Ispahan Cakes Inspired By All The Devils Are Here
We made the famous Ispahan Cake, originally created by Pierre Hermé! We read about the Ispahan Cake while reading Louise Penny’s All The Devils Are Here and had to look it up. We’d never heard of it before.
Our first reaction was disinterest, as we’re not fans of rose water. But still, the dessert looked so different, and we were still trying to perfect our macaron game. So…it happened.
We decided to make medium-sized Ispahan Cakes. Larger than normal macarons but much smaller than the 8-9inch cakes that we usually see. We first made the macaron shells and then gathered the ingredients for the filling: fresh raspberries, lychees, rose water and heavy cream. The rose water and cream were combined and then whipped into a light, fragrant and tasty rose-flavoured cream.
What a lovely surprise it was to take that first bite! A bit of a revelation, and so, so different from all the wonderful macarons we’ve been lucky enough to spoil ourselves with in the past. This homemade Ispahan Cake was so much better than every macaron we’d ever had before. And so much better than we could’ve ever imagined this macaron would be. So. Much. Better.
We never thought we’d like rose water whipped cream, but it was very good and paired perfectly with the lychees. The raspberry was the perfect, fresh contrast to the macaron shells, while the lychee added a beautiful flavour that has our mouths watering just thinking back on that first bite of the dessert.
We were so delighted with the taste that we had to make smaller, normal sized macarons to give to friends and neighbours. Everyone we knew and loved just had to try this flavour combination out. The tiny-in-comparison Ispahan macarons were probably the ugliest macarons we’d ever assembled. It was, quite honestly, embarrassing to give these perfect little bites away. But sometimes when you try something new that is unexpectedly delicious, it’s a happy and exciting moment. And there’s nothing we love more than sharing joy with others.
But next time, we’re going to make them prettier. Let us know if you want a try (Vancouver, BC residents only)!
More Photos From Book Club Friends (click to enlarge)
Recipe:
Macaron shells:
100g egg white
100g fine granulated sugar
100g almond flour
100g powdered sugar
Sift together the almond flour and powdered sugar and add in two batches to the whipped egg whites/sugar. The meringue should be whipped to stiff peaks. Mix all ingredients to appropriate consistency where batter melts back into mass after 20 seconds. Bake at 325C for 10-20min.
Rose-flavoured whipped cream
Whip 100g heavy cream to stiff peaks, adding 2-5 teaspoons of rose water to taste
Assemble Ispahan cake as follows (bottom to top):
macaron shell
ring of raspberries
whipped cream layer at centre of raspberry ring
single raspberry in very centre
layer of diced lychees on top of raspeberry/whipped cream
layer of whipped cream on top of lychees
macaron shell
