Iced honey mascarpone and almond cake with fig salad

ingredients

• • 12 figs, quartered
  • 125 gm raspberries
  • 1 tbsp amaretto
  • To serve: honey

• Almond dacquoise

  • 200 gm unblanched almonds
  • 6 eggwhites
  • 110 gm caster sugar (½ cup)
  • 60 gm icing sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
  • 50 gm plain flour

• Honey mascarpone

  • 3 egg yolks
  • 110 gm honey
  • 750 gm mascarpone
  • 60 ml amaretto (¼ cup)

method

• Main

  • 1

    For dacquoise, preheat oven to 150C. Process almonds in a food processor until finely ground. Whisk eggwhites in an electric mixer until soft peaks form, add caster sugar and whisk until thick and glossy. Fold in icing sugar, then almonds and flour and spoon into a piping bag. Trace three 18cm circles onto baking paper-lined oven trays. Pipe dacquoise within template into circles, bake for 15 minutes or until just golden, cool on trays for 5 minutes, then turn onto baking paper sprinkled with icing sugar and cool completely.

  • 2

    For mascarpone, combine egg yolks and honey in a heat-proof bowl and whisk over simmering water for 7-8 minutes or until pale and thick. Transfer to an electric mixer and whisk until cold. In a bowl, gently mix amaretto and mascarpone, then fold in egg yolk mixture.

  • 3

    To assemble, place a dacquoise circle, trimming edges to fit, into a baking paper-lined 20cm springform pan, spread with one third of mascarpone all the way to the edges and down the sides, then top with another circle. Repeat with remaining mascarpone and dacquoise, finishing with a layer of mascarpone and freeze overnight.

  • 4

    Fifteen minutes before serving, remove cake from freezer and place in refrigerator. Combine figs and raspberries in a bowl, drizzle with amaretto and stand for 10 minutes. To serve, remove cake from pan, arrange fig salad on top and drizzle with honey.

notes

Drink Suggestion: Sherbety, grapey Moscato. Drink suggestion by Max Allen