Red Berries-Soaked Cake

Ingredients

Sponge Cake

• 1 teaspoon softened unsalted butter for coating pan
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (about 10 ounces), plus extra flour for pan
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 6 large eggs, separated
• ½ cup safflower or corn oil
• ¾ cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Red Fruit Puree

• 8 cups summer berries, a mixture of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, loganberries, and red currants
• 2 cups seedless blackberry or raspberry preserves
• ⅓ cup fruit brandy, such as framboise kirschwasser, or pear brandy

Custard Sauce with Gelatin

• 2 egg yolks from large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• ¼ cup sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup heavy cream

Garnish

• Mint sprigs

Method

1. To prepare the sponge cake: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour a round cake pan approximately 9 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep. Toss the flour, sugar, and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Add the egg yolks, oil, milk, and vanilla, and mix well. Using a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry, and fold them into the yolk mixture with a spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, place the pan on a cookie sheet, and bake for about 70 minutes. Let the cake cool on a rack for 30 minutes at room temperature. It will shrink from the edge of the pan and can then be unmolded.
2. For the red fruit puree: Puree fruits and preserves in a food processor. Strain through a sieve. You should have 4 to 5 cups of puree, half for inside the cake and half to be served with it.
3. Trim the brown crust from the top, bottom, and sides of the cake. Use a 3-quart glass or stainless-steel bowl with a round bottom for the cake. To aid in the unmolding later, cut two strips of parchment paper, butter them on one side, and place them in a crisscross pattern, buttered side down, in the mold, so they stick to it and extend beyond the rim of the bowl. To help remove the cake from the mold, you will pull the projecting ends.
4. Cut the cake crosswise into ⅜-to-½-inch layers or round slices. Put the first slice in the bottom of the mold, and press on it to make it conform well to the mold. Do not worry if the cake breaks here and there; by the time it is soaked with the fruit, these breaks will not be visible. Reserving enough slices of cake to use as a lid on the filled cake, cut the other pieces of cake into strips, and fit them around the interior of the bowl, so the entire inside of the bowl is lined with the cake. Set aside the cake trimmings. (The four ends of the parchment-paper strips should be visible above the edge of the bowl.)
5. Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of the brandy over the cake in the bowl, and pour in about 1 cup of the fruit puree. Add some of the reserved cake trimmings, sprinkling them over the puree. Add more fruit puree and more trimmings, until the inside of the bowl is filled. (You should have 2 to 2½ cups of sauce remaining for serving over the cake when unmolded.) Cut the reserved slices of cake to make a lid that fits inside the cake pieces lining the sides of the bowl, and press it into place, enclosing the filling. Sprinkle the cake with about 2 tablespoons of the fruit brandy, and cover tightly with plastic wrap.
6. Refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.
7. To make the custard sauce: Put the egg yolks in a bowl, and mix well with a whisk.
8. Meanwhile, bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan. When it boils, add it in one stroke to the egg yolks, mixing it in with the whisk. The boiling milk will cook the egg yolks. Add the sugar, gelatin, and vanilla, and mix gently.
9. Strain the custard through a fine-mesh strainer set over a cold bowl. (The strainer will pick up any scrambling that may have occurred.) Refrigerate the custard, stirring it occasionally, until barely lukewarm. Beat the cream until it holds a soft peak but is not too firm, then fold it into the custard. Cover the custard sauce with plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for at least an hour. Add the remaining brandy to the reserved fruit puree.
10. Pulling gently on the ends of the parchment paper strips, unmold the cake onto a serving dish with sides high enough to contain the sauces. Spoon some of the custard sauce around the cake, and pour some of the fruit sauce over the cake. The red sauce will run down the sides of the cake and begin to mix with the white sauce. With the point of a knife, draw the red sauce into the white sauce, and vice versa, to create a design.
11. To serve: Decorate the top of the cake with a few sprigs of mint, and bring to the table. Cut the cake into wedges for serving. Pass extra custard and red fruit sauce to spoon over the cake wedges.

Notes

The combination of sweet, fragrant berries, dense sponge cake, fruit brandy, and good preserves makes this dessert a great summer treat. It is best prepared a day ahead, so the fruit puree has a chance to soak the cake thoroughly, but it can be served a few hours after assembly. Pound cake (see Home Cake, page 413) can be substituted for the sponge cake, and other berries can be used, depending on availability. The dessert will keep for 5 or 6 days in the refrigerator.