This cake was inspired by the macaron creation by Pierre Hermé of the same name. The macaron consists of a rose flavored macaron shell filled with rose petal lychee cream and fresh raspberries. It was created for The name is derived from “Rose d’Ispahan” which is a STUNNING variety of pink roses. The cake though, THIS CAKE THOUGH. Layers of rose water chiffon cake filled with vanilla lychee whipped cream & a swirl of raspberry jam finished with a salted vanilla Swiss buttercream, just a little something to transport you to a picnic on the French country side. The cake is light, airy and full of romance.
This post will go over how to make the rose water chiffon & lychee whip. I suggest using your favorite raspberry jam recipe or a semi-homemade moment would be to use your fave store bought raspberry preserves (I’m a big fan of Bonne Maman). The swiss buttercream recipe I use for almost all cakes can be found by clicking here.
The recipe amounts are enough for one 8” cake with 3 layers of cake and 2 layers of filling
Ingredients:
Rose Water Chiffon:
135 grams granulated sugar(1st amount)
110 grams rose water
95 grams canola oil
95 grams egg yolks
3 grams salt
5 grams vanilla extract
9 grams baking powder
200 grams cake flour
185 grams egg whites
110 grams granulated sugar(2nd amount)
Lychee Vanilla Whipped Cream:
450 grams heavy cream, very cold
50 grams granulated sugar
1 (567 gram) can of lychee in syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
pinch of salt
Everything for Assembly:
Rose water chiffon
Lychee Whip
Raspberry Jam
Directions:
For the cake:
Begin by preheating your oven to 330°F.
In a bowl whisk together the first amount of sugar, rose water, oil, egg yolks, salt and vanilla until combined. Sift in your cake flour and baking powder. whisk this all together until a loose batter forms and no dry streaks of flour remain. Set aside
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment begin to whip your whites on medium speed. Once the white begin to froth add in 1/3 of the second amount of sugar. Whip until tighter more uniform bubbles for in the egg whites before adding the second 1/3 of the sugar. Whip for about 1 more minute before adding in the rest of the sugar. All the additions of sugar should be done carefully while the mixer is running, slowly sprinkling each addition in to the bowl.
Whip this one medium until medium peaks form. The meringue will be stiff enough to hold some shape but the top will fall over on its side. If you’re unsure about the stages of whipping egg white to, this video is a helpful guide. Do not over whip your egg whites- this can lead to issues with folding them in to your batter as well as result in a dry cake.
Add 1/3 of your meringue into your batter from earlier. Using a spatula gently fold the meringue in. add the next 1/3 of meringue folding it in until incorporated. Add the final amount of meringue, folding in just until evenly combined. You don’t want to over work they egg whites as this will knock out all of the airy you adding by whipping resulting in a dense and almost rubbery cake.
Weigh the batter into 3 8” cake rounds, 300 grams of batter per pan. Do not use non-stick pans for this! And do NOT use any oil sprays or fats to grease your pans. You want the batter to be able to cling to and essentially climb the sides of the pans.
Bake the cake layers for 30-35 minutes until evenly golden brown on top and the cake bounces back when gently tapped in the center.
Remove the cakes from the oven and invert on to a cooling rack to cool UPSIDE DOWN. This is another reason why would don’t want to grease your pans, the cakes will fall out otherwise.
Once cooled remove from the pans. Individually wrap each layer and chill them in the fridge or freezer while you prep you whipped cream and buttercream. Do not stack them on top of each other if you can avoid it.
For da whip:
Alright, so before making the whipped cream I would suggest making the buttercream and having it ready to go first so you can assemble once the whip is ready. Once again that recipe can be found here. (You know… in case you skipped the intro paragraphs)
Strain the liquid from your canned lychee, boil this down until it becomes a thick syrup. Cool this down. (You can do this while you bake your cakes so it’s cooled and ready to go by the time you are ready to make your whip and assemble).
Add your VERY COLD cream, sugar, vanilla, salt and lychee reduction to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. You want your cream to be very cold to achieve the best whipped cream texture. I suggest even putting it in the freezer for about 10 minutes before working with it!
Whip until stiff peaks form. Right before you think it’s done is when you should stop the mixer because as you take the mixer from medium speed to off the whisk will make a few more rotations around the bowl and that can result in over whipped cream. If after stopping the mixer you find the cream is still a touch too loose you can manually whisk the cream with the attachment.
Chop up a few of the lychees from earlier (how ever many is up to you… I love lychee so I add like the whole can but like you know that’s me. And you’re you. So do what you want ♡) and gently fold them into your whipped cream.
To assemble:
Apply a little dollop of buttercream to your cake board or plate, this is to secure your cake so it doesn’t go sliding around later.
Place your first chilled cake layer down. Using a piping bag filled with buttercream create a dam around the edge of the cake layer. A nice little buttercream ring to create a safe space for all the fillings so they don’t ooze out later.
Add half of your lychee whip to the cake right in the center. Sporadically plop a few tablespoons so raspberry jam around the cream. You can also load the jam into a piping bag and chaotically drizzle it around if you want. Then use an off set spatula or the back of a spoon to smooth everything you and fill the center right to the dam.
Stack the next layer of cake on top and repeat the dam and filling process with the remaining cream.
Stack the final layer of cake on top and crumb coat your cake. (A crumb coat is a very thin layer of buttercream that encases your cake and locks the crumbs into place so they’re not moving around and getting into your final product!) Pop the cake in the fridge for the crumb coat to set for about 20-30 minutes.
Decorate your cake how ever you’d like. Remember to have fun and not take it so seriously. At the end of the day it’s just a cake and you’re gonna eat it and it’ll be delicious and no one will remember what it looked like (unless you immortalize it on instagram, which if you do tag me so I can hype that shit UP).
ENJOY!!
I've been looking for this recipe for years now! I made it as my birthday cake in 2022 and loved it to bits. Thanks for sharing again.
noted about not greasing the pans or using nonstick. question tho: should bottom of pan be lined with parchment still?