Deconstructing the Dish: Red Infiniti Cake

Guests dining at Tanzy can close their meal with something sinfully sweet: the Raspberry Infiniti Cake, the queen of the restaurant’s dessert cart. Enrobed in a glaze of red and topped with a gold foil crown, it’s a cake that gives you no choice but to request a slice.

Pastry chef James Rosselle splits his time between Los Angeles and South Florida, and was inspired to revamp the red velvet pavlova he created for Tuck Room Tavern and City Perch in California. Rosselle wanted to keep the same red coloring, but without pouring endless amounts of red food coloring into the batter, so he turned to raspberry.

With a raspberry puree, the red color comes alive in the cake. He then carefully and  meticulously covers the cake in a raspberry buttercream, a process that can take up to an hour. It goes into the refrigerator until it’s completely firm before it undergoes the final step, the pièce de résistance: a red mirror glaze dripped over the cake.

It’s this shiny exterior that earned the cake its name, coined by a colleague during a company contest: the Red Infiniti Cake, inspired by infinity swimming pools.

The final touches pull the cake together into a work of art: a leaf of 24-carat gold, juicy raspberries and a train of red velvet cake crumbles. All of the restaurant’s produce, including the berries on this dessert, are sourced from local farms.

“I think it’s a great experience because you can actually taste what a real raspberry is like—sour, sweet, tart.”

All hail the queen.

Cake

TOOLS

• Scale
• Rubber spatula
• Mixer
• Sheet tray
• Parchment
• Off-set metal spatula

INGREDIENTS

Step 1

•  2 eggs

Step 2

• 1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1½ teaspoons red food coloring
• 2 cups granulated sugar

Step 3

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt

Step 4

• ½ cup raspberry puree (heated to 120F)
• ¾ 64 percent chocolate pistoles
• 1/3 cups vegetable or canola oil

METHOD

1. Place eggs into a mixing bowl fitted with whisk attachment and whip for 1 minute on low speed.
2. Add the vegetable oil, sour cream, water, vanilla extract, red food color and granulated sugar. Whip on Speed 2 for three minutes.
3. On a piece of parchment, sift together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and  kosher salt.
4. In separate microwave safe bowls, heat raspberry puree and water to 120’F and chocolate with oil until melted to 110’F. (DO NOT BURN CHOCOLATE). Whisk warm raspberry puree and chocolate together, add vegetable oil until incorporated.
5. On low speed, add the raspberry-chocolate mixture to egg mixture for 1 minute. Scrape down.
6. Continue on low speed, add sifted dry ingredients. Scrape down and mix well to incorporate.
7. Remove from mixer and divide the batter between three 6” round cake pans or one ½ sheet tray.

BAKING

1. Pre-heat convection oven to 325’F, high fan.
2. For Sheet Cake: Bake for eight minutes, turn, bake additional 4 minutes until skewer comes out clean and cake is firm. Cool on rack.
3. For 6-inch round cake pans: Bake for 12 minutes, turn and back for additional 12 minutes or until skewer comes out clean and cake is firm.

RASPBERRY BUTTERCREAM

TOOLS

• Scale
• Rubber spatula
• Mixer
• Whisk attachment
• Bowl
• Stock pot

INGREDIENTS

Step 1

• 1 cup egg whites
• ¾ cup granulated sugar

Step 2

• ½ cup shortening
• 2 cups unsalted butter

Step 3

• 2 cups raspberry reduction

METHOD

1. Place egg whites in a large mixing bowl. Add the granulated sugar and whisk to combine. Place the egg white mixture over a hot water bath and whisk occasionally. This is a “Swiss Meringue” Method. Heat the egg white mixture gently to 110’F or until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Once the sugar has dissolved, place the egg white mixture into a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whip for 1 minute on low speed. Turn off the mixer and whip on speed 2 for 10-15 minutes. The meringue will increase in volume by more than double.
3. Whip until the egg whites have reached full volume and cool to the touch. It is important the meringue is not warm. The warm meringue will melt the butter when added!
4. While the meringue is whipping, scale the shortening and the butter.
5. Cut the butter into cubes, place in a bowl and set aside.
6. When the meringue as reached full volume and has cooled slightly, add the shortening a chunk at a time on speed 2.
7. Allow the mixer to run for a few seconds to fully incorporate before the next additions of shortening. Mix for 2 minutes on speed 2.
8. Add the butter a few chunks at a time. Allow to mix completely before the next additions.
9. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure there are no chunks of butter in the mixture.
10. When all of the butter has been fully incorporated, mix on Speed 2 for two minutes.
11. Add the raspberry compound all at once. Mix on Speed 1 to fully combine.
12. The texture of the buttercream should be like mousse.
13. Store buttercream in large Cambro. Label, date and use immediately or refrigerate until you need it. Buttercream will keep in refrigeration for one week.

RASPBERRY MIRROR GLAZE

TOOLS

• Scale
• Rubber spatula
• Sheet tray
• Parchment
• Off-set spatula
• Immersion blender

INGREDIENTS

Step 1

• 1¼ cup raspberry puree
• 1¼ cup sweet and condensed milk
• ¾ orange juice
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest

Step 2

• 1¼ cups water
• 4 tablespoons powdered gelatin

Step 3

• ¾ cups white chocolate
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons red food color

METHOD

1. Bloom gelatin in 1¼ cups of water. Set aside.
2. In a medium sized sauce pot, combine the raspberry puree, sweet and condensed milk, orange juice and lemon zest. Heat until bubbles form around the edges of the pot. Remove from heat.
3. Add in the bloomed gelatin and mix to melt the gelatin.
4. Place the scaled white chocolate into a large mixing bowl.
5. Pour the hot liquid over the white chocolate.
6. With an immersion blender, blend the mixture until smooth. Do not aerate!!!
7. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer.
8. Add the vanilla extract and red color and mix to combine.

GLAZING:

9. Cool the glaze to 92’F. The best temperature for glazing cakes is between 90-92’F.
10. Place infinity cake onto sheet tray lined with wire rack.
11. Pour glaze over cake.
12. Tap the tray on the table to remove the excess glaze.
13. Remove glazed cakes from wire racks with a large off-set spatula.
14. Dredge the base of the cake with dried red velvet cake crumbs.
15. Carefully transfer cakes to 8-inch round cake boards with the help of an off-set spatula.
16. Glaze cakes day of. Do not keep glazed cakes for more than two days.

CHEF’S NOTE: CAKE MUST BE FROZEN FOR BEST GLAZE COVERAGE! CAKES CAN BE FILLED, MASKED AND WRAPPED IN PLASTIC AND FROZEN FOR 1 MONTH. GLAZE AS YOU NEED.

This story comes from our February 2019 issue of Boca magazine. For more content like this, subscribe to the magazine.