Peach Melba Mousse Cake Recipes

PEACH MELBA MOUSSE

Steps:

• Puree peaches and raspberries with peach brandy in a blender or the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade (or use blender).
• Add sugar, gelatin, almond extract, salt and lemon juice, and blend well.
• Whip cream to soft peaks; fold into peach mixture and refrigerate for 1 hour or until just beginning to set.
• Beat egg whites until stiff.
• Stir half of whites into mousse, blending well.
• Fold in remaining egg whites, making sure there are no lumps.
• Spoon into individual dessert glasses or a serving bowl.
• Chill for 4 hours.
• To serve, drizzle a few drops of peach brandy over each portion.

PEACH MELBA CAKE

Steps:

• Place the the milk and vanilla in a pot over medium high heat. Heat until the milk is scalding hot, but not boiling.
• While the milk heats up, whisk together the eggs, 1/4 cup of the sugar (set aside the other 1/4 cup for the whipped cream) and the corn starch until smooth.
• Whisk the hot milk into the egg yolks, then return the mix to the heat. Cook the custard over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and just begins to boil. Remove from the heat and return to the bowl the eggs were in. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add them to the custard. Discard the pod or rinse it and set in a bin of sugar to make vanilla sugar.
• Refrigerate the custard for at least 1 hour (must be completely cooled) before continuing with the recipe. To speed up cooling you can set the bowl of custard over a bowl of ice water.
• Toss the peaches with 2/3 cup of sugar. Set aside for at least 30 minutes.
• When you're ready to assemble the cake drain the peaches. You should have about 1/2 cup of of juice. Combine the peach juice with 1 cup of water and the rum.
• To finish making the mousse, whip the cream with the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Fold the whipped cream into the chilled custard base.
• Split each cake in half horizontally so you have a total of 4 layers. Fill a piping bag fitted with a star tip with buttercream (or use a disposable bag with the tip cut).
• Set one layer of the cake, onto a cardboard cake round or a serving plate. Brush the layer generously with 1/4 of the peach syrup. Pipe a ring of buttercream around the edge of the layer to form a "dam" for the filling.
• Arrange 1/2 of the peach slices over the cake layer. Spread 1/3 of the vanilla mousse over the peaches, pressing so the mousse fills in the gaps between the peach slices.
• Place the second layer onto the cake. Brush with 1/3 of the remaining syrup and pipe a dam of buttercream. Arrange the raspberries over the cake layer. Spread 1/2 of the remaining vanilla mousse over the berries, pressing so the mousse fills in the gaps between the berries.
• Place the 3rd cake layer, brush with 1/2 the remaining syrup and pipe a dam. Arrange the remaining peach slices over the cake layer. Spread the rest of the vanilla mousse over the peaches, pressing so the mousse fills in the gaps between the peach slices.
• Top with the 4th layer and brush with the remaining syrup. At this point the cake is too soft to ice. Chill the cake for at least 1 hour to set the icing dam and to allow the cake to firm up.
• Ice the cake with a thin crumb coat of buttercream. Refrigerate the cake for at least 30 minutes to set the buttercream. Alternately, instead of smooth icing the cake you can do one swirly coating of icing at this point. This will give the cake a more casual look.
• Ice the cake with a final coating of buttercream. Use a piping bag fitted with a star tip to pipe a border around the top of the cake. Refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours to make sure the filling is completely set, preferably over night.
• Remove the cake from the refrigerator 1 hour before serving. Decorate the top of the cake with a few fresh raspberries and fresh peach slices.

PEACH MELBA CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• In medium mixing bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, butter, egg, milk, and pudding mix. Mix until smooth, and pour into greased 9-inch springform baking pan. Place well-drained peaches, peach juice, macaroons and gingersnap crumbs over top of batter.
• In a small mixing bowl, mix cream cheese, egg, peach juice, and sugar, and pour over cake mixture. Top with gingersnap crumbs.
• Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown and center is done. When cool, spread raspberry jam over top.

