Fruit Mousse Cake (Bavarois) Recipe

You might not use everything listed here depending on what size Bavarian you make. 6″ x 3″ is a great size for Bavarians just generally, though these base materials will fill a mold up to 8″ wide and 3″ high. The size is up to you, however. You might want to make several miniature ones! Have a good time whatever you oh do.

1 recipe fruit mousse, made with very ripe peaches
1/2 recipe joconde
a small piece of génoise or other sponge or yellow cake
about 3/4 cup apricot glaze
powdered sugar to finish

In this recipe I’ll be using a 6″-wide, 3″-tall cake ring, but bottomless forms in other sizes will also work. I’ll need a cardboard cake circle for the temporary bottom, and I’ll also be cutting a wax-coated cake circle to fit inside the form which I’ll use as a pusher to help me unmold the cake.

Cut the joconde sheet into quarters, lightly scrape each piece with the glaze and stack them. Cut the stack into 2″-wide strips, and the strips into 1/4″-wide slices. Set the strips upright against the interior wall of the form in the cardboard bottom. Next, fit a round of génoise into the bottom of the mold, inside the ring of joconde strips to create a complete cake “liner” for the bottom half of the form.

Prepare the peach mousse and fill the form with it all the way to the top, scraping it flat using any straight edge…a ruler, the back of a carving knife or the edge of an icing spatula. Apply plastic wrap to the top and chill the mold for at least three hours. To unmold, remove the plastic wrap and place a hot towel around the form for about 30 seconds. Push the cake gently up from the bottom to unmold. Smooth the sides of the mousse if necessary with an icing spatula that’s been run under hot water and dried. Dust the finished cake with powdered sugar. To plate, loosen the bottom of the pastry with an icing spatula, and gently slide the finished pastry onto a serving plate.