Recipe: Mango Mousse Cheesecake Entremet

Mango mousse & vanilla cheesecake entremet on a crunchy caramel cookie

Makes: 12 mini dome cakes (6cm in diameter)

Time required: 3 hours in total, over 2 nights

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

Inspired by another one of my favourite chocolates – the Mango & Vanilla chocolate from Koko Black back home in Melbourne. Every time I used to visit Koko Black I would buy at least five of these Mango & Vanilla chocolates in addition to several of the Passion flavour (I have also baked a cake inspired by this chocolate with recipe here!) and then try a range of other truffles and chocolates.

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Trying all the chocolates from Koko Black and Xocolatl in Melbourne

The elements of this cake include:

  • Vanilla cheesecake centre
  • Runny mango jam
  • Mango mousse dome
  • Mango mirror glaze
  • caramel biscuit base

Ingredients:

Vanilla Cheesecake centre:

  • 225g cream cheese
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 100ml thickened cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 lemon

Caramel Biscuit base:

  • 1 pack caramel flavoured biscuits (can use other flavours, e.g. Arnott’s Nice biscuits are a good alternative)
  • 150g melted butter

Mango jam:

  • 200g mango puree
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 2 gelatin leaves

Mango Mousse:

  • 200g mango puree
  • 250ml cream, whipped
  • 200g sugar
  • 3 gelatin leaves

Mango glaze:

  • 200g mango puree
  • 200g sugar
  • 4 gelatin leaves
  • 200ml condensed milk
  • 150g white chocolate

Instructions:

Vanilla Cheesecake centre:

  1. Preheat over at 150C
  2. beat the cream cheese with sugar until smooth
  3. whisk in the egg until well combined
  4. fold in cream, vanilla and lemon until just combined
  5. pour into a 8 x 8 inch square tin (or any other baking tin of similar size)
  6. bake for 20 minutes
  7. once cool, cut out 12 circles, around 2-3cm in diameter

Caramel Biscuit base:

  1. blend the biscuits in a food processor until there are not big lumps
  2. stir in melted butter
  3. spread over a large flat tin (ensure this is spread evenly enough to be able to cut out 12 x 6cm circles for the cake base) and bake at 150C for 10mins
  4. while still warm, cut out the 12 circles and set aside to cool. The 12 circles will be used as the base of the mousse dome, however do not discard the rest of the cookie base as this can be used to decorate the dome

Mango jam:

  1. heat mango puree and sugar over low heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens
  2. while the mixture is still hot, stir in bloomed gelatin and set aside
  3. once cool, place the mixture into a piping bag

Mango Mousse:

  1. heat mango puree and sugar over low heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens
  2. stir in gelatin and set aside to cool
  3. once the mixture is at room temperature, fold in the whipped cream to form the mousse

To Assemble:

  1. gather 12 circle dome moulds, each around 6cm in diameter
  2. fill half of each dome with the mango mousse mixture
  3. carefully pipe around 2 teaspoons of the mango jam on top of the mango mousse (be gentle as we don’t want to jam to sink to the bottom of the mould)
  4. push a piece of vanilla cheesecake into each of the domes on top of the mango jam. We want to push the cheesecake in just far enough that the edges of the cheesecake are surrounded by mango mousse. Add a bit more mousse into the dome if needed
  5. lastly, place a disc of the caramel biscuit onto each of the domes, sitting the biscuit base on top of the mousse
  6. set aside in the freeze for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight to harden

Glazing the cake:

Mango glaze: (make this the following day once the mousse domes are frozen)

  1. un-mould each of the mousse domes and place back in the freezer
  2. place mango and sugar over medium heat until the mixture thickens
  3. remove from heat and add the bloomed gelatin
  4. stir in the condensed milk
  5. while still hot, pour over white chocolate and stir to melt and incorporate the chocolate
  6. when the glaze cools to 35 degrees, pour over the mango mousse domes
  7. crumble the off-cuts from the caramel cookie base and coat around the base of each of the cakes
Mango mousse & vanilla cheesecake entremet on a crunchy caramel cookie
Mango mousse & vanilla cheesecake entremet on a crunchy caramel cookie

 

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Recipe: Chocolate Banana drip cake

Makes: 8 inch cake (4 layers)

Time required: 5 hours in total

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Inspiration:

After brainstorming ideas for an upcoming birthday cake, I decided to draw inspiration from one of my favourite snacks at work – banana & chocolate croissants from the amazing Joel Robuchon. The croissants are a great afternoon snack – deliciously flaky pastry, filled with light banana custard … lightly sweetened with chocolate.

