Raspberry cloud: a shortcrust base and pink whipped-jelly foam
A Polish home-party classic that has held on for years because it rests on one simple trick: setting jelly is whipped with a mixer until it swells in volume and becomes a dense, pale pink foam. The whole difficulty is catching the moment — the jelly must be as thick as raw egg white but still liquid. Too early and the foam collapses; too late and instead of foam you get lumps of set jelly.
Your own work in that: 2 h 25 min.
- Jelly 10 min
- Shortcrust base (jelly setting) 110 min
- Foam and assembly 25 min
- Chilling 240 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneDissolve the jelly in less water
Start with the jelly, as it needs the most time. Dissolve both jellies in 700 ml of boiling water — less than the packet says (usually 400–500 ml each). Less water means a stronger gel, and a stronger gel holds the foam. Cool to room temperature (about 45 minutes), then refrigerate 60–90 minutes. Meanwhile make and bake the base.
Ingredients: 150 g raspberry jelly · 700 ml boiling water · 400 g fresh raspberries · 400 ml whipping cream (30%) · 1 tbsp vanilla sugar · 10 g gelatine
A hundred millilitres less water, a stronger gelMake and chill the base
Mix the flour, icing sugar, baking powder and salt, add the cold butter and chop it in with a knife to crumbs. Add the yolks and bring the dough together quickly — no longer than a minute. Wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes. Long kneading warms the butter and the base bakes hard instead of short.
Ingredients: 300 g plain flour · 180 g butter · 80 g icing sugar · 2 pcs egg yolks · ½ tsp baking powder · 1 pinch salt
TipShortcrust does not tolerate warm hands. If it starts to stick, put it in the fridge even halfway through bringing it together.
Bake the base
Heat the oven to 180 °C. Roll the dough out or press it in with your fingers in a 24 × 35 cm tin, level it and prick it all over with a fork. Bake 20 minutes at 180 °C, until pale gold. Cool it completely (about 30 minutes) — a warm base melts the foam from below and the layers merge.
Pricked with a fork, twenty minutesCatch the right moment
Check the jelly every 15 minutes. It is ready when it falls from the spoon in a thick ribbon and has the consistency of raw egg white: still liquid, but clearly resistant. Whip it 6–8 minutes at full speed, until it swells in volume and turns pale pink and fluffy.
TipJelly that is too loose cannot trap air and the foam falls within a quarter of an hour. Too firm and it breaks into lumps that will never come together. If you miss the moment, sit the bowl in warm water for 2 minutes and start over.
A ribbon from the spoon, then eight minutes of mixerWhip the cream and fold
Sprinkle the gelatine over 4 tablespoons of cold water and leave 5 minutes, then warm until dissolved (do not boil) and cool to lukewarm. Whip the very cold cream with the vanilla sugar to firm peaks. Stir 2–3 spoonfuls of the whipped cream into the gelatine, then pour it into the rest in a thin stream, whisking briefly — this stops it forming lumps. Fold the whipped cream into the pink foam in three additions, with a spatula, lifting from the bottom — never the mixer.
TipGelatine in the cream is insurance: without it, a cake left a day in the fridge begins to weep water onto the base.
Three additions, spatula from below, no mixerSpread over the base and chill
Spread half the foam over the cooled base, scatter half the raspberries, cover with the rest of the foam and level it. Arrange the remaining raspberries on top. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. Cut with a knife dipped in hot water, wiping it between slices.
Ingredients: 150 g raspberry jelly · 700 ml boiling water · 400 g fresh raspberries · 400 ml whipping cream (30%) · 1 tbsp vanilla sugar · 10 g gelatine
Raspberries inside and on top, four hours' chill
Before you start
With frozen raspberries
Add them still frozen, straight from the freezer, at the very end. Thawed, they release juice that streaks the foam pink and red and ruins the cloud effect.
Other fruit
Strawberries with strawberry jelly, cherries with cherry, peaches with lemon. The rule stays the same: 2 packets of jelly to 700 ml of water.
No-bake base
Instead of shortcrust, 300 g of crushed biscuits mixed with 150 g of melted butter, pressed into the tin and chilled 30 minutes.
How long it keeps
Three days in the fridge, covered. It cannot be frozen: after thawing the jelly weeps and the foam collapses completely.
