This week’s assignment was to make a Savarin. A cake I’d never heard of. Brillat-Savarin famously said: “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” He also has a cheese named after him. Outside of that I had very little information, or the proper cake pan to make this cake in. I almost rigged up a round pan with an empty can of tomatoes in the center. But, luckily, my parents were coming for a visit and my mom agreed to bring a bunt pan for me to borrow. A traditional Savarin is baked in a smooth ring mold (like a shallow, metal, jello mold) mine would not be so traditional. But, it was fine, and I didn’t have to buy a piece of kitchen equipment that wasn’t going to be used again.
The batter for this cake is a runny yeast batter. Just water, yeast, a drop of sugar, an egg, butter, and flour….and not a lot. Only 3/4 of a cup. I had serious doubts that it would fill the bottom of the pan. It did–barely. It rose once in the bowl, and then again in the bundt pan.
I left the house to get Dorothy from school and my mom put it in the oven while I was out. It sank.
It was very concave. Not a whole lot of cake there. But we pressed on. Luckily it came out of the pan without any problem, and when we were ready to eat it, I soaked it with a vanilla simple syrup and a tiny bit of dark rum.
I skipped the whipped cream completely. David is lactose intolerant, and it was nice to have a practically fat free dessert. I filled the center with macerated strawberries, raspberries, and some chunked up mango.
The dessert got gobbled up, it was plain, but tasty. The fruit may have stolen the show.
For more tasty examples, visit the Tuesdays with Dorie page!
If you want to make a Savarin yourself, here is the recipe:
Savarin
6 Tablespoons lukewarm water
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry east
1 teaspoon sugar
1 large egg at room temperature
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
soaking syrup
2 cups water
1 cup sugar (I used vanilla sugar)
dark rum
fruit
whipped cream
pour the warm water into a bowl and sprinkle over the yeast and sugar, stir and allow the yeast to ‘bloom’
add the egg and stir briefly, add the flour and mix well, for about 8 minutes (I did this by hand) and then add the butter. Mix until the butter is encorporated
cover the bowl and let rise in a warm place for about 15 minutes. it will rise, but not double.
Butter your pan (I used a bundt pan) and pour the batter in. Let rise for about 30 minutes
Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until golden brown.
remove from pan and let cool.
make syrup: combine water and sugar and let boil until sugar is dissolved
when you are ready to serve, soak the savarin completely with the syrup (you’ll have leftover syrup. save for iced coffee!) and sprinkle with a small amount of rum if desired.
Serve with macerated fruit and whipped cream!
Bake with Amy 
It looks nice! I agree that the fruit was the star of this dessert.
Looks wonderful with all that fruit. I think it is a perfect cake to showcase such lovely looking fruit.
Yours looks good, mine sank a little as well – luckily you can’t tell when you turn them over 🙂
lucky, right?
It does look pretty with the fruit. I think the cake is the vehicle for all that other good stuff 🙂
You can’t even tell the cake fell after it was flipped over. It looks pretty. I made a sabayon sauce to go with the cake; that and the fruit stole the show as well. I thought the cake had an odd texture.
ooh, I love sabayon. but nobody else in my house would touch it. but it would be delicious on this, I’m sure!
Your cake looks lovely, so perfectly formed. Congrats!
What a lovely Strawberry Mango Savarin you have baked. It looks cute.
Nobody will notice it’s concave 😉
The finished cakes are reminiscent of madeleines. Spongy and dry. This is why they are soaked in a simple syrup (this can be flavored to your liking).