800s. She liked to paint private and intimate scenes featuring elegance and lightness.
Morisot creates a sense of space and depth through the use of color. Although her color palette was somehow limited, her fellow impressionists regarded her as a "virtuoso colorist". She typically made extensive use of white to create a sense of transparency, whether used as a pure white or mixed with other colors.
My recipe for this challenge has been inspired by the lightness and the colour of this cake. The fact that it has six layers, all of them in a light colour palette of white, yellow and light brown, could easily fit in a scene from one of her paintings. The delicate textures of the different layers, also resembling the way bourgeois women of this epoch were seen in society. Delicate beings that were there to be paraded by their husbands with nice dresses and beautiful children with smiley faces. Nothing much more, unfortunately.
INGREDIENTS
125g unsalted butter, softened
330g (1 1/2 cups) caster sugar
4 large eggs, separated
70g (1/4 cup) Greek-style yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla paste
150g(1 cup) plain flour
25g cornflour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
125ml (1/2 cup) thickened cream
icing sugar, to decorate
Passionfruit curd
55g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
2 eggs, plus 1 extra yolk
60g unsalted butter, cubed
pulp and juice from 4 passionfruit, strained
1 Tbsp lemon juice
METHOD:
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Grease and line two 20cm springform or loose-bottomed cake tins.
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Grease and line two 20cm springform or loose-bottomed cake tins.
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and 110g (1/2 cup) of the caster sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the egg yolks and beat until it looks like pale yellow shaving cream.
Beat in the yoghurt and vanilla.
Sift the flour and cornflour and fold into the batter.
Spoon half into each tin.
Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks.
Gradually add the remaining 220g (1 cup) of caster sugar and whisk until sugar has dissolved and meringue is thick and glossy.
Mix in the cream of tartar, then spread half the meringue over each cake base, swirling it to create a rippled surface.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. If the meringue seems to be browning too quickly, cover with foil.
Leave cakes to cool in their tins for 10 minutes, then remove and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the curd, put sugar, eggs and extra egg yolk into a small heatproof bowl and whisk until pale.
Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water and keep whisking as the mixture starts to thicken.
Add butter, cube by cube, whisking until it melts and the mixture has a custard-like consistency.
Add the passion fruit juice and lemon juice and keep whisking until thick.
Leave to cool. (If not using right away, transfer curd to a lidded jar and put it in the fridge, where it will keep for up to a week.)
When the cakes and curd are cool, whip cream until pillowy.
Whichever cake has the least visually pleasing top will be your bottom half; invert a cake plate over it and flip so it is meringue-side down.
Spread with curd then top with cream.
Use a wide spatula to help you lower the top cake into position, meringue-side up.
Dust with icing sugar.
Serves 8
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