I have a cousin from Brittany and she decided to spend some days on the Frecnh Riviera with me. So here the story goes.
Today the weather was a bit moody; so guess what we did? We cooked a delicious cake from a much-loved book of mine : “Mes 100 recettes de Gâteaux” from C. Felder. It is called Vol Blanc (which means white flight, i can’t tell you why really, maybe it’s its “white colour and lightness” as my cousin just said).
Anyway it’s a lovely summer cake made of fromage blanc (a French thick and creamy yoghurt) and cream mousse and red fruits. Here we used raspberries because it was the only red fruit i had in the house.

VOL BLANC
serves 8

for the biscuit base
120g caster sugar
4 eggs, separated
120g plain flour
icing sugar
for the mousse
75g caster sugar
50ml water
3 egg yolks
4 gelatine leaves
1 tbsp Cointreau (céline and fanny : we used rum)
250g fromage blanc
300g whipped cream
for the filling
250g frozen red fruits (céline and fanny : we used raspberries)
50g caster sugar
200g white chocolate
- The day before put the frozen fruits in a bowl in the frigde along with 50g of caster sugar.
- Preheat the oven to 210°C. Drain the fruits and keep the raspberry syrup for later. Put the white chocolate in the fridge.
- Prepare the biscuit base: beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks and add the sugar a little at a time until you’ve got a firm meringue. Add in the egg yolks and beat again for few seconds. Sift in the flour and mix carefully with a wooden spatula.
Divide the mixture between two 18cm lined tin, sift some icing sugar over and bake for 12-15 minutes (céline and fanny : it only took 10 minutes to get a lovely golden colour).
- Soak the gelatine leaves into cold water.
Bring the sugar and water to the boil and simmer for 1 minute. Pour the syrup over the egg yolks and beat with a mixer until cold, white and frothy.
- Drain the gelatine and melt it in the microwave (fanny : i’m so happy i discovered we could melt the gelatine in the microwave; it only takes 10 seconds…). Mix the meleted gelatine with a tbsp of Cointreau and add to the egg yolk mousse. Finally fold in the fromage blanc and whipped cream with a rubber spatula.
- Pour the mousse in a 20cm pudding basin, lined with cling film, until half-filled. Soak one of the biscuit in the fruit syrup and put it over the mousse. Add the fruits and the remaining mousse and top with the other soaked biscuit.
Chill for at least 2 hours.
- Grate the white chocolate and sprinkle over the unmoulded cake. Voila…Don’t you think it’s nice?