Crumbly base, creamy poppy seed filling and a sweet strawberry mousse. Not an everyday combination, but mind-blowingly delicious!
As I said before, my father is obsessed with poppy seed desserts. And to be honest, I can absolutely understand him. But there isn’t that many ways to use it, so it’s always an exciting challenge to come up with new combinations.
The base and the filling is the same that I used in my Poppy seed meringue bar recipe. Super simple to make but turns out perfect every time.
I also have to deal with the fact that my father doesn’t like any fruits. I mean he likes strawberry, raspberry and sometimes he eats orange or banana. But that is all! Not much to choose from...
So I decided to use some strawberries and make a delicious mousse. It complimented the poppy seed filling very well both in texture and flavor. I would definitely recommend trying this unusual combination.
As decoration I made some meringues but it’s optional, you can make your own, use store bought or just leave them out.
It looks really fancy and complicated but it’s so easy to make.
Strawberry Mousse Poppy Seed Cake
Prep Time: 30 min. Baking Time: 20 min. Total Time: 50 min. + 8 hours cooling Portions: 8 slices
Ingredients:
Base:
150g all purpose flour
100g butter
40g confectioner sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon sour cream (or natural/greek yogurt)
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
Poppy seed filling:
200g poppy seed (grounded)
125g caster sugar
1,5 dl or ½ and 1/8 cups milk
¼ teaspoon rum extract
the zest of a half lemon
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Strawberry Mousse:
2,5 teaspoon gelatin
40 ml cold water
½ cup milk
2 egg yolks
½ cup granulated sugar
300g strawberries (fresh or frozen)
1,5 tablespoons lemo juice
¾ cup or 185 ml heavy cream
Meringue:
2 egg whites (room temperature!)
double the weight of your egg whites in caster sugar
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pink gel food coloring (optional)
Directions:
Base:
Preheat your oven to 350 F or 180 C. Line a 7 inch or 18 cm round cake tin with removable bottom with parchment paper.
In a microwave safe bowl melt the butter and let it cool for a minute.
Then add the egg yolk, both the sugars and the sour cream. Mix them well together.
In a medium bowl mix the flour and baking powder together. Then stir in the wet ingredients with a fork until you get a bit crumbly base. Push the base into the baking pan evenly with a spatula.
Put it in the oven for 10 minutes and bake until it’s only half baked and still pale.
Filling:
While your base is in the oven. Put all of your filling ingredients into a medium sauce pan and heat it on a medium-low heat just until all the sugar is disolved. Stir it while you cook it.
After 10 minutes take your base out of the oven and evenly spread the filling on the top.
Put it back in the oven for 10 minutes. The let it cool down completely.
Strawberry Mousse:
If you use frozen strawberries let it come to room temperature, and remove all the extra water.
In a small bowl sprinkle the gelatin on the water and let it rest for 5 minutes.
In a saucepan warm up the milk until it starts to boil. Set it aside.
In a bowl mix together the egg yolks and the sugar. Slowly add the warm milk while constantly whisking it.
Pour the mixture back to the pan and cook, stirring constantly until it’s thick enough to cover the back of a wooden spoon. Add the gelatin and mix until completely disolved.
Blend the strawberries in a food processor and add the lemon juice.
Stir it to the custard and let it cool down.
Whip up the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Then fold it into the strawberry mixture in small batches. Pour it on the poppy seed filling. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for over night or at least 8 hours.
Meringue:
Preheat you oven to 210 F or 100 C. Put parchment paper on a baking sheet.
Use a big metal bowl and make sure it’s very clean. Put in the eggs and measure them. If there is any yolk in it you have to make an other batch.
Measure out the sugar (double the weight of your eggs) and add a pinch of salt.
Use a whisk attachment and start to whisk your eggs on a low speed. When it’s foamy, whisk it on a higher speed.
Beat it until it’s firm and you can turn the bowl upside down.
Put it back on a medium-high speed and add the sugar one tablespoon at time. Mix it for about five minutes or until if you rub it between your fingers you don’t feel any grains of sugar left.
Add the vanilla extract and beat it until it’s combined for a few seconds.
For the purple stripes prepare a piping bag. With a clean brush draw two stripes inside the piping bag with the food coloring. Then fill the bag with the meringue batter. The first few blobs won’t be colored but then you will start to see the color.
Pipe little meringues to the baking sheet.
Bake them for about 30-35 minutes or until you can pull them off the paper.
Let them cool down completely, then decorate the cake with them right before serving. Make sure you don’t add them before or they will be mushy.
