I have been wanting to make a pina colada cake: genoise with rum syrup filled with coconut mousse and pineapple bavarian or curd. Has anyone ever tried to make a pineapple curd? How different would it be from making a citrus curd? Is pineapple flavor strong enough to shine through all the yolks and butter in a curd? Would I be better off making the bavarian with a fruit puree (fresh or cooked? Does pineapple have any enzyme that will keep the gelatin from setting?) thickened with gelatin and adding whipped cream and or meringue? Any advice before I ruin multiple pineapples ? So many questions…. Please help!!! Thanks!

Sounds like a delicious cake!

Pineapples do have an enzyme- bromelain- which will degrade your filling.  The solution is to de-activate the enzyme with heat (cook the pineapple).  I made a pineapple cake a while back using the pineapple puree recipe in the Cake Bible (which is sort of like poaching), then used the leftover pineapple poaching liquid to syrup the cake (I added rum to it).  It worked out well.

re: pineapple curd- not sure if the pineapple is acidic enough to make a curd, maybe?  If it’s too thin (i.e., not acidic enough) you can always have some gelatin standing by.  I haven’t tried making curd, but I have made the pineapple neoclassic buttercream and it tasted great with all the yolks and butter, though the pineapple flavor wasn’t very strong or intense.  Have to admit my personal preference with genoise is the lighter/fresher puree, rather than a curd.  Or even a pineapple cloud cream (puree with whipped cream, set with gelatin). 

There is a yummy looking coconut silk meringue buttercream in RHC that might be nice for the outside.  Or Chiboust cream is lovely with genoise, too.  Coconut whipped cream might be both delicious and easy.  All kinds of options.

Rose has a pina colada cake in the Cake Bible on p. 352 that sounds quite easy- genoise and whipped cream with pina colada syrup and fresh coconut garnish.

Thanks Julie. I like the coconut SMBC idea. I am now debating whether to use theapple cloud cream or make a Bavarian following the pear Bavarian cream recipe in the cake Bible…  with the pineapple poaching syrup.when you made the neclassic pineapple buttercream how smooth of a puree were you able to get? Was your buttercream chunky?

The puree is a tiny bit chunky.  I remember I strained it but then found it was too watery and broke the emulsion of my buttercream :(  Straining not recommended!  I think if you use either the bavarian or a buttercream, the pineapple flavor will be subtle, compared to a puree.  Cloud cream will depend on how much cream you use, but will probably be more intense than bavarian or buttercream but less intensely flavored than puree.  Rose has some cloud creams in the PPB that use less cream than the one TCB version, so it can be varied (as long as there’s enough gelatin). 

good luck!

Julie- when you set your pineapple purer how much gelatin is used? What s the ratio?

The cake I made used agar to set the puree, at the request of the friend I was making the cake for.  For gelatin, if it were me, I would try a little of the puree with about 80% of what the package recommends for setting juice, put that in the fridge and see if it gets thick enough.  You can use a buttercream dam around the edge and a chilled cake if the puree seems soft.  Most purees are around 70-90% water, so that’s why I chose that number to start with.  If you don’t want to mess with a test run, you can just use the amount the package says for juice and leave it at that.