Lemon Flower Cake

This awesome lemon flower cake symbolises the Spring season. A crustless lemon pie-entremet concept assembled with a poundcake base, and layered with lemon preserved gel, vanilla mousse and lemon crémeux.
For this recipe, the Silikomart 3D primavera cake mold is in use. Other kind of silicone molds may be used as well. Make cake 2 days ahead.

Grease and flour a 8 inch/20 cm diameter cake pan. Beat room temperature eggs with sugar and salt for 5 minutes until fluffy. Meanwhile, sift flour and baking powder together; set aside. Add sour cream, melted butter and vanilla. The incorporate the sifted powders; mix on medium-low until homogenized. Then add lemon juice. Pour batter in the prepared mold and bake at 350ºF/180ºC for 40 minutes. Remove cake from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes and de-mold. Let cool completely.

Soak gelatin in cold water to soften and drain. Bring to a boil heavy cream (300g) with the entire chopped vanilla bean. Turn off the heat, cover and let infuse for 10 minutes. Mix using an immersion blender with the vanilla bean. Pass liquid through a sieve and press down solids to extract as much flavor as possible. Reheat and add the vanilla-infused heavy cream to the white chocolate. Mix and add the softened gelatin followed by the remaining chilled heavy cream. Blend well and refrigerate overnight.

For the lemon gel recipe, go to the ingredient list. Combine 150g of lemon gel with 50g of chopped preserved lemon peel.

Trim lemon cake to a 6-inch/15 cm round and make 2 identical disks. Save leftover for later use. Lightly soak lemon cake with lime or lemon juice and spread lemon preserved gel; freeze.
When lemon cremeux is at 68ºF/20ºC, coat silicone mold entirely. Flip it to drain over a tray lined with plastic film wrap and a cooling rack. Freeze mold. Reserve lemon cremeux left in the tray. After 20 minutes, add remaining lemon cremeux back to the silicone mold. Spread it out without insisting too much on the edges. Meanwhile, beat ganache montée to medium-soft peaks. Pipe out mousse inside of the curves accordingly, and continue toward the center of the mold (use 400g of the mousse). Then use the back of a tablespoon to press the filling against the mold's curves. Top with the pound cake disk (lemon preserved gel side down). Press it down and smooth out with the remaining mousse. Place cake in the freezer overnight and de-mold. For a glossy finish, brush it out with warm neutral glaze and mimic the pistil with poppy seeds. Let cake thaw completely in the refrigerator for 8 hours before serving. Enjoy!