PEACH MELBA CAKE A LA MODE

Steps:

• Place 2 cups frozen peach slices in a bowl and defrost on high 3 minutes in microwave.
• Slice a whole pound cake, 1-inch thick slices. Arrange pieces in a single layer in a 9 by 13-inch baking dish, trimming slices as necessary to fit the shape of the baking dish.
• Remove defrosted peaches from microwave and stir in 1/2 pint fresh raspberries. Cover the cake evenly with fruit and let stand until ready to serve dessert. Cake can set, covered, up to several hours.
• Cut cake and serve in dessert cups or fancy cocktail glasses topped with small scoops of ice cream.

PEACH MELBA MOUSSE CAKE

Steps:

• Poach the peaches - heat the ½ cup caster sugar and cup of water in a pan wide enough to accommodate the halved peaches then plop in the vanilla bean and halved peaches. (Cut in half around their equator, leaving their skins and if they are firmly adherent, their stones - both slip out easily after poaching plus the skins give the syrup a blushing pink hue you won't want to miss out on.)
• Cover if the syrup reduces too quickly or the peaches need longer to cook through - simmer for 10-15 minutes, testing with the point of a knife to ensure they are plenty tender enough. Remove to cool on a plate and reserve the syrup for another day - it is fabulous over vanilla ice cream.
• Next make the sponges. Preheat the oven to 170°C and butter then flour three 20cm round, loose bottomed cake tins - line their bases with silicone or baking paper. I used two sandwich tins and one deep one as that's all I have so don't worry about the height of your tins.
• Whisk the eggs and sugar until extremely light and fluffy - this could take 10 minutes on full speed in a stand mixer and you should expect at the very least three times the volume. Whisk in the water then sift over the flour and ground almonds. Fold in with a spatula or large metal spoon. Note you will probably have some almonds left in the sieve; just tip them in and fold away, gently!
• Divide between the three prepared tins and bake for 10-12 minutes until they spring back and are golden in colour. Cool completely in the tin before running a knife around the edges of the tin and removing to stand on a baking rack.
• Make the mousse. Dissolve the gelatine sheets in 50ml cold water - when gloopy, zap in the microwave for 10-20 seconds until melted or heat in a small pan on the stove, whisking constantly. Peel away the skin and remove the stones from the peaches and puree in the food processor. Or push through a sieve or food mill. Beat in the dissolved gelatine. Add the peach liqueur if using.
• Whisk the egg yolks with all but 2 tbsp of the caster sugar until at least trebled in volume. Again, this may take a fair few minutes of high speed whisking.
• Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form then sprinkle on and whisk in the remaining 2 tbsp of caster sugar until the meringue is thick and glossy.
• Whip the double cream to soft peaks only.
• Now, in a large bowl, fold the egg yolk mix into the peach puree, followed by the double cream then finally the egg whites, stopping as soon as no more streaks of egg white remain.
• To assemble clean out a deep 20cm round cake tin and line the sides with baking paper (again, I used strips of reusable silicone). Insert one of your cooled sponges. Spoon or pipe in a layer of peach mousse about 1cm thick. Stud with half the whole raspberries then top with a little more mousse. You will have used about half of the mousse at this point. Top with a second sponge and repeat step 11, topping with the remaining sponge. Cover with cling film and refrigerate over night. It is handy to save a little of the mousse and refrigerate so you can test this little pot for a set - if it has set, your cake will have set too so you can unmould it with confidence!
• When ready to serve, push out of your cake tin (this is why they must be loose bottomed) and peel away the baking paper from the sides of the cake. Smooth with a spatula if needed - my mousse was very well behaved. I left mine on the base to serve but if you are braver than me (or have a giant cake lifter) then feel free to transfer to a cake stand!
• To finish, dust the top of the assembled cake with icing sugar generously. Whip the double cream with the seeds from your vanilla bean. Pipe rosettes and stud with more raspberries to decorate as you please. It's quite nice to do 8-10 rosettes so each slice has a whole raspberry to serve. Pipe any leftover cream onto the plates as you serve.