Mulled Wine Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting

Sponge cake

1. This cake can be made one day before assembly.
2. Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C.
3. Line two 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper. Use just a little butter to stick the parchment paper to the cake pan. Set aside.
4. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Optional - for added flavor, heat the butter (while stirring) to make brown butter.
5. Stir in the vanilla when the butter has cooled down slightly. Then set the mixture aside, but make sure it's slightly warm when it's mixed into the cake batter.
6. Sift the flour and baking powder together in a separate bowl, and set aside until needed.
7. In a medium saucepan (that can be used as a double boiler for your mixing bowl), bring about 2 inches of water to a simmer over medium or medium high heat.
8. In your mixing bowl or a metal bowl, place the eggs and white sugar, and whisk to mix gently.
9. Place the mixing bowl over the simmering water and whisk the egg mixture while heating. Make sure to whisk the eggs continuously for about 3 - 5 minutes until the egg mixture reaches a temperature of about 110 – 120°F.
10. Remove the egg mixture from the heat. And remove the saucepan from the heat.
11. Place the mixing bowl in your stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed for about 5 – 6 minutes. The eggs should at least triple in size.
12. To check if the egg mixture is at the right consistency, take some of the egg mixture with your whisk attachment and create some ribbons on the surface. The ribbons should remain on the surface and not immediately disappear.
13. Sift the dry ingredients evenly over the surface of the egg mixture. Make sure it's sifted evenly, so that the flour doesn't collect at one spot and sink to the bottom.
14. Using a wide spatula (or the largest spatula you own), fold the flour into the egg mixture. Rotate the bowl after every fold to make sure all the flour is well incorporated, and there are no dry spots in the batter or the bottom of the bowl. Be careful not to deflate the mixture by overmixing.
15. To mix the vanilla butter mixture - As mentioned above, this mixture should be slightly warm before being mixed in. If not, microwave for a few seconds to warm it up.
16. Add roughly 1 cup of the cake batter (using your spatula) to the butter vanilla mix. You do not need to measure this accurately, just eyeball the amount. Mix well to incorporate the butter and cake batter until emulsified.
17. Gently pour the butter-batter mix evenly over the surface of the rest of the cake batter in the mixing bowl. I use the flat side of my spatula to break the flow of the butter-batter mixture as I do this, so that it doesn’t sink to the bottom of the bowl.
18. Fold the mixture into the rest of the cake batter. Do this gently with as few folds as possible, so as not to deflate the cake batter.
19. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans (about 400 - 420 g per cake pan). Knock the pan on a hard surface about 3 - 4 times to remove excess air in the batter.
20. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 - 30 minutes or until the cake is baked through. A toothpick inserted into the cake should come out clean when the cake is done.
21. Remove the cake from the oven and let the pans cool slightly.
22. Carefully turn the cakes out from the pan, onto a wire rack and let them cool completely.
23. Once cooled, trim off the tops of the cakes to make them level.
24. Brush the tops of the cakes with the reserved hot mulled wine (recipe below). Let it soak for about 15 minutes.
25. Wrap the cakes well (individually), and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

Mulled wine and mulled wine syrup

1. This can be made the day before assembly as well.
2. Place all the ingredients for the mulled wine in a saucepan. Heat the wine until it starts to simmer. Stir frequently to prevent the wine from burning.
3. Turn off the heat and cover the saucepan and let the wine sit for about 20 - 30 minutes to let the spices infuse.
4. Once the wine is infused, strain the wine to remove all the spices, and gently squeeze the orange slices to add the juice to the wine as well.
5. Reserve ¾ - 1 cup of the mulled wine and set it aside. This will be brushed on top of the cake layers. Heat this mix before using it to brush the tops of the cakes.
6. Mulled wine syrup - Return the rest of the wine back to the saucepan and heat until it comes to a boil.
7. Lower the heat to a simmer and let the wine simmer until it’s reduced to about ¾ cup. Transfer the mulled wine syrup into a bowl and set it aside. It should have a thick, syrupy consistency when cooled. Chill until needed.

Mulled wine whipped cream frosting

1. Make this frosting once the cake layers are soaked with mulled wine, and you’re ready to assemble the cake.
2. Make sure the mixing bowl, whisk, and cream are chilled in the fridge.
3. Pour the 3 cups of heavy cream into the chilled mixing bowl, and keep it in the fridge until you're ready to whip.
4. In a small microwave-safe bowl, place the water and sprinkle the gelatin over the water. Stir gently to saturate the gelatin with the water. Set it aside for at least 10 minutes to let the gelatin bloom.
5. Place the chilled mixing bowl with the cream in your stand mixer with the whisk attachment.
6. Start whisking the whipping cream on medium speed until it starts to form bubbles (just 1 - 2 minutes).
7. While the cream is being whisked, microwave the bloomed gelatin for 10 - 20 seconds only until the gelatin is dissolved. DO NOT let the gelatin boil.
8. Once the gelatin is melted, slowly add 2 tbsp of the chilled cream into the gelatin, while stirring. This is to temper the gelatin.
9. Stop whisking, and add the tempered gelatin to the whipping cream very quickly, and immediately start whisking at high speed for 1 minute to make sure the gelatin mixes in thoroughly.
10. When the cream is starting to thicken, add the vanilla, confectioner’s sugar and the mulled wine syrup. Let everything mix on medium speed. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure the wine syrup mixes evenly.
11. The whipped cream should have mid peaks (i.e. not too soft, but not stiff peaks either). When held up on the whisk, the peaks should bend, instead of standing straight up.
12. The whipped cream frosting is now ready and should be used immediately.

Assembling the mulled wine cake

1. Unwrap the cake layers. Place one layer on a plate or a decorating stand.
2. Spread a layer of the mulled wine whipped cream on top (about ¾ inch thick). Stud the layer with fresh fruit pieces (raspberry and peaches). Then place another thin layer of frosting on top of the fruits to level the frosting layer.
3. Place the second cake layer on top of this, making sure the flat bottom of this second cake layer is facing up.
4. Add enough whipped cream frosting on the sides of the cake to get straight edges, and a thin layer on top to catch all the crumbs (this is the crumb coating).
5. Follow this with another layer of the whipped cream frosting as the final frosting layer. You can make this smooth by using a bench scraper, or create swirls for a rustic look if you prefer.
6. Decorate the cake with a simple piped border if you like.
7. Refrigerate the cake to let the frosting set.
8. When you're ready to serve it, top the cake with more fruits.