Mojito Mirengue--aka Jake Cake

Sunday marked my last day at Mora Iced Creamery, and as much as I doubt a future bout of scooping nostalgia, I am aware already of how I will miss many if not all of my coworkers. Ok I lied just a few. As I have mentioned before there are a few I call my ‘little buddies,” my high school lot of under-18’s whom I’ve become quite attached to. I’ve already mentioned the blueberry coffee cake for L, brownie cake cookies for H, beer cake for M, but now the most difficult one for J (ok Jake) to celebrate his last day (what would the point of working if i'm not there anymore? ha!) When working Jake actually made the hours put in at Mora a treat. As you all know, my writing is sappy, drippy, and windier than Chicago (though I’ve never been) but I want to say thank you to my mates, my new little brothers and sisters; the Mora family whom strangely I feel I am not losing. In the least, I have had excuses to make up baked goods. hehe. Jakes favorite flavor is mojito sorbet, which, to the owners’ credit, tastes damn similar to a real mojito. So I had to bake a mojito, and it had to be a cake. A mojito cake with the three components: lime, mint, and rum.

Perusing the internet, I could not find a mojito cake recipe. Doesn’t exist. Didn’t. googling produced a few recipes for mojito cupcakes, which, when examined had really nothing to do with a mojito. I have made basil shortbread in the past, and well herby baked goods are herby baked goods—substitute the basil with mint. The frosting, naturally, is where the rum would enter. I needed a three-part cake though, cake and frosting is only two. Meringue made the third. My first meringue attempt was to yield a lime meringue grown from the cake itself. Mint cake sandwiching a rum butter cream crowned by a lime meringue is mojito. The mojito cake is here born, but I like Jake cake all the better.

Mojito Meringue
mint cake-

• 4 egg yolks (save whites for meringue)
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp soda
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
• 1/2 cup soft butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sugar

cream butter and sugar together, add eggs. Sift dry ingredients together, and alternately add to butter with milk. Set aside.

Lime Meringue-

• 4 egg whites
• zest of 1 whole lime
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
  
• 3/4 cup sugar

beat whites and tartar until foamy, add sugar by the tablespoon until glossy with soft peaks, add lime zest. Preheat oven to 350, line 2 round cake tins with wax paper. divide batter into tins, and on top of one tin of batter spoon half of the meringue. bake both for 20 minutes. (there will be a lot of meringue left over, either halve the recipe or use it to make cookies) Once cooled, spread naked cake with rum frosting, add cake with meringue to top, and smooth outer edges with more frosting.

Rum frosting-

• 3 cups confectioners sugar
• 1/3 cup soft butter
• 2 tsp rum extract
• 2 tbsp dark rum
• 1-2 tbsp milk

Now, drink and eat your mojito. This is always going to be the Jake Cake, a seasonal treat at the Salty Cod perhaps. This bakery is starting to take on no theme at all.

A bientôt