5th Recipe : Pistachio Picnic Cake

Well, here we are at the first of the harder recipes. And it definitely was more difficult. The recipe called for a dense nut cake, consisting of very little flour, no sugar, and a whole lot of nut paste, both almond and pistachio. (Odd, but tasty) The cake was then topped with a layer of fresh raspberries, covered by vanilla bean crème legere. Creme legere is soft pastry cream made from cream, eggs, and cornstarch. It has a rich pudding-like texture, and is then folded into whipped cream. That cream is to be piped over the raspberries in a decorative fashion. Should look like this…..

Only mine didn’t. In my case, the cream did not set up properly, and when piped, just sagged. It simply wasn’t stiff enough. Now don’t laugh….. this is how mine turned out…

Not quite the same ! Taste-wise, everyone enjoyed it. Especially the crème legere, since that added the needed sweetness and lightness to the cake. I guess every one can’t be a complete success !