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1
Soak the salt preserved cherry leaf in water for about 30 minutes to de-salt it.
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2
Pat dry and chop finely Take out the tough stem.
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3
Wave the cherry blossoms around in water to rinse off the salt, then soak in fresh water for an hour.
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4
Pat dry and cut off the stems.
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5
If you have mousse film, line the mold with it.
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6
I line the bottom with kitchen parchment paper first so that I can take out the cake easily, and put the film on top of that.
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7
Slice the sponge cake 1.5cm thick and line the bottom of the mold with it.
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8
Brush the sponge with lots of cherry blossom syrup (not listed in the ingredients).
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9
Pat the cherries dry, cut in half and remove the pits.
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10
Line them up on top of the sponge evenly.
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11
Reserve the cherry syrup.
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12
Put the ingredients in a pan, and heat over a low flame until the sugar and gelatin have dissolved.
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13
Take care not to let it come to a boil.
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14
Turn the heat off once the sugar and gelatin have dissolved.
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15
Put the cream in a bowl with the sugar and whip it to the soft peak stage.
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16
Put the bottom of the pan from step 6 in ice water, and cool down while mixing continuously.
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17
It should thicken enough so that scraping the bottom of the pan reveals it before the mixture flows back to hide it.
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18
Don't chill it too much!
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19
Add the whipped cream from step 7 to the pan from step 8 and mix well.
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20
The mixture in the photo has a special mousse setting ingredient in it so it's very thick, but with gelatin it will look more gelatinous.
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21
Pour the mixture on top of the sponge slowly.
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22
Smooth out the top of the mousse neatly, hit the mold on your work surface to eliminate any air pockets, and chill until well set in the refrigerator.
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23
Make the jelly.
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24
Put all the jelly ingredients in a pan, and heat over a low flame to dissolve the sugar and gelatin.
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25
Don't overheat this either!
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26
Turn off the heat, and leave it to cool completely.
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27
If it's warm, when you pour it over the mousse the jelly will melt the mousse and become cloudy.
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28
Pour the cooled jelly on top of the well chilled and set mousse from step 11 very slowly.
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29
Move the cherry blossoms around with a skewer so that they are evenly distributed.
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30
Put back in the refrigerator to chill and set.
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31
When unmolding the cake, if you used a mold with a removable bottom, warm up the outside of the mold with a warm wrung out kitchen towel and unmold carefully.
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32
The cherry blossoms are blooming beautifully in the jelly.
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33
The mousse and jelly layers are so pretty from the side too.
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34
I know I'm being redundant now....but a cut slice is so cute too, I specify 8 blossoms, but it's a bit hard to cut through a blossom so the one in the middle may not be needed...
