Punch cake was my father’s favourite dessert. Whenever we went to the patisserie with him as kids, we would end up with these pretty pink slices on our plates, which fascinated me even as a child with their beautiful colour. As an adult, I also indulge in them from time to time at home, especially since my daughter has a weakness for all things pink.
Ingredients for light dough:
- 4 eggs
- 150g Sugar
- 150g Flour
- 50g Corn starch
- ½ packet of baking powder
- 1 vanilla sugar
- 100ml water
- 100ml oil
Ingredients for pink dough:
- 4 eggs
- 150 g of sugar
- 150 g of flour
- 50 g corn starch
- ½ packet of baking powder
- 1 vanilla sugar
- 100ml water
- 100ml oil
- 1 tsp red food colouring
For the syrup you need:
- 150ml water
- 1 rum essence oil
- 5pl of sugar
- 1tsp red food colouring
For the topping you need:
- 200g icing sugar
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- a few drops of red food colouring
- 1 rum essence oil
- 200 ml of strawberry jam
Preparing:
- First prepare the white dough. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff and set aside.
- Beat the egg yolks with the water and sugar until foamy. Add the vanilla sugar and oil and continue beating.
- Then add the dry items – baking powder, flour and starch and work into a smooth dough.
- Finally, mix in the egg white in slow movements. Take care not to destroy its smoothness. Pour the batter onto a baking tray (mine is 40x22cm) lined with baking paper and bake at 160 °C in a preheated oven for approx. 40 minutes until golden.
- Let the dough cool and then cut it in half to make 2 thin sheets the size of the baking sheet.
- Then prepare the pink pastry. Repeat the procedure for the dough, except this time add food colouring to the dough. Bake again and leave to cool.
- For the syrup, put the water, sugar and food colouring in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Then simmer briefly until the liquid thickens (10-15minutes). Add the colouring and allow the syrup to cool slightly.
- Spread the bottom slice of white pastry with half the jam and place the pink pastry on top.
- Spoon the syrup slowly and evenly over the entire surface.
- Spread the remaining marmalade over the pink pastry and place the second white pastry on top. Weigh the whole cake down for a couple of hours. I use 2-3 kitchen cutting boards, stacked on top of each other, and place on top of the cake.
- For the icing, mix the icing sugar with the colouring and essence in a bowl. Gradually stir in the lemon juice until it forms a slightly stiff icing.
- Spread this on the cake and leave to set. For an hour to set.
