Two months ago, I had no idea what a Savarin was. Fast forward to now, and I have made two of them. My first effort was for Daring Bakers in April. Now I have made a Savarin again, this time for Baking with Julia.
The Baking with Julia version of Savarin was much less of a production than the Daring Bakers version. Instead of six hours of rising time, there was just under an hour of rising time all up. The finished product was smaller, but was therefore easier to work with. Instead of soaking the cake in cooled syrup while the Savarin was hot, in this recipe, the hot syrup is spooned onto the cold cake until it can't hold any more fluid. I found that the Savarin was moister and spongier than the Daring Bakers version because it was smaller and therefore it took less syrup to saturate it. For the syrup, I added a tablespoon of Chambord to give it a slight raspberry flavour.
Although the recipe called for whipped cream to fill the middle, I used the same crème patisserie as we used for the Daring Bakers version. This time, I used blueberries and cherries to top the Savarin.
Here is the end result:
While this Savarin is not on such a grand scale as the Daring Bakers version, I liked it better because it was much easier to make, and the Savarin itself was softer and moister because of its smaller volume versus the amount of syrup. I had dreaded making another Savarin so soon because I knew the amount of effort that went into the last one, but I needn't have feared it this time - I could have easily made the entire cake, filling and all, in an afternoon.
To see what the other BWJ bakers thought, visit the LYL section of the website.
