Mimosa Cake

To make sponge cake, beat eggs and sugar in a mixer until creamy, firm and doubled in volume. Sift together flour and potato starch and carefully fold in with a spatula, a little at a time. Pour into two 7-inch buttered and floured round cake pans. Bake in a preheated 320°F oven for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

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Make the Chantilly cream, which is a mixture of whipped cream and pastry cream. Whip very cold heavy cream with confectioner's sugar and refrigerate until ready to use. Prepare pastry cream: Slice vanilla bean open lengthwise, scrape out seeds and collect in a bowl. With a peeler, remove zest from lemon, carefully avoiding the pith, as it is quite bitter. In a pot, bring milk, lemon zest and vanilla seeds to a boil. As soon as it starts boiling, turn off the heat. In a bowl, beat whole eggs and egg yolks with sugar. Stir in sifted flour and mix until smooth. Thin with a very small amount of milk, stirring constantly. Pour in the remaining milk through a sieve to remove lemon zest. Return this mixture to the pot and heat over low heat for 5 - 10 minutes, stirring constantly (it should boil for at least 2 - 3 minutes). Remove cream from the heat and set aside to cool completely. Fold pastry cream into reserved whipped cream. Prepare syrup to soak the sponge cake with: Bring water and sugar to a boil in a saucepan. As soon as the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat and stir in Kirsch liqueur.

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Assembling the cake: With a bread knife, cut one of the two sponge cakes into 1/2-inch horizontal slices.

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Line an 8-inch glass dish with parchment paper. Place one slice of sponge cake into the dish.

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Brush sponge cake with Kirsch syrup.

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Spoon one layer of Chantilly cream and cover with another slice of sponge cake. Continue this process until there are 3 - 4 layers of sponge cake. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

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Slice the other sponge cake into 1/4 - 1/2-inch cubes.

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Turn out the cake onto a platter.

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Cover the outside with the remaining cream.

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Sprinkle sponge cake cubes over the top, covering the whole cake.

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