This delicious cake consists of a moist sponge cake, the delicate cream cheese cream and fruity mandarin orange filling. Decorated as a sun with the airy Italian meringue, it is an eye-catcher on the dining table and is perfect for a special occasion. With the recipe you can make the cake yourself without much effort.
Drain the canned mandarins and oranges thoroughly, catching the juice in a clean bowl.
Preparation of the sponge cake
Line the bottom of the baking pan with baking paper.
Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar and salt until fluffy and light.
Fold in flour to make an airy thick sponge batter.
Pour the batter into the baking pan, bake the sponge cake in a preheated oven at 180 °C top and bottom heat for about 25 minutes and let it cool.
Preparation of the cream
Whip cream cheese, cream and powdered sugar to a creamy mass.
Preparation of the cake
Cut the sponge cake lengthwise into two equally thick cake layers.
Soak the two cake layers with the mandarin orange juice collected from the can.
Spread all of the cream cheese cream on one of the two cake layers evenly.
Spread the drained mandarin and orange pieces on top of the cream.
Place the second cake layer on top and chill the cake for 1 hour.
Preparation of the Italian meringue
Put egg whites and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Put sugar, apple pectin and citric acid in a small saucepan with a thick bottom and mix.
Add water and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly so that the sugar dissolves before it reaches a boil.
Let the sugar syrup simmer over low heat until it reaches 118 °C.
In parallel, whip the egg whites until foamy (not stiff!).
Once the sugar syrup has reached the necessary temperature, immediately add it slowly to the egg white mixture in a thin stream, without stopping to continue beating.
After the sugar syrup is introduced into the egg white mixture, beat the meringue for about 7 minutes until it becomes firm.
Decorating the cake
Melt the dark chocolate, pour it into a piping bag with a small hole and pipe the "eyes" and the "mouth" for the "sun" onto a sheet of baking paper.
Let them dry briefly in a cool place and then carefully remove them from the baking paper.
Transfer a small amount of the Italian meringue into a clean bowl and color it with pink food coloring.
Color the remaining Italian meringue with yellow food coloring.
Coat the top and sides of the cake completely with the yellow Italian meringue.
Transfer the remaining yellow meringue to the piping bag with the leaf spout and pipe "sunbeams" around the sides of the cake.
Transfer the remaining yellow meringue to a piping bag with a small hole and pipe balls on the surface around the edge of the cake.
Place the "eyes" and "mouth" of the "sun" on the cake.
Pour a very small amount of the pink cream into a piping bag with a hole and pipe the "cheeks" of the "sun".
Fill the remaining pink cream into the piping bag with the star nozzle and pipe flowers on the "head" of the "sun".
Notes
You can adjust the amount of powdered sugar for the cream cheese cream to taste.
Apple pectin can be omitted from the Italian meringue. However, with pectin the meringue is more stable, so it is a little easier to work with.
Do not overdo it with the apple pectin, or the Italian meringue may become too firm.
To cook the sugar syrup for the Italian meringue, you will need a kitchen thermometer**.
For piping the "sunbeams", you can use open star nozzle or pleated piping nozzle, among others, instead of leaf nozzle.
Note the detailed tips and tricks for making the sun cake at the top of the post.