Mimosa cakes have steadily become one of my favorite kinds of cakes to bake over the past 4 years. Mostly because I love cutting up cake into cubes, in case you haven’t already figure that out. For this specific recipe, I wanted to utilize yuzu as well, just to add something tart and bright to cut through the richness of the olive oil and the smokiness of the pistachio. With this cake, you have layers of super fluffy pistachio-olive oil chiffon cake with layers of yuzu-olive oil cream, a dusting of yuzu-olive oil “snow”, cubes of yuzu gelee, and a dusting of ground pistachios to finish. The cake is soaked with a yuzu soak to guarantee that it will not dry out, while the “snow” is made from tapioca maltodextrin mixed with olive oil and Valrhona Yuzu Inspiration, which gives it the exact flavor of both of those things. What I love is that this recipe takes from molecular techniques and incorporates those into the cake to give it a fun, modern twist on an Italian classic!

For the chiffon cake:
4 egg whites
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup ground pistachio
2 1/2 tbsp olive oil
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp spirulina powder*

In a bow whip your egg whites with sugar to stiff peaks. In another bowl, mix together the other ingredients. Fold the egg whites into the other ingredients to form your batter. Spread the batter into a parchment-lined quarter sheet tray. Bake at 350 degrees F for 18 minutes. Cool down the cake completely and then cut into 2 squares. From one of the squares, cut out 1 perfect 6-inch round, and fabricate another out of the scraps. With the other square, dice into 1/4-inch cubes.

For the soak:
2 tsp yuzu juice
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
1 tsp granulated sugar

Mix together until sugar is dissolved.

For the yuzu-olive oil cream:
2 tbsp yuzu juice
2 tbsp water
1 tsp gelatin powder + 1 tsp yuzu cold
3 tbsp yujacha(yuzu marmalade)
2 egg yolks
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup heavy cream, whipped stiff
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a pot, melt down the gelatin with yuzu juice and water. Whisk half of the liquid into the egg yolks and then return the mixture to the pot. Whisk the egg yolk mixture over medium heat for 2 minutes, then take off heat. Pass through a sieve and mix in the olive oil first. Let the custard mixture cool down to room temperature before folding in the cream and vanilla(I recommend doing this step right before assembly so the gelatin doesn’t firm up the cream too much!).

For the yuzu-olive oil snow:
1oz Yuzu Inspiration
1oz extra virgin olive oil
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup tapioca maltodextrin

Melt the Yuzu Inspiration in a double boiler. Then take off heat and stir in the other ingredients to form a powder. Store in an airtight container until time to use.

For the yuzu gelee:
1/4 cup yujacha
2 tbsp yuzu juice
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp agar

Bring everything to a boil in a pot. Pour into a silicone mold and cool down in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Cut into 1/8-inch cubes.

For garnish:
Crushed pistachios

Start by soaking the fabricated round with half of the soaking liquid. Then spread on half of the yuzu-olive oil cream. Add on the next round of cake and the remainder of your soaking liquid and cream. Spread the cream around the entirely of the cake, not just on top of the second layer, forming almost like a dome around the two rounds of cake. Garnish the sides and top with the cubes of cake, and the finish with the yuzu-olive oil snow, the cubes of yuzu gelee, and pistachios.