I was having a BBQ for my house warming party for which I wanted to
make an eye catching, esthetically wowing dessert.
I’d seen bombes around the
blogosphere and I
wanted to try making one.
A dessert in
the shape of a half-sphere? Awesome!
When creating the concept of this particular bombe, I was overwhelmed
with the choices as I could make it out of pretty much anything as long as
there was a cake component and a filling component.
Yes in the dessert/pastry world, desserts in
the shape of a sphere have different names and different criteria: Some bombes
skip out on the cake bit (
Bombe Glace),
while others (
Charlotte Royale) are filled with mousse.
I was itching
to break in my new ice cream maker, so I knew that something icy had to be a part
of mine.
It was really hard to decide on
the flavor combination (cake and jam flavour, vanilla or chocolate or fruit? Ice
cream or sherbet? Ganache, cheesecake, or mousse?) but I managed to decide on a
vanilla cake with raspberry jam, 2 fruit sherbets, and a cheesecake.
Check out the verdict at the end of the post!
Sherbet and Cheesecake Bombe
Jelly Roll (day 1)
Ingredients
5 eggs
3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1 ½ Tablespoons oil
3 Tablespoons buttermilk
1 + ¼ teaspoon cider vinegar
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Food colouring (I used blue gel)
1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
Jam (I used raspberry)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a jelly
roll pan (I used a cookie sheet) with oil and line bottom with parchment
paper. Grease and line a cake pan with
the same circumference as the bowl you will use to assemble the bombe (or one
that’s slightly bigger). This will become the base of the bombe when you fill it out.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
Set aside.
3. In a bowl, beat eggs for 5 minutes.
4. Gradually add sugar and oil and continue
beating.
5. Add buttermilk, vinegar, and vanilla.
6. Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients
and beat only until mixed.
7. Pour a thin layer of batter in the round cake pan.
8. Divide the rest if the batter in half and colour one half with
food colouring.
9. Pour batters on each side of the jelly roll pan
and spread smooth.
10.
Bake jelly roll pan for 11 minutes; the round
cake pan for about 7 (keep watch and test with skewer/toothpick when you think
it’s done).
11.
Immediately flip jelly roll out onto a piece of
parchment or silicone baking mat dusted with icing sugar. Peel parchment off cake. Cut cake in half perpendicular
to the line dividing the cake colours.
12.
Place each cake on a parchment (I reused the one from the cake) or silicone mat and roll tight. Put seam side down and let cool
completely.
13.
Open up the rolls and spread jam of your choice. Tightly roll back up (without the parchment).
14.
Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in fridge. The chilling will make it easier to slice.
15. Wrap the round cake layer and freeze until
needed.
 |
| Rolled and cooling. |
 |
| Plastic wrapped and ready for the fridge. |
Raspberry Sherbet (day 2)
Ingredients
3 cups frozen raspberries
1 ½ cup homogenized milk
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Directions
1. Thaw raspberries until a bit soft and blend in a
blender with milk and sugar.
2. Add lemon juice and mix.
3. Churn in ice cream maker according to
directions.
4. Pour into bowl with jelly roll and freeze.
Liquid Cheesecake (day 3)
Ingredients
1 brick of cream
cheese (8 oz/225 g, although my brick was more like 10 oz)
¾ cup sugar
1 Tablespoon corn
starch
½ teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons milk
1 egg
Directions
1. Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Beat cream cheese for 2
minutes. Add sugar and beat for another
minute or until incorporated.
3. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and
salt. Beat in milk, then egg until
thoroughly mixed.
4. Gradually add the egg mixture to
cream cheese mixture as you beat on medium speed. Beat for 3 minutes.
5. Pour batter into a baking pan (mine
was 6 inch x 6 inch) and bake for 15 minute or until the edges are set but the
middle is still jiggly.
6. Cool completely before pouring into
the bombe.
 |
| Not much different - more in the consistency. |
Lemon Sherbet (day 4)
Ingredients
2 cups homogenized milk
½ cups sugar
zest of 2 lemons
½ cup lemon juice (about 2-3 lemons)
Directions
1. In a saucepan over medium low heat, heat 1 cup of
milk with sugar and zest until sugar has dissolved.
2. Pour into a container with the remaining cup of
milk and cool completely in the fridge.
3. Churn in an ice cream maker according to
directions.
Assembly
1. Day 1: Bake and fill jelly roll and round cake
layer for the bottom of the bombe.
2. Day 2: Lay plastic wrap inside the bowl that
will form your bombe. Slice jelly roll
and arrange slices to cover the inside of the bowl.
3. Day 2: Make raspberry sherbet and fill the bombe. Freeze overnight.
4. Day 3: Make liquid cheesecake and add to the
bombe. Freeze overnight.
5. Day 4: Make lemon sherbet and add to the bombe. Spread jam on round cake (you may need to
trim the cake if you used a bigger cake pan) and place jam side down onto the
sherbet, sealing the bombe. Freeze overnight.
6. Day 5: Let thaw for 5-10 minutes before inverting
and slicing.
*Note: I left the jelly roll in
the fridge overnight, but you can slice and arrange in the bowl if you want to
move onto the first layer of the filling (raspberry sherbet) after a hour or so
of chilling. You may be able to add the
other layers of the filling all in 1 day, if you’re ambitious!
*Note: Once the sherbet if done churning, immediately fill the bombe and
freeze. The soft sherbet will be easy to
spread.
 |
| Spread jam on round cake layer and place on bombe. |
Verdict: This was definitely a showstopper! The jelly roll and sherbets
were tasty, but the liquid cheesecake was everyone’s favorite. It was rich and smooth even though it was
frozen. The raspberry sherbet was soft
and bursting with flavor, while the lemon sherbet was a bit icy for my liking. I had a lot of fun making this bombe – it
gave me something to do everyday of the week!
