Homemade sponge cake hedgehog

Step-by-step cooking

1. Step 1:

   

   How to make a hedgehog cake from a sponge cake? Prepare the products. First for the biscuit. Take natural cocoa, without additives. Nesquik type powder will not work. Wash the eggs well and dry them. Leave 4 eggs whole, divide 4 more into yolks and whites. The yolks will go into the dough, the whites into the cream. Use high-quality butter corresponding to GOST.

2. Step 2:

   

   How to make a biscuit? Put the eggs, yolks, sugar and salt in a fireproof bowl. Put it on a pot of boiling water. Heat the mixture in a water bath to 40 degrees, stirring intensively with a whisk. Determine the temperature by touch — it should become noticeably warm. Warmed eggs will keep their shape better, and the biscuit will turn out lush even without baking powder. Pour them into a larger container and whisk for 10 minutes until you get a fluffy, white, smooth foam.

3. Step 3:

   

   Sift flour and cocoa and combine in a separate bowl. Next, in three steps, add the flour with cocoa to the egg mass, gently mixing it with a spatula.

4. Step 4:

   

   Melt the butter. Read about how to do this at the end of the recipe. Cool it to room temperature. Add 2-3 tablespoons of dough to the oil and mix well. This way it will be easier to introduce oil into the total mass. Mix everything together. The biscuit dough is ready.

5. Step 5:

   

   Cover the bottom of the mold with parchment. Lubricate the bottom and walls with a drop of vegetable oil. Pour the dough into the mold and send it to the oven, preheated to 180 ° C for 30-40 minutes. Check readiness with a wooden skewer or toothpick — it should come out of the middle of the biscuit dry, without sticking dough.

6. Step 6:

   

   Cool the finished biscuit on the grill. Meanwhile, prepare the impregnation for the biscuit. How to make impregnation? In a ladle, combine water, 50 grams of sugar and lemon juice. Boil the mixture for 3 minutes so that the sugar completely dissolves.

7. Step 7:

   

   While the biscuit is baking and cooling, take care of the creams. The first cream is needed for layering cakes, forming the back of the hedgehog and smearing the muzzle. How to make a cream? Beat the mascarpone a little and combine it with boiled condensed milk. The most important thing is that the condensed milk and mascarpone are of the same temperature, otherwise the cream may be stratified. Therefore, take the mascarpone out of the refrigerator in advance so that it reaches room temperature.

8. Step 8:

   

   The second cream will go to the needles. I decided to make a protein-oil cream. Firstly, I still have the whites from the biscuit and they need to be put somewhere, and secondly, this is a stunningly tender and delicious cream that holds its shape perfectly. Proteins with sugar and vanilla are sent to a water bath and brought to 70 degrees. This will allow the proteins to be pasteurized, and they will perfectly keep a lush shape and not fall off. Here you will already need a thermometer.

10. Step 9:

    

    Whisk the warmed proteins first at low speeds, then at maximum. The whipped protein mass should be held on the corollas with a fluffy cap and not fall out of the bowl, even if it is turned upside down. The whites should cool completely while you whisk them.

11. Step 10:

    

    Oil at room temperature, add 1 teaspoon to the proteins! This is important, otherwise the cream will exfoliate. The finished cream will turn out smooth, glossy, with a clear pattern from the corollas.

12. Step 11:

    

    We need chocolate cream for the hedgehog. I added sifted cocoa. It can be replaced with melted chocolate, then you will need 50 grams of bitter chocolate.

13. Step 12:

    

    Cut the cooled biscuit into two cakes, then cut out the shape of a hedgehog from each. Cut a hole in the top cake. Grind the biscuit scraps in a blender. We'll need this baby for the back.

14. Step 13:

    

    Soak the sponge cake with the cooled syrup, layer with cream 1. Pour cookies in the form of mushrooms, berries into the hole, you can add nuts and dried fruits. In general, fill in the hedgehog to your liking.

15. Step 14:

    

    Combine the biscuit crumbs with cream 1 to make a mass similar to a potato cake. Leave a little of this mass on the ears, tail and front paws. Form the back, connecting the edges well with the cakes. Brush your head with cream 1. Roll out the green mastic, cut out the grass, put it on a plate or tray. Transfer our hedgehog to the grass.

16. Step 15:

    

    Cream 2 (protein) transfer to a pastry bag. For the needles, I used a nozzle "open star" with a diameter of about 1 cm. Place needles all over the back. From the rest of the back mass, form ears, paws and a tail. Make eyes and a nose out of mastic. Let the hedgehog stand in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Decorate the hedgehog with mushrooms, apples, berries, nuts, whatever you wish. The cake is ready!