The elements making up this cake are:

  • four layers of banana cake
  • Almond and hazelnut dacquoise to add some texture
  • chocolate ganache to sweeten the cake
  • meringue buttercream
  • Decorations: dried pineapple flowers, torched meringue, chocolate shards

Ingredients:

Banana Cake:

  • 6 bananas
  • 250g plain flour
  • 100g almond meal
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 200g butter, softened
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 2tsp vanilla
  • 300ml sour cream

Almond dacquoise:

  • 90g almond meal
  • 90g pure icing sugar
  • 4 egg whites
  • 90g caster sugar
  • 20g cocoa powder
  • crushed hazelnuts. to sprinkle

Chocolate gananche:

  • 150g dark chocolate
  • 150ml cream

Meringue butterncream

  • 4 egg whites
  • 360g caster sugar
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 450g butter
  • 1tsp vanilla
  • 20g cocoa powder

Chocolate drip:

  • 150g dark chocolate
  • 200g butter

Decorations:

  • dried pineapple slices
  • chocolate shards
  • merginue

Instructions:

Banana Cake:

  1. preheat oven to 180C. Butter two 8 inch round baking pans
  2. mash ripe banana with a fork and set aside
  3. whisk together the flour, almond meal and baking powder
  4. in a separate bowl, beat butter until smooth. add sugar and beat until pale and fluffy
  5. add eggs one at a time into the bowl and whisk to combine
  6. add in vanilla and combine
  7. mix in half the dry ingredients
  8. mix in sour cream
  9. fold in the remaining flour mixture
  10. fold in the banana until just combined
  11. divide the cake batter evenly into the two tins and bake for 25 minutes
  12. place the baked cake on a wire rack to cook and then turn out after 10 minutes to cool completely
Banana cake ready to go into the oven
Banana cake ready to go into the oven

Almond Dacqouise:

  1. preheat oven to 200C
  2. sift almond meal with icing sugar and cocoa powder
  3. in a separate bowl, whisk egg whites with caster sugar until stiff peaks form
  4. gently fold in the almond mixture
  5. sprinkle with crushed hazelnuts
  6. pipe the mixture onto a baking sheet (make 3 x 8 inch discs to layer between the banana cakes) and bake for 24 minutes or until the dacquoise doesn’t sink when touched
Almond dacquoise with banana cake
Almond dacquoise with banana cake

Chocolate ganache:

  1. bring the cream to boil over low-med heat
  2. pour boiling cream over the chocolate and set aside for 2 minutes
  3. mix together the chocolate and cream

Meringue buttercream:

  1. bring the sugar to boil with 1/2 cup water
  2. while whisking the egg whites on maximum speed, pour the sugar syrup in a slow steady stream
  3. continue to mix on high until the meringue cools and forms stiff peaks
  4. whisk in the butter until well combined
  5. add vanilla and cocoa powder and whisk to combine

Chocolate drip:

  1. melt chocolate over double boiler
  2. stir in butter to melt

Assembling the cake:

layer the cake in the following order from bottom to top:

  • banana cake (cut each of the 8 inch cakes in half to create 4 layers of banana cake)
  • chocolate ganache
  • almond dacquoise
  • meringue buttercream
  • repeat until all layers of banana cake are used
  • coat the entire cake in the meringue buttercream – to create an ombre/rustic effect, split the buttercream into 3 batches and colour each batch a different shade of brown
  • pipe on the chocolate drip
  • top with decorations: dried pineapple flowers, torched meringue, chocolate triangles
Assembling the layers of the drip cake
Assembling the layers of the drip cake
different shades of brown buttercream to create a rustic effect
different shades of brown buttercream to create a rustic effect
Applying the chocolate drip
Applying the chocolate drip
Chocolate drip
Chocolate drip
torching the meringue
torching the meringue

 

slicing the chocolate banana drip cake
slicing the chocolate banana drip cake. Photo credit: IG lilaughs

 

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Christmas Baking: Croquembouche

Christmas Croquembouche

Having completed my practice croquembouche in Hong Kong several weeks ago, it was time to bake another croquembouche for family Christmas dinner. See earlier post for the full recipe and croquembouche made in Hong Kong.

