Number cake or tarte chiffres
Combine finesse and indulgence for dessert with the famous Number Cake! An easy cake made of layers of shortcrust pastry enhanced by a creamy mascarpone whipped cream and decorated according to your desires. Here, to celebrate the arrival of spring, strawberries and raspberries are highlighted :-) Now it's your turn to have fun embellishing your homemade cake with the fruits of your choice!
Ingredients
Shortcrust pastry:
Mascarpone cream:
Decoration:
Materials
- Number stencils
- Piping bag
- Rolling pin
- Flower cookie cutter
- Parchment paper
Preparation
Shortcrust pastry:
In a bowl, place the butter, icing sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, and almond meal. Mix until you have a smooth "cream".
Then add the whole egg and mix well. You should have a slightly grainy mixture.
Now, add the flour and use your hands to mix until the dough becomes uniform.
Wrap the flattened dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. (Do not form the dough into a ball, it will take much longer to cool).
After this resting time, divide the dough into 2.
Take one half, place it on a sheet of parchment paper, put another sheet on top, and roll it out very thinly.
Print the desired number on an A4 sheet, and cut it out. Place it on the rolled shortcrust pastry, and cut around the number. Do this twice.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 with the second desired number.
Then refrigerate before removing the excess shortcrust pastry (it will come off more easily afterward). After 30 minutes, remove the excess shortcrust pastry around the numbers.
Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
Mascarpone cream:
Place the mascarpone, very cold liquid cream, icing sugar, and seeds from the vanilla bean in a bowl. Whip at full speed to make the whipped cream.
Place the first shortcrust number on a serving plate. Using a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle, apply the whipped cream in small dollops on the shortcrust number. Then place the same shortcrust number on top of the cream and repeat the process.
Do the same with the second number. If the shortcrust pieces break, no worries, it won't be noticeable when assembled.
Wash your fruits and arrange them nicely on the cream. Also, decorate with small meringues.
Roll out your almond paste and cut it with a cookie cutter. Place some almond paste pieces on your cake.
And there you have it, your Number Cake is ready!
Observations
The cream: you can replace it with a white chocolate ganache, or a mousseline cream, or a diplomat cream, according to your taste.
The fruits and decoration: here we offer you one version, but you are free to decorate your Number Cake as you wish!
Quick version: To make it much faster, you can use ready-made shortcrust pastry and cut out your numbers directly. You will need 2 rolls of shortcrust pastry for this recipe.
