Olivier Salad Cake with Egg Mimosa Top
A party showpiece: Olivier ingredients layered in a ring like a cake, set in the fridge and topped with finely grated yolk like mimosa blossom. Every slice shows bright stripes.
Method
Scrub the potatoes and carrots and put them whole and unpeeled in a 18 cm pot with the salt and cold water to cover by 2 cm. Bring to the boil over high heat, then simmer over medium heat for , lifting each one out as soon as a knife slides in.
Add in this stepPotatoes 300 gCarrots 100 gSalt ¾ tsp
high heat→medium heatLower the eggs into boiling water and cook over medium heat for until hard-boiled, then put them in cold water.
Add in this stepEggs 2
medium heatLet the potatoes, carrots and eggs cool completely (). Cold vegetables grate cleanly without turning mushy, so the layers stay neat.
Prepare the layers: peel the potatoes and grate them on the coarse side of a box grater, and grate the carrots on the fine side. Separate the egg whites and yolks; grate the whites coarsely and the yolks finely, keeping them apart. Cut the ham and pickles into small 5 mm dice and squeeze the pickles dry. Mix the mayonnaise, sour cream and pepper into a sauce.
Add in this stepCooked ham 120 gDill pickles (medium) 2Mayonnaise 80 gSour cream 2 tbspBlack pepper 2 pinch
Set a 10 cm ring mould on a plate and line the inside with cling film or an acetate strip. Spread half the potato in the bottom, season with a little salt and spread thinly with sauce. Then add, one layer at a time, the ham and pickles, the peas, the carrot and the rest of the potato, spreading each layer thinly with sauce and pressing gently with a spoon. Spread the egg whites on top and finish with a fluffy layer of fine yolk.
Add in this stepPeas (tinned, or frozen and thawed) 80 gSalt ½ tsp
Cover loosely and refrigerate for at least so the layers firm up.
Carefully lift the ring away and peel off the film. Shave long thin ribbons of cucumber with a vegetable peeler, wrap them around the base and decorate with dill. A thin knife dipped in water gives clean slices.
Add in this stepCucumber (for decoration) ½Dill (for decoration) 2 tbsp
Cook's tip
Keep each layer of sauce very thin so the cake holds and slices cleanly. No ring mould? Use a plastic bottle with the ends cut off, or pack a small bowl lined with cling film and turn it out. Eat within a day, kept in the fridge.
Cooking it at camp
Layering at a campsite is fiddly, so assemble it at home, carry it in its ring inside a lidded box on ice, and only unmould and decorate on site. Keep it below 5 °C and never leave it out for more than 2 hours.