Pandoro Tree EN

 My mother use to make this dessert many years ago and she was filling the pandoro with pastry cream. It was delicious!

Now I make it with cream cheese and my own lemon curd. It's the perfect dessert for Christmas dinner.

I make a lot more cream than I need to set up the tree and I serve it on each of my guests' plates along with a generous slice of cake.

It does not fit in the fridge so we have to prepare it just before eating it.

Ingredients:

1 large pandoro

1 package mascarpone cheese 250g

1 package Philadelphia cheese 300g

3 cups of whipping cream

2 tablespoons caster sugar

5-6 tablespoons Lemon curd

zest of 1 lemon

Powdered sugar

Put the mascarpone and the Philadelphia together with the powdered sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer and beat them to mix and soften them.

Add the cream and beat until the mixture is fluffy.

Remove the bowl from the mixer  and gently mix the lemon curd.

With a large bread knife ​​cut the Pandoro into 6 slices. The best way to cut it is by resting it on a cutting board.

Place the first slice (base) of Pandoro on a plate (we put a small amount of cream on the bottom to secure the cake) and spread some cream on top. We can use a pastry bag but we can also spread the cream with a spoon.

Place the next slice on top so that the "tips" of the new piece do not fit on the tips of the previous one to create the tree effect.

Continue the same way until all the slices are set.

Spread some of the cream on top of the last slice.

Keep the remaining cream covered in the refrigerator.

Decorate with the lemon zest and a some icing sugar that we sift over the top.

Serve with some of the cream we have in the fridge.