Cakes By Catriona

Sep 12, 20203 min read

Gateau Napolitaine Mauricien - Napolitaine Cake (Mauritius version)

Gateau Napolitaine (For 4 persons / x4 6cm Napolitaines)

You may double or triple the recipe as per your need ...

For the Napolitaine dough

200g pastry flour

2g of salt

2g vanilla powder (you may replace by other dry ingredients such as cardamon

powder, cacao, ginger powder etc... )

30g icing sugar

110g of unsalted butter

For the filling

4 teaspoons of red/dark colored jam (strawberry, raspberry, cherry...) preferentially one

reduced in sugar.

For the icing (Refer step 8 for other decoration possibilities)

180g of icing sugar

25ml of water

1g or 1ml of pink food coloring (or any other color of your choice)

1 drop of flavoring essence (any of your choice) - Optional

40g Almond Paste - Optional

Tip: Depending on the temperature and/or humidity level in your environment, if your royal icing obtained is a bit too thick, add some more water (2-3ml each time). If on the contrary it is too runny, add some more icing sugar (~5g each time)...

Procedure

Step 1 (Preparing the dough): In a mixing bowl, add flour, icing sugar (30g), salt and vanilla powder mix together

Step 2: When your dry ingredients are well mixed, add your butter and mix well with your fingers or robot mixer

Step 3: Knead well with your hands until you obtain a malleable dough as in the picture below.

Tip : Leave your dough wrapped in cling film in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes before starting to flatten the latter to cut your shapes

Step 4: Flatten your dough with a thickness of about 6mm and using your circular cookie cutter, cut out circles and place them on your non-stick baking tray leaving at least 1 cm apart (if you are not using a non-stick baking tray, you may lightly grease the base with some butter).

Step 5: Your dough is ready for baking in a preheated oven at 175 degrees Celsius for 12 minutes or until slightly golden brown

Step 6: In the oven baking at 10 minutes !

Step 7: Out of the oven, Hot Hot Hot !.. Allow to cool on a wire rack..

Step 8: Prepare your icing. In a bowl, add your icing sugar, water, food color and flavoring essence (optional) and mix well until you obtain a smooth mixture. Insert same in a piping bag. The latter will be sufficient enough to coat all your Napolitaines, However if you would want to add more decorations like I did, you may repeat this step several times but changing the food color each time .

Step 9: Add a teaspoon of jam over half the amount of circles you have. Well, you may even add less, actually the jam purpose is just to 'stick' the two circles together, however if you like jam and also if like me you are using the sugar-reduced version (which has a greater fruity flavor), don`t hesitate to add a full teaspoon ..

Step 10: Place the other circle on top of each base and press firmly so that the jam is evenly spread. You may just use the icing obtained from step 8 to fully coat your cakes but if you would want more decoration, follow the steps below ...

Step 11: Prepare your icing bags as per your favorite colors.

Step 12: Pipe a circular shape on top of your Napolitaine and fill it accordingly. You may use a brochette pick eventually to spread the icing evenly.

Step 13: (Decoration Type 1) Draw 2 thin lines of a different colored icing in cross shape over the pink base coating

Step 14: Repeat step 13 with other colors

Step 15: Once all your lines are drawn in different colors, follow the movement with your skewer as in the picture below, starting from the center and going outwards ..

Step 16 (Decoration type 2): Draw thin lines of different colored icing in parallel over your pink icing base.

Step 17: Once all lines have been added over the top of the pink icing base, using your skewer, follow the movement as in the picture below starting from one side to the other side

Step 18: Now place your Napolitaine over a small bowl (or anything to maintain it above the table surface) and coat the uncoated surface with the remaining pink icing

Step 19: You may add some pearl shape icing over the top of your cakes but if you are doing so, do not forget to wait for the base icing (pink with colored spiral) to dry a little first (15-20 minutes).