Learning with Larousse: Aboukir Cake?

I'm currently sat on my sofa and my feet feel like they're about to freeze off! The weather has become a lot colder these past few days, and i'm starting to think that I need our central heating on in the day now too. Anyways...

This cake is a bit of a strange one (what a way to persuade you to make it!) but I'm being honest. It's one that perhaps needs a bit of development, hence the name having a '?'.

Aboukir cake is meant to be a French dessert make with sponge cake in a charlotte mould, topped with coffee fondant and filled with chestnut cream. I have changed it slightly as I decided to fill and top mine with cream as to to be honest, I thought it would look prettier. I tried to research about this cake but there's little to be found on it on the interwebs. No recipe to follow; nothing!

So, for the sponge I used a normal sponge cake recipe. It was the cream that ended up being a bit of a faff. It's really hard to get chestnut puree to actually become thinner and fold into cream.

Despite this, I think this aboukir cake (mark I) is still tasty and is perfect for the season as chestnuts are one of the main features.

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter

125g caster sugar

2 eggs

125g self-raising flour

300ml whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g sweetened chestnut puree

Golden stars as decoration (I found mine at Sainsbury's)

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees/160 fan. Grease a 19cm Charlotte mould and pour in a small handful of flour. Shake it around the pan so it sticks on all the sides, and the pour the excess out.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and then gradually beat in the eggs.

3. Sift in the flour and fold in with a spoon. The mixture should be of dropping consistency.

4. Pour into the mould and level off with a spatula. Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. All ovens vary.

5. Cool for 5 minutes and then turn out to cool completely on a wire rack. Slice the cake in half horizontally.

6. Once the cake has cooled, start to make the cream. Beat the chestnut puree (leaving 20g aside) until smooth. Whisk the cream until it reaches medium peak, and then add in the puree and mix in. Be careful at this point, as you don't want the cream to become over-whipped (this almost happened to me). There may be some lumps in the cream, but don't worry about - it gives the cake more character!

7. Spread a thin layer of the leftover puree on the cake and then top with a layer of cream.

8. Sandwich the two pieces of cake together and begin to roughly smooth the cream around the outside and on top of the cake. It doesn't matter if there's sponge showing, as this cake has been given the 'naked', rustic look.

9. Sprinkle with golden stars and then serve! Eat on the same day as the cream will start to go a bit weird looking.