Blueberry and Lemon Gateaux

light and creamy

I've been busy for a week or so, so haven't got around to doing very much baking recently. I did make a tasty yet terrible looking unmarbled-marbled chocolate torte. It looked awful! I made this gateaux at my Monday night baking class. At first it didn't look as though it would turn out that well, but it ended up looking pretty good- and tasting yummy. It's a whisked/genoese sponge. It's iced with French butter cream (made with egg yolks and sugar syrup)- super light and creamy.
This will make a four layered gateaux filled with jam and blueberries, iced with lemon butter cream and finished with toasted almonds and dark chocolate. YUM!

Ingredients:
6 large eggs
185g caster sugar
185g plain flour
30g butter, melted and cooled


a small amount of plain sugar syrup for brushing


a punnet of blueberries
a few tablespoons of dark jam (I used blackberry)


3 large egg yolks
300g soft-ish unsalted butter
100ml water
150g sugar
zest of one lemon and the juice of half


flaked almonds, grated/shaved dark chocolate
Method:
-Heat the oven to 180/gas mark 4
- butter and flour 3 8 inch round tins and then line each with a circle of baking paper.
- boil some water in a pan and place a large heat proof bowl over the top without allowing the bowl to touch the water. Remove the bowl, add the eggs and sugar, then replace on to the pan of water and whisk on high. Continue to whisk until the mixture has doubled in size (around 10 mins). Remove from the heat and continue to whisk for 1 minute.
- sift the flour over the top of the mixture and gently fold in with a spatula or with a large whisk. Ad the melted butter and fold in
- distribute the mixture between the three tins and then smack them on the counter to get rid of big bubbles.  bake for around 25 mins- it should be lightly golden and should shrink away from the sides.
- once cooked, cool in the tins then slice each of the cake in half. You only really need 4 halves- there's an extra cake in
case one breaks, or if you want a massive gateaux. or another wee one.


- For the icing!
-put the yolks in to a bowl (a free standing mixer bowl if possible) and start to whisk them. 
-put the water and sugar in to a small pan and heat on low until the sugar has dissolved. Once dissolved, heat on high until the syrup reaches 110 C on a thermometer. Continue to whisk the yolks on high speed until creamy. Once the syrup has reached 116 C, remove from the heat and carefully pour in to the yolks, avoiding the whisk. Continue to whisk on high until cold
- once the bowl is cold, turn the speed to medium and then gradually add the butter until it's all in there. Mix in the zest and the juice. Tada! Super light, not overly sweet lemony butter icing.


- Brush some sugar syrup on the layers to moisten. Spread jam and blueberries in between the layers then cover the top and the sides with butter cream. Jazz it up with some piping round the edges, put some flaked almonds around the sides and pile some chocolate on top, or decorate it any which way you fancy.