• sugar	150 g + 120 g
• salt	2 pinches
• vanilla extract	2 teaspoons
• flour	130 g + 90 g
• eggs	5 + 4
• corn starch	20 g + 15 g
• sugar (for cream)	250 g
• apricot jam	100 g
• cocoa powder	20 g
• sugar (for syrup)	1 cup
• boiling water (for syrup)	1 cup
• vanilla extract (for syrup)	1 teaspoon
• cognac (for syrup)	1 tablespoon
• egg yolks (for cream)	2
• milk (for cream)	200 ml
• unsalted butter, softened (for cream)	320 g
• cognac (for cream)	2 tablespoons
• vanilla extract (for cream)	1 teaspoon
• chocolate (60 %) (for chocolate glaze)	200 g
• heavy cream (for chocolate glaze)	200 ml
• unsalted butter (for chocolate glaze)	50 g
• chocolate (70%) (optional, for decoration)	to taste

YELLOW SPONGE CAKE

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C).

2. Line a bottom of the springform pan with a parchment paper.

3. Combine 130 g of flour, 20 g of corn starch and a pinch of salt and sift. Transfer to a flour sifter and set aside.

4. Fill 1/3 of a pot with water and boil. Remove the pot from the stove and place a heat-proof mixing bowl on top the pot, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Place 5 eggs in the bowl and start beating at once with a mixer. When the eggs are mixed, add 150 g of sugar and continue beating on high speed. Beat until the mixture triples in size, or until the mixture warms up to ~104 F (40 C). Remove from the heat and continue beating. Check the readiness: the goal is to reach the ribbon stage (a drawn figure "8" should hold its shape for about 10 seconds).

5. Sift flour with starch and salt into the egg mixture in 3-4 steps, stirring with scoop-n-fold technique. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and stir.

6. Put the dough into the springform pan. Run a skewer thru the batter to remove air pockets. Lift and drop the form a couple of times.

7. Bake ~30 minutes. ! Don't open the oven first 30 minutes. ! Check the readiness with a wooden skewer. It should remain dry.

8. Turn the cake out onto a cooling rack in the springform pan, and leave it there to cool in form.

9. Wrap in a cling film. Place in fridge for 8-10 hours.

CHOCOLATE SPONGE CAKE

10. Repeat steps 1-2.

11. Combine 90 g of flour, 15 g of corn starch, 20 g of cacao powder and a pinch of salt and sift. Set aside.

12. Repeat steps 4-9but using 4 eggs and 120 g of sugar.

SYRUP

13. Combine all ingredients for syrup. Let cool.

14. Cut the yellow sponge cake in half lengthwise.

15. Cut off the top of the chocolate sponge cake and set aside.

16. Soak 2 yellow cake layers and 1 chocolate cake layer with syrup. (You can use a spray bottle or a silicone brush.)

CREAM CHARLOTTE

17. In a saucepan: whisk 2 eggs, add 200 ml of milk and whisk again.

18. Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring continuously with a silicone spatula. When the boiling becomes vigorous, stir more intensively, soon the bubbling will begin to subside and cream mixture will thicken. Cook with continuous stirring for another 2 minutes.

19. Strains the cream mixture through a fine sieve, cover with cling film in contact and let cool at room temperature.

20. Beat 320 g of butter at room temperature. with a mixer until white. Continue beating, add the cream mixture on spoon at time, mixing the cream well after each spoon. Add cognac and vanilla extract and mix.

ASSEMBLY & DECORATION

21. Set part of cream for decoration.

22. Yellow layer cake --> cream --> chocolate layer cake --> cream --> yellow layer cake.

23. Cover the sides of cake with small amount of cream.

24. Place smooth and spreadable apricot or peach jam on top of the cake. Spread equally. Refrigerate cake for 1 hour.

25. Grind the trimming of the cake in a blender.

26. Melt chocolate with hot (NOT boiled!) heavy cream; mix and add butter, mix until smooth.

27. Once chocolate glaze is ready, pour it over the cake until it is completely covered.

28. Sprinkle the sides of the cake with sponge crumbs and transfer the cake to a serving plate. Decorate with cream and chocolate.

Carmen