Diplomat Cake

Diplomat Cake is great for dinner parties, a birthday treat or when you want to impress your in-laws.
​This recipe serves 10, it is light, fluffy and delicious. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS: 
​Base and edges of the cake: 
- 3 packs lady fingers
- the syrup from the fruit compote
Cream: 
- 600 ml double cream
- 5 eggs
- 160 g of sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract
- 16 grams/8 gelatine sheets
- 100 g raisins
- 500 g compote fruit cocktail

Decorating: 
- 300 grams of double cream 
- 1 orange and 1 kiwi fruit / any fresh fruit of your choice

METHOD: 
 
Soak the raisins in vanilla essence water until they are covered. Place the fruit in the compote to drain in a sieve. Keep the syrup.
You will need a round metal cake ring with no base, so that is easy to come off the cake the next day. 
Place the metal ring on a plate. Dip the biscuits for 1 second in the compote syrup and place them vertically inside the metal circle. Be careful to place them all in the same position, with the sugar sprinkled side out, so it looks nice and pretty.
After you have finished placing the cookies for the outside of the cake, place cookies on the bottom of the tray as well. These will hold the entire structure and form the base of the cake. Try not to leave any gaps. Once done, put it aside. 
Drain the raisins and  mix them with the fruit in the compote. 
Next, you are going to make the egg cream at Bain -Marie. Bring water to a boil in a large pot. The bottom of the smaller pot should not touch the water level inside the large pot. Crack the 5 eggs into the smaller pot. Put the sugar and salt on top of the eggs. 
Stir continuously with a hand whisk until the sugar is completely dissolved and the egg cream lightens in colour and starts to thicken up. Allow the egg cream to cool slightly. 
Soak the gelatine sheets in cold water for 5 minutes. Add the gelatine sheets to the egg cream and incorporate slowly. In the meantime, beat the double cream until it reaches stiff peaks. Add the egg cream and vanilla and mix slowly. 
Add a little whipped double cream to the egg cream to cool the mixture, about 2 tablespoons and mix. Only then pour all the egg cream into the bowl with the whipped double cream and mix.
Then put about 2 tablespoons of the amount of fruit into the cream and mix.
We now start building layers in the mould, cream, fruit, cream, fruit, cream. The last layer on top will be cream. We level carefully after each layer of cream so that there are no air gaps. Refrigerate the cake for at least 8 hours, or preferably overnight.
The next day, decorate the cake with the remaining double whipped cream, using a star piping bag. Place slices of fresh fruit on top of the whipped cream. Enjoy!