Leiths Mojito Genoise - the extended recipe

By Anna Shelswell-White 21-04-2015
Leiths Mojito Genoise - the extended recipe

You may have noticed four recipes from the new book, Leiths How To Cook Cakes in our May/June issue of House and Home. We gave you the basics in the magazine but there's something extra here for you all today. Perfect for summer, grab your current copy and get baking this beauty. Below is the syrup, frosting and how to decorate the Mojito Genoise featured on page 82. Enjoy!

FOR THE SYRUP

100g sugar

100ml water

70ml rum

70ml lime juice

Large sprig of fresh mint

FOR THE FROSTING

150g salted butter, softened

250g icing sugar

1 tbsp milk

1 lime

1–1 ½ tbsp rum

TO DECORATE

1 egg white

Handful of small mint sprigs

Caster sugar, to dust

This is a fabulous new version of a classic – perfect for a decadent celebration. You will need a 20cm moule à manqué (tin with sloping sides) or round cake tin.

1 Heat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4, lightly oil the cake tin and line the base with a disc of greaseproof paper. Dust with sugar and then flour. Make the genoise sponge following the recipe in the May/June issue of House and Home.

2 To make the syrup, dissolve the sugar in the water in a heavy based pan, using the handle of a wooden spoon to agitate the sugar so it does not ‘cake’ on the base of the pan.

3 When all the sugar has dissolved, boil the syrup for 2–3 minutes, then add the rum and lime juice. Lightly bruise the mint, add to the syrup and leave to infuse for 10–15 minutes. Taste and adjust the flavour as necessary: there should be a balance between sugar, lime, rum and mint, with none of the flavours particularly dominant.

4 To make the frosting, beat the butter in a medium bowl with a hand-held electric whisk until smooth. Add half the icing sugar and continue to beat until smooth. Add the remaining icing sugar with the milk and beat until light, creamy and smooth. Finely grate the lime zest and squeeze the juice. Add the rum, lime juice and zest to the frosting, to taste.

5 To assemble, cut the cake in half horizontally. Remove the mint from the syrup and, using a teaspoon, drizzle the syrup over both cut sides of the cake, letting it soak in gently. The syrup should moisten and flavour the cake rather than saturate it, so you may not need to use it all.

6 Lightly beat the egg white for the decoration, and use to brush the mint sprigs. Dust with caster sugar and set aside.

7 Use half the frosting to sandwich the 2 cake layers together. Spread the remaining frosting over the top of the cake as evenly as possible and scatter the mint sprigs on top to decorate.

Leiths How To Cook Cakes, published by Quadrille is €22.45 and available at all good book stores in May.

On Instagram? Join us online and follow @houseandhomemagazine; we’d love to see some home baking inspired by this issue.

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