For this croquembouche for Christmas day, I made several adjustments to the decorations – instead of randomly scattered profiteroles coated in coconut and crushed peanuts, this one contains layers of coconut and plain profiteroles.

My practice croquembouche also didn’t have any spun caramel as I wanted to keep the tower relatively neat. However, after several complaints about it not being a ‘real’ croquembouche without the spun caramel, I did manage to drape some caramel neatly around the profiterole tower. This caramel later melted due to the 35degree heat in Melbourne on Christmas day 😦

Overall, the family was very happy with Christmas dessert – from admiring the tower during dinner to eating the 80 leftover profiteroles several days after Christmas. The only bad feedback was from my sister-in-law who wasn’t too happy that I took the tower apart.

Now, to decide what to bake for Christmas next year …

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Recipe: Passionfruit & Chocolate Tart

passionfruit chocolate meringue tart cake recipe

Makes: 12 mini dome cakes (6cm in diameter)

Time required: 3 hours in total, over 2-3 nights

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Inspiration:

The flavours for this cake were inspired by Koko Black’s ‘Passion’ chocolate – bitter, sour and sweet all in one small chocolate. I first tried this passionfruit & chocolate blend four years ago in Melbourne and it is still my favourite flavour combination.

The inspiration for the meringue coating is from my favourite cocktail – the Lavendar Meringue pie from Hong Kong’s Quinary Bar. Although the cocktail itself is very lemon-y, the richness of the meringue with each sip of your cocktail provides a great balance of sweet & sour.

Ingredients:

Chocolate ganache:

  • 150g dark chocolate
  • 100ml cream
  • 10g butter

Passionfruit dome:

  • 200g passionfruit, seeds removed
  • 100g sugar
  • 1 gelatin leaf
  • 175ml cream, whipped

Shortbread crust:

  • 225g butter
  • 100g sugar
  • 350g flour

Meringue:

  • 2 egg whites
  • 180g caster sugar
  • 60ml water

Instructions:

Chocolate ganache:

  1. Bring cream to boil and pour over dark chocolate. Set aside for 2 minutes
  2. Mix in the melted chocolate with the cream
  3. stir in the butter, and set aside to cool while making the passionfruit dome

Passionfruit dome:

  1. Place sugar and passionfruit over low-medium heat until all the sugar has dissolved and the passionfruit slightly thickens
  2. stir in the bloomed gelatin sheet and set aside to cool
  3. once the mixture is at room temperature, gently fold in whipped cream
  4. pour the passionfruit mousse into dome moulds (around 6cm in diameter), leaving a little space for a the chocolate ganache
  5. pipe in around 2tsbp of chocolate ganache. Alternatively, if you have more time to make these cakes you could freeze the chocolate ganache the night before and cut out circles to place into the passionfruit mousse
  6. place the domes into a freezer for at least 3 hours (preferably overnight) to harden

Shortbread crust:

  1. Preheat oven to 160ºC fan forced
  2. cream the butter and sugar in a bowl
  3. add in the flour and mix well with a wooden spoon until a dough has formed
  4. roll out the dough and slice it into 8cm discs. We want the shortbread crust to be at least 1cm wider than the passionfruit dome to be able to hold the meringue
  5. bake for 8 minutes until golden

Meringue:

  1. whisk egg whites until foamy
  2. heat sugar and water over low-med heat until the syrup reaches 120ºC
  3. while whisking the eggs, pour the sugar syrup in a thin stream down the side of the whisking bowl
  4. continue to whisk the eggs until it form stiff peaks

Assembling the cake:

  1. remove the passionfruit mousse dome from the freezer and un-mould the domes
  2. place one dome over each disc of shortbread crust
  3. cover the dome in meringue using a spatula (you could also pipe the meringue in flowers or spikes) and torch until golden brown

I also topped off my cakes with mini candy flowers chocolate decorations

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the finished cake – showing the passionfruit and chocolate encased in meringue
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another photo of the finished passionfruit & chocolate tart

 

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