Ingredients
Sponge cake
16 eggs
16 tablespoons all-purpose flour
16 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 packets of vanillin sugar (Dr. Oetker is good)
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa, sifted
5 to 10 drops red food coloring
Soaking Syrup
8 1/2 tablespoons (125 milliliters) water
2/3 cups (120 grams) granulated sugar
1 cup (320 grams) red currant or raspberry jelly
1/2 cup (120 milliliters) rum
1 lemon
1 orange
Lemon Icing
3 1/3 cups (400 grams) sifted powdered sugar
2 egg whites (an egg white is about 35 grams, about 2 tablespoons)
4 tablespoons lemon juice
10 to 20 drops red food coloring
Preparing The Cakes
Grease three 9-inch spring-form pans and line with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Separate 8 of the eggs. Put the whites in a bowl with one packet of vanillin sugar. Put the yolks in a stand mixer with 8 tablespoons of powdered sugar. Cream egg yolks with sugar until pale yellow. Beat egg whites and vanillin sugar with a hand mixer until peaks form. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the yolk batter. Gradually sprinkle 8 tablespoons of the flour into the mixture as you fold the egg batters together. Once the two batters are incorporated, put the mixture into one of the spring-form pans. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until it's a light golden brown or a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake. Remove from oven, cool and remove from pan. The cake will shrink a little as it cools.
Now, repeat the previous steps with the rest of the sponge cake ingredients. Take the remaining 8 eggs and separate the yolks from the whites. Cream the 8 tablespoons of powdered sugar with the yolks and beat the whites with the remaining packet of vanillin sugar. Fold the batters together, gradually adding the remaining 8 tablespoons of flour. Now, split the batter in half into two separate mixing bowls. In one bowl, sift a tablespoon of cocoa and fold it in. In the second bowl, drop in the red food coloring and fold it in. Pour each batter into a separate spring-form pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove cakes from oven, cool and remove cakes from pan.
Soaking Syrup
Boil the water and sugar together in a saucepan. Do not mix or stir. Cook until the mixture forms clear threads when a drop is pulled away with a spoon. The temperature will be 215 to 235 degrees. Take off stove and mix in 1/2 cup (160 grams) of the jelly. When it's cooled to room temperature, sieve in the juice of the lemon and orange and add the rum. Set aside.
Assembling the Cake
Take cooled yellow cake and cut it in half, horizontally. Set it aside. Next stack the pink and brown cakes on top of each other. With a long sharp knife, with the knife vertical, cut three concentric circles through both cakes. Unstack the cakes and separate the cake rings onto a flat surface. Now, take and outer ring of one color and place the next smaller ring of the other color inside it. Continue until you have two separate cakes that look like bull's-eyes. Take the bottom part of the yellow cake and spread it with half of the remaining jelly. Stack the two bulls-eye cakes on top of each other and spread the remaining jelly on top and place the last yellow cake on top. Return the entire structure back into the spring-form pan and spoon all of the soaking syrup over the cake. Put a tray or a flat surface on top of it and weigh it down with a box of butter or something of similar weight. Put in a cool place for 12 to 24 hours.
Lemon Icing
When the cake is ready to be frosted, mix the egg whites and sifted powered sugar together in a bowl. Slowly add the lemon juice until the consistency is about like Elmer's glue. Add drops of food coloring until the icing is the desired color.
Remove the cake from the pan and smooth the icing over the cake. Place in the fridge for another hour. When the icing is set, serve and enjoy.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
