Read Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 Online
Authors: Julia Child
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (215 page)
Spread remaining pralin butter cream evenly around the edges of the cake with a spatula |
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| NOTE |
Either |
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The cake is now finished unless you wish to make fancy rosettes, swags, or other decorations on top with chocolate butter cream pushed through a pastry bag; French
pâtissiers
often write the name
Le Succès
on top of the cake in butter cream or white frosting.
7)
Serving—after at least 2 hours of refrigeration
Transfer cake to a serving dish, and cover with a large bowl or a plastic dome; refrigerate. Cake should be chilled at least 2 hours to firm the butter cream. To serve, cut into serving slices as you would any layer cake.
(*)
AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTES
:
Le Succès
will keep perfectly for several days under refrigeration. It may be frozen, but the butter cream will probably lose its creamy smoothness; it is best to freeze disks and butter cream separately, then assemble before serving, beating more softened butter into thawed cream, if necessary, to reconstitute it.
VARIATIONS
Other fillings
A complete list of frostings and fillings
follows
, including recipes from both volumes. Other butter creams that are popular with this cake are Mocha-flavored butter cream with
pralin
plus Mocha-colored fondant, and chocolate butter cream with chocolate icing. Other ideas are the
mousse au chocolat
used for the
Saint-Cyr
, which stands up well enough when chilled and need not be frozen, and the other and richer mousse with butter in Volume I, page 604, into either one of which you could fold
pralin
. The almond and strawberry mixture for
charlotte Malakoff
could be deliciously adapted, as well as the chocolate variation following it (Volume I, pages 605–7).
Brésiliens
[Individual Meringue-almond Cakes—
Petits Fours
]
Rather than a large cake, you may prefer individual servings;
mark whatever shapes you like on buttered and floured baking sheets, fill with the meringue mixture
, and bake as directed in
Step 4
.
Fill, frost, and decorate as described in the
Master Recipe, Step 6
, but you will need only two layers—one for the top, and one for the bottom.
FROSTINGS, FILLINGS, AND A PAPER DECORATING CONE
